The Challenge

An energy-guzzling pump takes its toll

• The customer noticed that an essential lean methanol pump was running inefficiently.
• The pump was used to move syngas into a scrubber, where it could be purified of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and carbonyl sulfide – an essential process in petrochemical applications.
• The Chinese OEM pump had been installed in 2014 and had been running for nine years.
• It began to show signs of wear, consuming much more energy than it had previously required. The customer was also looking for ways to adapt the pump to new process requirements, which included:
  -  Reducing the pressure of the pump from 1,027m to 870m
  -  Bringing the pump up to the API 610 standard for centrifugal pumps. This would mean mounting the pump on the centerline and changing the suction piping to an alternative designed to withstand higher pressure.
• To make the challenge even greater, the customer needed to make these changes without modifying auxiliary equipment like the base plate and discharge piping.
• Faced with such a complex task, the customer called in Sulzer for support.