Orimulsion Spill Response R&D
Jump to part | 1 |
2
| 3 | 4 |
5 | of this article series
Brief Summary Report
As a part of the multi year research & development project
"Development of Response Strategies for Orimulsion and Heavy Oil"
under the Canadian Coast Guard, a joint project between the Canadian Coast
Guard and Breco Innovation (Navenco, Canada) was initiated in October 2001.
The task was to develop and test a new high and extreme viscosity steam
water lubrication system for the GT-185 positive displacement Archimedes’
screw pumps in the CCG inventory. Breco subcontracted flemingCo
environmental to do the development and design and Breco produced the
system.
The GT-185 pump with injection devices and
steam/hot water distribution lines.
The inlet is to the right.
In February 2002 a GT pump equipped with the
new inlet and discharge side steam/hot water injection devices was tested on
refloated bitumen in the 2-3 million cSt viscosity range. The results were
very encouraging: The new system was able to increase the capacity of the GT
pump with a factor 40 on the extremely viscous product. See Viscosity-Temperature
Curves for natural and refloated bitumen
The tests, jointly sponsored by Canadian Coast Guard &
Environment Canada, were carried out at the Environment Canada test facility
in Ottawa, by SAIC Canada, with Canadian Coast Guard, US Coast Guard, Breco
Innovation and flemingCo participation.
The System
Due to the internal sealing characteristics of the GT
pump it was in the design phase deemed necessary to provide steam water
injection on both the inlet and discharge sides of the pump. Inlet side
lubrication only, might have resulted in the back-flow of too much of the
injected lube water, thus leaving too little left for the lubrication of the
discharge line.
The inlet side injection device consists of four separate
injection plates with large heating surfaces for attachment directly to the
pump inlet. The device may be used both with and without the pump’s inlet
hopper dependent on the actual application.
The discharge side injection flange is mounted between the pump
casing and its discharge branch.
For the actual tests the steam water injection on the inlet was
provided by a standard off-the-shelf steam/hot water high pressure cleaner,
and on the discharge side by a standard hot water pressure cleaner.
Main Test Results
| Lubrication |
Hose length x Ø
|
Inlet lube L/min
|
Outlet lube L/min
|
Capacity m3/h
|
| No lubrication |
3.6 m x 100 mm
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
1.06
|
| Steam water on
inlet only |
12 m x 100 mm (4")
|
7
|
n/a
|
3.54
|
| Steam water on
inlet, hot water on outlet |
12 m x 100 mm
(4")
|
7
|
10.5
|
13.87
|
The maximum capacity of 13.87 m3/h (61 USgpm) through
12 m (40 ft) of 100 mm (4") diameter hose can for comparison purpose be
transformed to about 14 m3/h through 25 m of 150 mm (6")
diameter hose, which must be considered an operational capacity for an
extreme viscosity spill response situation. The 13.87 m3/h
through 12 m of 100 mm 4" hose is equivalent to an improvement of more
than 40 times when comparing to the maximum obtained capacity of 1.06 m3/h
through only 3.6 m of 4" hose.
The photo to the right shows annulus ring steam water lubricated bitumen at a
bulk temperature of 21 ° C and a viscosity of 2 million cSt. It was discharged
through the 12 m long 4" hose at a rate of 14 m3/h.
