Water waste is commonly deemed an undesirable, but inevitable by-product of mining processes. Yet trendy pump sealing expertise exists which might nearly eliminate this waste whereas conserving power, bettering pump reliability and achieving long term operational savings.
Water is one of the most important, and more and more imperilled, assets on earth. That a lot is understood and acknowledged by industries throughout the globe.
However, it is also one of the most unnecessarily squandered sources in mining operations. And while the business has begun to embrace efficiency and sustainability-led advances such as automation and renewable power, it remains steadfastly set in its ways in relation to slurry pump expertise.
Three approaches are routinely specified by pump producers to seal slurry pumps: mechanical packing, expellers (also often known as ‘dynamic’ seals’) and single mechanical seals. All come with vital limitations, together with poor reliability, lowered imply instances between failure (MTBF), intensive upkeep necessities and higher operational costs.
These components alone should give mine managers cause for a re-evaluation of the sealing strategies used on slurry pumps. However, เกจวัดแรงดันราคา with a commitment to the International Standards Organisation ISO-14001 Standard for environmental management methods and ISO-50001 Standard for energy management techniques ought to take note of the excessive water waste and high power consumption that outcomes from opting for these conventional sealing methods.
Inefficient sealing When used to seal the process pumps in a mine’s scrubber and floatation circuits, gland packing, single mechanical seals and expeller seals all demand one of the most wasteful features of slurry processing which is seal flush water injection.
On gland packed pumps it’s essential that packing is flushed with clear water to keep it cool and lubricated, whereas each single slurry seals and expellers require a supply of cool, clean flush water to be injected into the process at high stress, sustaining a stable fluid film between the delicate seal faces to keep them cool and lubricated, while forcing the damaging slurry away.
The flush water required in all three sealing approaches is equipped from an external supply and injected into the process at the next strain than the stuffing box pressure, according to the business normal American Petroleum Institute (API) Piping Plan 32. Water which doesn’t leak onto the ground or into the method is sent to the tailings dam. This also has an effect on the water steadiness of the plant.
This method constitutes a loss of clear water amounting to billions of gallons a 12 months globally. One giant, standard slurry pump usually consumes 10 US gallons (37.8 litres) per minute, amounting to five.2 million US gallons (19.6 million litres) of water every year – a surprising statistic by any measure.
At a time when international water supply is predicted to fall wanting demand by some 40% by 20301 , removing pointless use of this priceless useful resource ought to arguably be a central plank of any accountable sustainability programme. Yet เกจวัดน้ำยาแอร์refco , and the upper power consumption it entails, remain embedded within the processes of many mining corporations. Worse still, it’s truthful to say that it is usually accepted as merely ‘par for the course’ by reliability engineers and administration alike.
But the fact is that water waste on any scale is a totally unnecessary characteristic of slurry operations as it could be nearly completely eliminated simply by employing superior double mechanical seals and modern water management help techniques.
Improve reliability The sort of seal chosen, the setting in which it operates, and crucially, the tank assist system which supplies the water to maximise seal life, combine to offer the answer to extreme water waste and energy use.
Modern double mechanical seals have two sets of faces, one sealing to the method fluid and one to environment, with a barrier house between the two. They are designed to fulfill the arduous requirements of heavy obligation slurry functions, with fortified metal parts which are extremely immune to corrosion and erosion. Large ports and elevated radial clearances imply the lubrication which is significant to optimising seal life is maintained continuously and persistently.
A pressurised barrier tank system is central to the environmental sustainability of this answer. It employs a thermosiphon course of which supplies clean, cool water to the barrier space between the double seals at a pressure higher than the product stress, making certain a consistent, steady and clean fluid movie to keep the seal faces cool and lubricated.
As the mechanical seals generate heat, the recent water in the barrier space rises to the tank and is radiated to the ambiance, allowing the cooler, denser water to sink again down to supply cool lubrication to the seal faces. Most importantly, the flush water is constantly recycled, flowing throughout the seal faces in a steady loop and decreasing leakage to absolutely the minimum, roughly a teaspoonful a day.
While API Plan 32 is unsuitable for servicing multiple slurry pumps in a ‘series train’ with out the necessity to install special pump techniques, pressurised barrier tanks offer ratings as much as 435 psi (30 bar), making them ideal for these functions. Self-topping and self-pressurising, they’re also almost maintenance-free.
Where no plant water supply is available for topping up the tank systems, or the availability has insufficient pressure, fluid delivery units could be chosen to provide the barrier fluid to seal faces. These have the added benefits of having the flexibility to provide a water/glycol combination or oil to supply freeze safety in extraordinarily cold climates.
Wide-ranging advantages The advantages of upgrading to fashionable sealing options and help techniques have been felt by a coal mine in Poland using a slurry pump to supply coal mud at 9 bar (135 psi) to filter press. Flushed packing resulted in large dilution of product, resulting in greatly increased filtration instances and prices. The pump was sealed with a double mechanical seal designed to satisfy the arduous necessities of the method.
The supporting seal tank system reduced leakage and product dilution to virtually zero. Return on funding was swift and the savings long-term. The benefits by way of water conservation have been equally longlasting and the company’s status enhanced.
The mining trade must cope with a troublesome and dear challenge in terms of maintaining rotating gear. But the planning, processing and disposal of flush water constitutes an operational and financial burden which is completely avoidable.
And when an organization can remove water waste simultaneously rising reliability and decreasing long term operational costs, the decision to upgrade to fashionable methods ought to certainly be an ethical imperative in addition to making sound business sense.
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