INNOVACIÓN TÉCNOLOGICA EN SISTEMAS DE BOMBEO PARA FLUIDOS DE ALTA VISCOSIDAD

Abstract

This project emerged from the necessity of the oil and gas industry to transport through marine pipelines crude oil with different properties characterized by its high viscosity. Handling extra-heavy crude oils has become the new trend in transportation of hydrocarbons due to the exhaustion of low viscosity crude oils. As a response to this challenge, the first approach consisted in evaluating different technologies available for transportation of heavy crude oil for which the feasibility of implementation in a pumping system was considered. For comparison, hydraulic simulation software such as OLGA and STONER were used to evaluate if the considered pump equipment and pipeline system were able to meet the crude oil flow requirements for the higher crude oil viscosity predicted for the upcoming years. Similarly, it is established that pump maximum torque during cold start up is the most important parameter to be considered in system design and that the benefits of the integration of hydrodynamic torque-converters to the turbomachinery are being evaluated. It is concluded that, the best alternative in a pumping system handling high viscosity fluids is to keep the gas turbine operating at constant speed and to allow the torque converter to solve critical issues such as running at minimum speed and maximum torque.