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Vertical sulfuric acid pump allows for long lifetime and reduced maintenance | Sulzer

Vertical VAS pump allows for long lifetime and reduced maintenance in sulphuric acid plant
Long lifetime and reduced maintenance despite highly corrosive conditions
Sulzer's compact vertical turbine pump design extends the lifetime of the equipment and allows the customer to increase the MTBM (Mean Time Between Maintenance) remarkably. The symmetric diffusor casing allows the development of bigger pumps for higher sulfuric acid circulation flow.

The challenge

The volute casing geometry generates radial thrust on the pump line shaft. The thrust leads to deflection and vibrations and causes wear of the pump bush bearing and the roller bearings. The highly corrosive conditions, where the clearance increases over time, further deteriorate the mechanical conditions of the pump. This effect is exponential, and as a consequence, the equipment lifetime is rapidly decreased.

The project

Sulfuric acid is one of the most important industrial chemicals. In the contact process, circulation pumps are required for the pumping of very corrosive high-temperature and high-concentration sulfuric acid in drying towers, absorption towers, and heat recovery systems. In most cases, vertical pumps are installed at the top of a tank to provide safe operation. In this case, the design featured a vertically mounted end suction pump with the volute casing installed on a suspension column with a separate discharge pipe.



The Sulzer difference

• The pump design extends the lifetime of the equipment and allows the customer to increase the mean time between maintenance (MTBM) remarkably.
• The compact design of Sulzer’s vertical turbine pump ensures easy installation and maintenance-friendly operation.
• The symmetric diffusor casing design allows the development of bigger pumps for higher sulfuric acid circulation flow.