Although natural gas is the common fuel for power generation in a mine‚ there are a range of fuels that a mining facility can burn to generate power. Fuel oil transfer pumps are used to transport oil either from an oil tanker (truck or ship) to a holding tank. Some storage systems use a day tank that holds about a day’s worth of “treated” fuel; the larger untreated fuel would be left offsite. Transfer pumps are needed to keep the day tank supplied as well as move oil from one tank to another.

Our experience shows that when fuel is allowed to sit in a rail car‚ tank truck‚ etc. the viscosity of the fluid can increase. This change results in increased input torque requirements and potentially affect the delivered product. In positive displacement pumps‚ the delivered flow will increase and in centrifugal pumps that amount delivered will decrease. It is important when sizing your pump to consider the properties of the fluid‚ pressure‚ supply and operational objectives as well as your expected environmental conditions.

Common pumps used in these applications include two screw‚ three screw and centrifugal.

Two-Screw: