Amarinth designs custom pump solution for produced water challenge

Centrifugal pump manufacturer Amarinth has designed a bespoke vertically mounted API 610 OH 1 pump with Plan 13 seal support system.

The pump was created for AI Energy Solutions (AIES), the specialist process engineering division of the Arabian Industries Group, to use with its nutshell filters for cleaning produced water.

AIES approached Amarinth, which has delivered pumping solutions for several produced water treatment systems, to design a pump for the final cleaning phase of produced water using its nutshell filters on an offshore platform.

The location of the platform, however, posed project specific challenges of high daytime and low night time temperatures, high salinity, and a high 30% rated solids concentration.

The pump had to exhibit low shear properties in order for the AIES nutshell filters to work optimally by ensuring that the oil and water mixture was not emulsified.

This requirement could be achieved using an API 610 OH1 pump, but in order to fit with the nutshell filter package, Amarinth had to design a bespoke solution.

The design process involved taking the OH 1 hydraulic design and engineering a vertically mounted close coupled arrangement so that the suction was at the bottom and the discharge at the top.

Manufactured in stainless steel, the pump incorporates an open impeller design to handle the high solids concentration and a vacuum operated backwash facility to allow for easy cleaning and maintenance.

A single seal Plan 13 seal support system, normally used on vertical pumps, was integrated with the vertically mounted OH1 pump.

In line with project schedule, Amarinth supplied the bespoke pump on a fast track basis, with delivery, in 23 weeks.