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What is the highest suction lift witnessed?

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jfriddell

Agricultural
Dec 4, 2002
21
Gang,

I've been asked by a customer to find a pump that would be capable of a suction lift of 25 ft. The application would be on off shore oil rigs. I guess you could say we are in the best possible location to be achieving high suction lifts. Flowrates would be 1000-1200 gpm with no discharge head. The water will be expelled overboard.

As I understand from my customer, the objective is to have a pump on the platform that will "dewater" the rig pylons, or legs, so that the rig can be lowered or raised relative to the ocean surface. This is what I've been told at least.

Am I asking too much from any pump to lift suction lift this high? Are there pumps out there that could perform this feat? Thanks for any help.
 
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Might be a couple centrifugal pumps kicking around, you'd only have two or three meters of NPSHA under those conditions, so you'd need a low speed pump or maybe even two pumps running in parallel for a realistic suction specific speed. Plunger pumps could probably do it, but it would be a pretty good sized unit. Given any thought to submersible pumps located in the bottom of the pylons under the water level?
 
A suction lift of 25 ft should not be a problem. NPSH is ample and there are centrifugals out there that can do this.

I have known of an installation like this on north sea platforms. In that case the pumps were uised to trim the platfor so it would stay level. Flow levels were less than what you have mentioned.

Best regards

Scalleke

 
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