Hydro was recently featured in a short video produced by ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading integrated steel and mining company, about our combined efforts in saving energy and increasing pump efficiency.
“Water is critical to our operations. ArcelorMittal’s partnership with HydroAire, a Chicago company, helps us work toward one of the 10 sustainable development outcomes: to be a responsible energy user that helps create a lower carbon future.”
Written by: Greg James
Publisher: Pump Industry / November 2016
Rebuilding a typical boiler feed pump cartridge and returning the running clearances to specification is a critical process for effective and efficient plant operation. The cost to rebuild a cartridge – supply new mechanical seals, bearings and consumables, the lost production, down time and the labour costs – is a significant investment.
After rebuilding a cartridge and returning all operating clearances to specification, the good work can be greatly affected by installing the cartridge into a distorted barrel and/or discharge head combination.
Written by: Gary Dyson & Thomas Arakal
Publisher: Pumps & Systems / December 2016
A decade-old, 1,000-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant in the Middle East called an equipment repair and engineering company to conduct a pump health audit. Given the age of the plant and the fact that none of the pumps had undergone a major overhaul, plant personnel asked the engineering firm to determine which pumps should be pulled for repair at the next scheduled outage. The equipment consisted of six condensate extraction pumps and six boiler feed pumps.
Leaving the production process undisturbed, the field pump health evaluation team conducted a non-invasive pump study. Flow, pressure, vibration, power consumption, temperature and other data were collected for all the pumps in various regimes of operation. A team of engineers analyzed and compared the results of the measurements to the original design parameters. The study’s conclusions and engineering recommendations were published.
Written by: Ken Babusiak, John Ciffone
Publisher: Pumps & Systems / November 2016
Mechanical seals on pumps in the oil and gas industry often need to be upgraded to meet more stringent standards, such as tighter emissions regulations. More advanced seals also offer companies increased efficiency and reliability.
Older pumps, however, sometimes need to be modified to accommodate these enhancements because the newer parts may not be the same size and shape as the ones they are replacing. In these cases, a parts supplier can partner with an aftermarket engineering firm to come up with a long-term plan for revitalizing older pumps. The refurbished pumps can offer benefits including direct cost savings and a reduction in repair and maintenance.
An Upgrade Plan Emerges
In 2011, a field service engineer was at a pipeline station for service when a technician informed him that the company was considering overhauling all of its pumps as preventive maintenance. The company planned to investigate the possibility of upgrading mechanical seals.
The field service engineer and his team decided to analyze all of the user’s pumping stations from Illinois to Iowa—about 500 miles of pipeline. Every field service engineer who worked on the pipeline met in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a regional engineer led a meeting about what would be the best technology solution for this user.
The team decided to replace the existing single mechanical seals with a mechanical seal developed specifically for single-seal installations and designed to attain maximum achievable controllable technology (MACT) compliance in light hydrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Image 1. The bottom half of the coupling end bearing housing installed on the pump with the bottom half of the journal bearing, oil rings and seals installed (Images courtesy of Hydro Inc.)
The field service engineers provided information on the pumps in their area, the seal data and the coupling information. All of the pumps would require minor modifications to accommodate these new seals. The team collated information about the pumps and wrote the necessary engineering projects for the preliminary drawings. Once the drawings were approved and finalized, the pumps were sent to a pump repair and service provider to be upgraded to accept the higher-technology seal.
Hydro Middle East is pleased to announce that their five day API audit for API Q1 ISO9001:2015 and their five API monogram licenses (API 5CT, 6A, 7-1, 16A & 16C) concluded positively with the auditors recommending API to renew their license.
This audit was a challenge due to the following:
• They were the first establishment in the region to face the new 2015 revision audit.
• An API officer flew in from Houston to assess the API auditor performing this audit.
The team at Hydro Middle East was lauded by the auditing committee for the attention to detail and discipline. The appearance of the shop was also noted and praised by both auditors.