#768: Super Pumps Save Millions At Syncrude
Syncrude now uses what it calls Super Pumps to move raw bitumen from its Aurora mine to its oil sands extraction plant.
But that wasn’t always the case.
For years the company struggled with frequent, expensive breakdowns at Aurora due to exceptionally high wear and tear on its hydro transport system.
That’s where water is mixed with the raw bitumen and the slurry is pumped down a pipeline to the extraction plant.
Dan Wolfe is a mechanical engineer with Syncrude Research and Development.
DAN WOLFE: So once we started to focus on that and really try to understand why we had 4 times the wear rate in the pump impellors in the Aurora mine versus our mine that we started up several years earlier, we realized that the big difference was the size of rocks that we were allowing into the process. And not only that, but we realized that the wear rate in the pump impellors was exponentially related to the impact velocity of the rock coming into the impellor.
It turns out the problem at Aurora wasa new screen designed with bigger holes.
So Dan Wolfe set out to build a Super Pump that could handle thebigger rocks that came through the screen.
Thanks today to Syncrude
You can listen to the full interview with Dan Wolfe at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Syncrude
Program Date: 2016-03-24