Underground Storage Tanks

Pumping Oil Efficiently and With Low Maintenance Effort From Storage Tanks

How NETZSCH supports the modernisation of the pumping plant for storage tanks

Global oil consumption is increasing yearly. Kilometre-long pipelines are needed to transport the oil. Enormous pressures are required to transport the oil over such a long distance. The pressure is built up via so-called pumping stations. The requirements there could not be more different.

As a global specialist in complex fluid management, NETZSCH Pumps & Systems has successfully equipped a pipeline and its pumping stations. We will show you the advantages of providing your pump station storage tanks with NEMO® progressing cavity pumps.

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Underground Storage Tanks, NETZSCH, Pumps, Systems

Enormous pressures during oil production in pipelines

Crude oil can rarely be extracted directly where it is needed. The extraction sites are often located in the middle of nowhere, whether in the desert, the Arctic or the open sea. For the oil to reach the processing plant or even the end customers, it is common for hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres of pipelines to be required. To transport the oil through the pipes of the pipelines over such distances, enormous pressures must be built up. For this purpose, pumping stations along the pipelines can generate the necessary pressure. The modernisation of such pumping stations posed challenges for a large operator of an energy pipeline.

Disadvantages of oil pumping in pipelines

In addition to low maintenance and good operating efficiency, one challenge, in particular, had to be mastered: The pumps had to be able to prime and siphon. This is because each pump station has a storage tank underground. This storage tank collects excess oil that accumulates during maintenance work on the pumps in the main pipeline. This is where the oil has to be sucked in. Once the collection tanks are full, the liquid has to be sucked out of the tank again and pumped back into the pressurised pipeline. In the past, this process could only be solved with two pumps - one pump for suction and one for extraction. The disadvantages were almost endless: Double maintenance, double costs, and double risk of failure.

200

degree Celsius medium temperature

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With the NEMO® BY progressing cavity pump in FSIP® design with xLC® stator adjustment system you can reduce maintenance time.

Oil production: Making one out of two - advantages of progressing cavity pump

So the operators commissioned NETZSCH. The experts from the pump manufacturer got to work and designed a pump that was up to the challenge. The choice fell on a NEMO® progressing cavity pump. The first decisive advantage is that you can reverse the pump's flow direction as desired. The space-saving dimensions of the pump ensure that the entire pump disappears into the tank. This is another advantage in terms of operating costs. Because the pump is installed in the tank, no additional measures for heating and external insulating systems are necessary. The pipelines often run through areas where temperatures of up to minus 40 degrees are not uncommon.

The pipeline operators are delighted with the pumps. The pumping systems are running so successfully that the current specification for the plant has been changed to include or recommend the use of the NETZSCH pump for this application.

NEMO® BT immersible pump 

  • Medium: Oil
  • Throughput volume: 4.5 m³/h
  • Rotation speed: 232 rpm
  • Pressure: 50 bar
  • Viscosity: 100 cP
  • Temperature: -5 °C
NEMO® BT Immersible Pump, NETZSCH, Pumps, Systems