Centrifugal Slurry Pumps Design & Selection for Sustainable Mining Industry – A Review

Mohamed Saiad, Rajaa Nechad, Hamid Mounir

Centrifugal Slurry Pumps are the heart of wet process operations in mineral processing plants and for hydro-transport duties. Sustainable mining industry is driven by technological innovation to minimize environmental impact and slurry pumps are strategic and critical assets in this process. Hence the importance of their optimisation, innovation and continuous improvement. Designing efficient and durable slurry pumps will not only reduce the operations costs but will have significant environment impact by reducing energy consumption during pumps operation and during the pumps manufacturing process. Having durable and long lasting pumps contribute considerably to resource conservation by reducing the need for frequent manufacturing which reduce energy consumption, minimise industrial waste and conserve raw materials. Unlike site-specific machinery such as the hydraulic turbines, which are custom designed for specific site conditions (head, flow, and water properties) allowing specific optimization of their geometry and blade angles to operate under steady and controlled conditions, the centrifugal pumps use standard designs to handle different operating conditions which limits their efficiency. In addition, slurry centrifugal pumps are required to operate under severe conditions involving solid particles, high densities and viscosities. These factors increase internal hydraulic losses and accelerate wear of the slurry pump’s wet end components, which introduces major constraints and pose significant challenges for achieving cost-effective optimisations. This paper is aimed to categorise slurry pumps design and optimisation considering applications and material selection. The review of numerical and experimental studies undertaken in this field have been summarised to develop a simplified flowchart as guide for centrifugal slurry pumps selection, while future improvements depend on continued CFD researches and composite material innovations.