Axsia Serk Baker – Amarinth delivers an elegant solution for their nutshell filtration system

Challenges of pumping solids

The design brief was challenging. In addition to the problems posed in re-circulating the nutshell media in a sour hydrogen sulphide environment , the pumps required variable speed technology to enable them to be adjusted to the specific operating conditions. Compactness and reliability were also key.

Axsia chose Amarinth to undertake the design of the pumps for its recognition of the challenges and willingness to work hand-in-hand to tackle them.

Amarinth had the experience, application knowledge and a competitive offering and quickly provided details of a potential solution along with the required level of detail.

An elegant solution

The solution was an elegant one. Amarinth took one of its proven and reliable heavy duty pump designs and modified it to suit the specific operating conditions.

For the process to work optimally the pump speed must be carefully controlled. A change of just 100rpm significantly impacts the ability of the system to release the oil collected on the nutshell media. Amarinth chose to govern the motor speed using invertors rather than adopting the more traditional complex belt drive system. In addition to superior speed control, this also had the benefit of delivering a compact and uncomplicated installation.

Reduced commissioning time

In use, the pumps have exhibited excellent performance and a very high degree of reliability. Their compact arrangement makes them quick and easy to install.

The Amarinth solution has reduced the engineering resource required for future builds and delivers much easier control over equipment configuration. Being quick to install and set at the optimum operating speed, the overall commissioning time is significantly reduced. Axsia now have a filtration system with a real competitive advantage and as with all Amarinth equipment, the pumps are fully ATEX compliant.
The ongoing partnership between Axsia and Amarinth will see a range of material options being offered for a standardised range of pumps. Customised installations have already been designed and installed, such as horizontal pumps for the Prirazlomnoye offshore oilfield located in northern Russia.