TECHNOLOGY

Refineryexperience
provides guidelines
for centrifugal pumpselection
Gary R. Martin ProcessConsulting ServicesInc. Grapevine, Tex.

vice, and all pump systems Pumpbasics

R
efinery pump services stand process variability or
differ even when the effectively communicate it to are not equal. Although The pump hydraulic sys-
properties of the the machinery specialist. In pump specifications consider tem dictates the pump head-
pumped fluid are similar. For fact, most process engineers process conditions such as flow requirements. Fig. 1
this reason, rote evaluation of have only a rudimentary fluid temperature, vapor shows examples of pump
Pump specifications can understanding of the com- pressure, and flow rate, these and system-head curves.
result in pump reliability plexity of a pump, let alone properties do not reflect The pump curve is a func-
problems. its seal system. As a result, operating realities. tion of the specific pump
The selection and specifi- they worry only about flow, Often, the variation in design. It is fixed once tht
cation of centrifugal pumps head, net positive suction flow of a given system is not mechanical design and pump
for petroleum refinery ser- head (NPSH), and motor well understood until a speed are set. The system
vice should take into horsepower. pump fails repeatedly. Pump curve represents the pressure
account the inherent vari- Selecting a pump is the specification criteria and ven- drop in the system.
ability of the process service. responsibility of the machin- dor selection of the service A fixed-speed pump
Three case studies illustrate ery specialist. Communicat- should consider this variabil- develops a fixed differential
typical, chronic problems of ing the inherent variability of ity. Arbitrary pump turn- head for a given flow rate
pump reliability, evaluated the pump system, however, down specifications and The difference between tht
from the process perspec- is the responsibility of the selection of the lowest-cost system curve and the pump
tive. process engineer. pump can result in high curve is the variable pressure
It should be remembered pump maintenance costs and drop for the system. This
Selectionproblems that proper pump selection reliability problems. value represents the action 01
Often, the process engi- and good service life are the control valve. The flow 01
neer does not fully under- influenced by the process ser- level controller sets the flow

Fig 1

1I ipressbre drop ’

L
System pressure drop
,

BEP flow rate

Flow -
Capacity -b

Reprinted from the March 11, 1996 edition of OIL & GAS JOURNAL
Copyright 1996 by PennWell
 TECHNOLOGY
I Fig. 3 Fig 4

Solvent recoverv column 1Head-flow curve 1

---+=-P
Suction-specific
Operating point
(80% BEP flow)
1
L
BEP

speed I 17,600

Lean
solvent to 1NPSHR]
extractor
\

BEP fl v rate
Lean solvent pumps Flow, gpm B
L - vu Y

requirement and the valve someone that understands at the BEP. One example of the vari-
moves to satisfy the pump process variability. Pump service life is influ- ability in some refinery ser-
head-flow requirement. Vendor pump specifica- enced by NPSH and suction- vices is the overflash pumps
Pump specification sheets tions include efficiency, specific speed.’ The lower the on vacuum columns. These
include data such as fluid horsepower, and a curve required NPSH, the higher pumps are subject to signifi-
specific gravity, NPSH, avail- showing NPSH required. the suction-specific speed. In cant changes in flow rate.
able pump-suction pressure, Representative examples of turn, the higher the suction- Although process operating
and pump discharge pres- these curves are shown in specific speed, the more like- objectives should address
sure. Using the data supplied Fig. 2. ly suction-eye recirculation these changes, it is better to
on this sheet, the pump ven- Pump efficiency is related will occur. Under these cir- design the pump for the real-
dors select the appropriate to the specific mechanical cumstances, cavitation will ities of the service rather than
pump for the service. design of the pump, its be induced at flow rates less rebuild the pump on a quar-
Occasionally, turndown impeller size, and the pump than the pump’s BEP.’ terly basis.
requirements and more-spe- speed. Horsepower is a func- While a pump with a high For some services, there
cific data are provided in the tion of pump efficiency, fluid suction-specific speed can are process and instrumenta-
specifications; more often, viscosity, and fluid specific work well at the BEP, it may tion changes that can be used
they are not. By default, gravity. Refinery process have a poor service life at to mitigate large swings in
process conditions such as engineers are familiar with 80% of BEP. In Case 1 pump flow and available
turndown are assigned arbi- these requirements. (described in the following NPSH. For others, the pump
trarily. Other pump design crite- section) for example, a UDEX must be designed to accept
High turndown require- ria-such as available NPSH, lean-solvent pump operating the operating severity of the
ments affect pump selection. suction-specific speed, and at 80% of BEP experienced system.
Typically, process engineers pump power requirements at erosion of the pump casing All pumps have a mini-
do not adequately report start-up speed-need to be and impeller. mum required NPSH and
variations in fluid property considered’ The dynamics of In recent years, refiners flow. These characteristics
for services such as interstage the process will place realis- have begun to add specifica- are inherent to the mechani-
receiver pumps for wet-gas tic limitations on the avail- tions, such as maximum suc- cal design, and operating
compressors on delayed cok- able NPSH. Suction speed is tion speeds, to the selection below these minimums will
ers or fluid catalytic cracking a function of the required of centrifugal pumps. In result in pump damage.
(FCC) units. In these services, NPSH, which is determined some cases, the service turn- Some pumps must handle
changes in fluid vapor pres- by the impeller suction-eye down requirements are large; a fluid that varies in compo-
sure occur rapidly and the design. in others, turndown is limit- sition from light hydrocar-
pump seal can be adversely The suction-specific speed ed by the operating limita- bon to water. The pump
affected.’ is calculated using the fol- tions of critical equipment in bearing and seals must be
On many projects, the lowing equation: the unit. able to handle the imbalances
process heat and material Refinery services include created by this variation.
balance is generated by one Nss = N (Q’1.“/NPSH0.7”) systems that cannot be
group of people and the reduced to less than 50% Solvent recovery
equipment specifications by In this equation, N,, is the because of critical equipment
another. A rote approach to suction-specific speed; Q is limits imposed by the opera- The first case history
Pump specification may the flow, in gpm, at the best tion of other equipment. In involves a bottoms pump
work. But, to minimize relia- efficiency point (BEP); N is other systems, the process system on the solvent recov-
bility problems, refinery ser- the pump speed, in rpm; and flow can routinely approach ery tower of an aromatics
vices require the input of NPSH is the required NPSH 30% of design flow. unit (Fig. 3). The recovered
 TECHNOLOGY
Fig 5

Solvent recovery column

Original operating point/

(80% BEP flow)

F Stea
Lean
solvent to Vendor curve
extractor

Lean solvent pumps Flow, gpm -

OG L - ”v

lean solvent from the bottom reboiler piping return nozzle. uid level required to sup- To avoid cavitation, pumps
of the column is used as feed The reboiler return was set at press the cavitation was with suction-specific speeds
to the top of the extractor. a low rate because the col- almost 35 ft. The pump greater than 17,000 should
This system comprised umn was designed to maxi- curve, however, indicated operate above 90% BEP. In
two pumps: one with a motor mize the number of trays. that 12 ft would be required. fact, this pump was field test-
and one with a turbine dri- The motor-driven lean An additional test was ed and the required NPSH
ver. The motor driver was the solvent pump had very poor run. The flow rate was was much higher than the
main pump because the tur- maintenance records. The increased to a maximum. The pump manufacturer’s curve.
bine discharge was 100 psig pump mechanical seals, bear- horsepower of the pump The turbine-driven pump
steam, which the refinery ings, impeller, and casing motor limited the flow to operated at 3,000 rpm. Pump
already produced in excess of needed periodic repair as a 95% of BEP. At this flow rate, efficiency declines as speed
process usage. result of constant pump cavi- pump cavitation essentially decreases, but so does the
The motor-driven pump tation. stopped-as indicated by the BEP flow rate.’ The combina-
had a history of severe ero- The selected pumps were discharge pressure stability, tion of reduced speed and
sion of the impeller and cas- double-suction, overhung suction line vibration, and lower BEP flow rate
ing. The carbon steel casing pumps designed for an avail- cavitation noise-even decreased the pump suction-
and impeller were replaced able NPSH of 12 ft. The low though the liquid level was specific speed for the turbine-
with a stainless steel case to available NPSH resulted only about 12 ft. driven pump. The pump was
eliminate casing erosion. This from the design of the col- operating at a higher percent-
postponed replacement, but umn bottoms reboiler. System variability age of BEP flow rate; hence,
the casing life still was less The selected pump had The lean solvent circula- reliability was greater.
than 18 months. two available impeller tion was being operated at
The turbine-driven pump designs. The impeller design maximum rates to the down- Interim solution
had little casing damage. It with the low required NPSH stream extractor. The limita- The refiner consulted the
operated at 80% of the speed was selected. This pump had tion was hydraulic flooding pump vendor. The vendor
of the motor-driven pump. a design flow of 80% of BEP. of the extractor tray. indicated that this pump
Fig. 4 shows the head-flow The tray design of an aro- design did not have a known
Service evaluation curve and required NPSH for matics extractor will allow a history of maintenance prob-
The pump liquid was the pump. maximum turndown of 50%. lems. The vendor did, how-
drawn off the bottom of the The pump head was At rates less than this, the ever, report that the pump
column. The reboiler was a about 300 ft. The pump suc- trays lose the dispersed- had two available impeller
once-through thermosyphon tion-specific speed was calcu- phase liquid seal, and sol- designs. But the other
design withdrawn from a lated to be 17,600. vent/oil contacting impeller required more
sump below the bottom tray. The cause of the problem degrades. As a result, tray NPSH than was available.
The reboiler outlet returned was thought to be impeller- efficiency decreases marked- The higher-NPSH impeller
to the column below the eye recirculation. When the ly and aromatics recovery had been designed much
draw-off. unit was shut down, a test can deteriorate. later than the original pump.
The reboiler return piping was run on the system to ver- The pump selected for this Capital constraints of pro-
design was such that the liq- ify this theory. service had a required oper- jects have driven vessel skirt
uid level in the bottom of the The pump flow rate was ating range of 80-40% of the heights and available NPSH
column had to be kept low to maintained at operating con- BEP flow rate. lower and lower. As a result,
avoid flooding the reboiler ditions, and the column bot- Pumps with high suction- the reported pump NPSH
return. The liquid level was toms level was raised until specific speeds are known to curve for the impeller was
maintained within 2 ft of the cavitation stopped. The liq- have turndown problems.’ incorrect. In fact, plant tests
 TECHN .OGY
c Fig 7 Fig 8

I
Unreliable
liquid level
measurement

Pressure controller
measures liquid level

Overflash
kJ Overflash pumps
L
pumps
- OG

showed the required-NPSH
curve looked more like a
horseshoe than the typical
curve shown in Fig. 2.
The long-term solution
was to modify the reboiler
piping to increase available
NPSH and install the alter-
nate impeller design with
greater required NPSH. An
interim solution, however, is
illustrated in Fig. 5.
A pump spill-back (recy-
cle around the pump) was
installed. The spill-back
allowed the pump to be oper-
ated at 95% of BEP flow,
regardless of the required
lean solvent flow rate in the
extractor (Fig. 6).
The recycle system instal-
lation cost 15% of the annual
maintenance cost on the
pump. As a result of the spill-
back, annual pump mainte-
nance costs decreased
more than 80%. The addition-
al operating costs for the
pump motor were minimal.
Vacuumoverflash
Case 2 entails a refinery
vacuum column and over-
flash draw pump (Fig. 7). The
overflash-liquid draw pumps
are used either to recycle the
material to the furnace or to
meter the stream and return
it to the bottom of the col-
umn.
Wetting of the packing in
the wash zone of a vacuum
column is very important;
inadequate liquid leaving the
packing will result in a coked
grid bed.
The pumps selected for
this service were oversized.
Pump flow rates normally
were less than 50% of the BEP
flow rate. These pumps were
subject to repeated cavitation
because of problems control-
ling the liquid level.
Controlling the flow rate
at a fixed value is an extreme-
ly important operating objec-
tive. In practice, the column
liquid level is difficult to
measure; therefore, the flow
rate of this stream is difficult
to control. Damage of the
pump’s mechanical seal as a
result of cavitation is a chron-
ic problem.
Service evaluation
All the liquid in this col-
by umn is drawn from the col-
lector tray. The level on the
tray is measured by an exter-
nal float system or a differen-
tial pressure measurement.
The level controller resets the
pump flow rate.
In principle, the flow rate
from the collector tray should
vary only when the column
overflash changes. To oper-
ate at an economic optimum,
the column overflash should
be held at a minimum. Mini-
mum overflash maximizes
draw of the heaviest distil-
late.
In the field, the overflash
liquid withdrawn from the
column comprises both over-
flash and entrainment.
actual overflash liquid rate is
a function of several vari-
ables, including crude charge
rate, crude oil composition,
transfer-line pressure drop,
and furnace outlet tempera-
ture.
Overflash is difficult, or
more often impossible, to cal-
culate accurately using
steady-state computer simu-
lation. Entrainment can only
be estimated and is more dif-
ficult to predict than over-
flash.
Once the system is operat-
ing, the most important oper-
ating parameter is adequate
wetting of the wash zone. A
coked wash zone will shut
down the unit.
The level-control system
on this column is very unreli-
able. An obvious cause of
level-control problems
plugged level taps. Neutron
back-scatter level devices,
however, also have shown
foaming in the draw-off
sump (revealed as changes in
fluid density with elevation).
The oil may be cracking or
the mixture of entrainment
and residue may be generat-
ing vapor. The one obvious
conclusion from these data,
however, is that reliable mea-
surements of liquid level are
difficult or impossible
obtain.
A number of inaccuracies
in the process design hinder
the reliability of vacuum-unit
The overflash pumps. The design
flow rate of the pump has to
be estimated.
Typical systems for liquid
level measurement do not
work. The suction-line level
of the pump chronically
drops below the allowable
minimum. Pumps in this ser-
vice almost always are gross-
a ly oversized because calculat-
ing overflash is difficult.
System variability
The two sources of the
feed liquid to the pump are
true overflash and entrain-
ment. During several plant
tests in which the overflash
was reduced essentially to
zero flow, the overflash draw
rate varied dramatically. The
author believes the variation
in flow is caused by changes
in entrainment resulting
is from instability of two-phase
flow from the furnace and
transfer line.
The variations in over-
flash liquid flow are inherent
to this service. Improved liq-
uid-level control can help
mitigate the problem. Never-
theless, the pump must be
able to handle flow varia-
tions.
Variations in pump flow
rate as low as 20% of the nor-
mal flow are typical and
to occur periodically in this
unit. While this is not ideal, it
is a reality of this system.
 TECHNOLOGY
between the water and
hydrocarbon densities. This
is revealed in the motor amp
variations over time. These
pumps have chronic seal
problems.

Service evaluation
The available NPSH of the
pump will vary as the fluid
composition varies. When
water is pumped, the fluid
vapor pressure is 4 psia.
When hydrocarbon is
pumped, the fluid vapor
pressure is 90 psia.
This variation presents a
1 1 Water/oil 1 Fixed problem only when the fluid
mixture pressure composition on the pump
downstream
of control specification sheet is inap-
valve propriate. In this case, the
Oil sp gr q 0.65
Water sp gr q 0.99 fluid being moved through
the pump is not of uniform
composition.
hut ion the suction line can bc Often, pump specifica-
Flow rates in overflash inferred from the pump sue tions will indicate fluid prop-
pumps, except in very large tion pressure. Fig. 8 show: erties that are mixed (oil and
vacuum columns, do not the proposed system. water, for example), with a
exceed 250 gpm and usually The pump selected for thi! stipulation that the motor be
are less than 200 gpm. These service should be designee sized assuming the total flow arbon flashes at atmospheric
pumps are small. for maximum turndown. I rate is water. Intermittently, conditions. The fluid has an
Available NPSH for this should have a suction-specif the motor load will reflect the initial, true boiling point of
system usually is 50-70 ft. ic speed of 9,000 or less specific gravity of water. -200” F. and a 50% boiling
The solution to the cavitation Available NPSH, even wher For this service, the pump point of 65” F.
problem requires fixing the holding a liquid level in tht head requirement is about The seal design for this
level control and specifying a suction line, is high. Pump: 600 ft, assuming a fluid with service is very important.
pump for maximum flexibili- with low suction-specific 0.65 specific gravity. The Seal thermodynamics, while
ty in flow rate. speed are available for thi: pump discharge pressure unknown to most refinery
Because most vacuum type of service. varies, depending on the spe- engineers, are conceptually
columns operate at very low cific gravity of the fluid being simple.’ Seal technology,
pressure, the variation in col- FCCcompressor pumped. Not knowing the however, is somewhat com-
umn pressure has a negligi- service, the variation in plicated.
ble effect on the available Case 3 involves a corn pump discharge may look Noted machinery consul-
NPSH. Column pressures pressor interstage separato: like cavitation to many engi- tant Heinz Bloch recom-
generally are between 0.3 drum for an FCC gas plan neers. The pressure changes, mends evaluating the seal
and 0.6 psia. (Fig. 9). The drum separate! however, because a pump design, then selecting a
The suction pressure of the cooled wet gas at an ele puts out a fixed head, not a pump with the ability to
the overflash pump is con- vated pressure. fixed differential pressure. accommodate the proper seal
trolled 90-95% by static head; Generally, the pressure if environment.
thus, the suction pressure about 75 psig. The condense< System variability
more closely represents the liquid is a mixture of hydro The pump flow rate varies Acknowledgment
static head of liquid. carbon and water. Often onl! with fluid temperature. The The author wishes to thank
The line diameter of the one pump is used. volume of condensation is Heinz Bloch for his time and
pump suction is larger from The flow rate in this sys strongly related to the tem- comments on the details of the
the column to about 15 ft tern is relatively stable. Varia perature and pressure of the mechanics of pump operation
below the draw-nozzle eleva- tions in flow rate occur over i upstream column. and reliability.
tion. At this point, the line is relatively long time (fron The flow rate of this
swedged to an appropriate day to night, for example stream varies, but is relative- References
diameter for a pump suction because of variations in the ly easy to predict. The prop- 1. Bloch, HP., Improving Machinery
Reliabilitv. 2nd ed.. Gulf Pub-
line. overhead condensation ratt erties of the hydrocarbon, lishing cd., Houston, 1982, pp.
The larger suction line of the FCC main fractionator water, and mixed streams, 83, 89, 85, 169, 172.
allows a slight increase in liq- The liquid being movec also are easy to predict. 2. Karassik, I.J., Krutzsch, W.C., Fras-
uid residence time. It also by the pump comprises oi er, W.H., and Messina, J.P.,
allows gas venting back to with a specific gravity of 0.6: Solution Pump
McGraw-Hill
Handbook,
Book
2nd
Co., New
ed.,

the column. A closed-cou- and water with a specific The problem with this York, lY%, p. 215.
pled pressure transmitter is gravity of 0.98. The composi pump is mechanical seal fail- 3. Warring, H., Pumps: Selection,
used just above the pump tion of the liquid being ure caused by vaporization Systems and Application, 2nd
ed., Gulf Publishing Co., Hous-
suction. The liquid level in moved by the pump varier in the seal. The light hydro- ton, 1984, p. 50.