Amarinth a leading company specialising in the design, application and manufacture of centrifugal pumps and associated equipment to the industrial, chemical and petrochemical industries has delivered an innovative open drain pumping solution to be installed in the caisson of the Kumul Oil Platform located 40km off the southern coast of Papua New Guinea.
The bespoke API 610 VS4 vertical sump pump will be installed in a caisson (leg) as part of a $25 million “Topsides” rejuvenation project of the Kumul Platform located in the Gulf of Papua. Any water or oil that drains from the platforms structure or from its production systems is channelled into the open drain caisson to prevent any environmental impact on the sea around the rig.
The duty is to pump hydrocarbons and excess water that collects in the caisson to the closed drain accumulator for safe disposal via a “take-off” tanker. This required a 13m long vertical sump pump with an arrangement for low pressure injection of hypochlorite used to prevent the build-up of marine growth. Additionally, due to the angle of the caisson, the pump had to be installed and operate at a 5 degree angle.
Amarinth was approached to deliver a cost effective solution for this difficult engineering requirement. An API 610 VS4 sump pump was selected for the duty but to overcome the height restrictions of the platform Amarinth designed this as a modular pump that could be dismantled and installed in four sections.
The 5 degree angle of the caisson also presented further challenges for the installation as the pump had to be carefully lined up with the caisson wall. Working closely with the customer, Amarinth designed an innovative adjustable roller system on the pump that aligned with guide plates attached down the inner wall of the caisson as the pump was lowered in.
The bearings and seals were also put under additional pressure due to the 5 degree angle and so to guarantee the performance and reliability of the pump Amarinth built a test rig to replicate the operating conditions and mounting system to ensure that the final design took account of the additional stresses and vibrations as a result of the alignment.
Oliver Brigginshaw, Managing Director of Amarinth, commented: “We are delighted that we were able to deliver a solution for this unique requirement from the other side of the globe. Using a combination of our proven API 610 VS4 pumps, the work we have done previously with modular designs for restricted headroom, and the ingenuity of our engineers, we were able to provide a very cost effective solution that met the requirements and tight timescales of this project.”
