Getting The Oil To The Shore: High-Pressure Pumps For High-Viscosity Fluids
Getting The Oil To The Shore: High-Pressure Pumps For High-Viscosity Fluids
Getting The Oil To The Shore: High-Pressure Pumps For High-Viscosity Fluids
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PDET is the Brazilian acronym for Campos basin oil outflow and treatment plan. It names the project for pumping and collecting part of the Campos basin crude oil production offshore, where tanker ships will pick it up. The PDET complex consists of one fixed repumping platform named PRA-1, a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, and two single-point mooring buoys (SPMs), all connected by means of valves and submarine pipelines (Fig. 1).
dynamic viscosity is the Pascalsecond (Pas). The unit centipoise (cP), which equals 0.1 Pas, is commonly used, because water has a viscosity of 1.0020 cP at 20 C.
1 The PRA-1 platform in Brazils Campos oil field will collect and transport a notable part of the Brazilian oil production. Sulzer Pumps is the long-term partner for pumping and service solutions on this offshore facility of Petrobras, the world's largest deepwater oil producer.
2 The pumping skid houses pipes, pumping, and monitoring equipment. Safety is a concern in this offshore installation. A control system monitors for leaks in the pipes by measuring the mass flow: the output leaving the platforms must be unchanged on arrival at the PRA-1 terminal.
3 Computer-aided analyses of the units at design stage deliver essential information on the operational behavior of the new pumps. The modal analysis of the base plate skid, pump, and process pipeline enabled the extension of the operational range to other rotational speeds.
vibration mounting system (AVM). The lube-oil system of the variable speed turbo fluid coupling also lubricates the bearings of the pump and the electric motor.
very high design pressure of 175 bar with a maximum test pressure of 227.5 bar. Because the two pumps operate in series, the second pump operates at a very high pressure level. The elevated pressure is demanding for the axially split casing, which is necessary for easy maintenance on board of the platform. The combination of the very high design pressure and the axially split design required an extensive engineering effort from both the Sulzer Pumps headquarters in Winterthur (CH) and Sulzer Brasil in So Paulo (Brazil).
tween 2000 and 3480 rpm. A torsional analysis of the complete pump-trainincluding pump, elastic coupling, turbo fluid coupling, elastic coupling, and electric motorshowed the existing torsional critical speeds and helped to prevent operational problems stemming from resonance.
4 The hydraulic contour of the pump (left) and the pump after assembly in workshop of Sulzer Brasil in So Paulo. Superboltsspecial nuts for high-pressure applicationsguarantee zero leakage at the high operating pressure of the PRA-1 pumps.
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mitting pump operation in a second operational window between 1284 and1449 rpm (Fig. 3). Additionally, the design engineers examined the relevant static load cases, such as the coupling displacement and the lifting of the complete skid in order to prevent operational problems.
the pumps mean time between overhaul (MTBO) and minimizes the possible wear on the internal labyrinths. The base sediment and water (BSW) contenthot water mixed with chloride, salt, sulfide, and sand particlesin the different viscosity grades of the pumped oil causes abrasion in the narrow gaps of the pump clearances. An ultrasonic flow meter on the leakoff balance line allows the online assessment of any flow increase associated with an enlargement of the internal pump clearances.
99.8% Availability
Petrobras chose Sulzer Pumps not only as a supplier of highly engineered pumps on the PRA-1 platform; the oil company included an eight-year service maintenance contract in the scope of supply. Sulzer Pumps is responsible for keeping the availability at 99.8% and maintaining the high reliability of the pumps. The engineering and service solutions delivered by Sulzer Pumps will increase the MTBO of the individual pumps and the whole system. The variable-speed operation allows more flexible operation of the pumps. This advantage and less downtime will certainly increase the overall productivity of the PRA-1 pumping complex.
5 Milling of the pump casing in the Sulzer workshop in So Paulo. The housing for the bearings and seals is manufactured with highest precision to avoid leakage.
Contact
Sulzer Brasil S.A. Joo Alberto Menin Rua Manoel Cremonesi, 1 So Bernardo do Campo, SP CEP 09851-330 Brazil Phone +55 11 4393 23 50 Fax +55 11 4392 56 00 [email protected]
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