The Apex of Barrel Pump Technology for Upstream Oil & Gas EOR

The WIKO is custom engineered and built for ultra high-pressure applications. Its multistage diffuser design with opposed impellers significantly reduces axial thrust loads resulting in improved pump reliability and longer service life.

WIKO: Custom Engineered for Ultra High-Discharge Pressures to 100 bar and Beyond

Flowserve invented the double-case pump in 1926 for hot oil service in the oil and gas industry. Eight years later, Flowserve introduced the first high-pressure water injection pumps for secondary and tertiary EOR. In 1982 Flowserve built one of the world’s largest water injection pumps – a massive 17 900 kW (24 000 hp) unit. Now, Flowserve has taken barrel pump design to a new service frontier: ultra high-discharge pressures beyond 1000 bar
(15 000 psi).

Innovative Opposed Impeller Design for Extreme Pressures

Exploration and oil production companies have long sought solutions for enhancing recovery of hard-to-reach oil trapped in ultra-deep sub-sea rock strata. One way to accomplish this is by water flooding or water injection. Water injection forces either high-pressure seawater or produced water into the oil-bearing structure to push the oil to the production wells and maintain reservoir pressure to facilitate oil flow. Achieving higher yields at ever greater depths requires pumping pressures to 1000 bar (15 000 psi) and more.

The Flowserve solution is the WIKO double-case pump with opposed impeller design. The WIKO pump is custom engineered to achieve the specific hydraulic and mechanical performance requirements for a given application. Built to customer specification, the WIKO often exceeds ISO 13709/API 610 (BB5) standards.

Compact Opposed Impeller Design

The Flowserve WIKO pairs an opposed impeller rotor with diffuser collectors and a single-diameter balance drum. This design configuration permits customization for specific ultra high-pressure applications.

The Flowserve WIKO features unique low specific speed hydraulics and high design speeds. It is of single-piece crossover construction which is more compact then previous two-piece crossovers. This design results in shorter bearing spans and improved rotor dynamic behavior.

The compact crossover construction also allows the casing bore to remain as small as possible. This minimizes hydrostatic forces and casing weight – both key design features for ultra high-pressure pumps.

Rotor Design

Large shaft rotor construction is specifically designed for high-stage pressure forces, arduous fluid characteristics and high rotational speeds. The heavy-duty rotor is designed so the maximum static deflection at rotor midspan does not exceed 70 percent of the rotor-to-stator clearance.

This minimum clearance ensures no rubbing contact occurs when the pump is started and stopped. It also provides greater tolerance of upset conditions during operation.

Cartridge Design

To facilitate maintenance, the WIKO is designed with a removable inner cartridge that allows a complete change-out of the internal bundle components without the need for complete dismantling of the pump. This capability minimizes downtime and ensures maximum production availability when maintenance or pump re-rating is required.

Materials of Construction

Pump materials are specifically selected for the individual corrosive and erosive application whether pumping clean seawater or more abrasive produced water. The barrel is typically either superduplex or forged carbon steel clad with Inconel^® on all wetted surfaces. High velocity areas are overlaid with laser-applied tungsten carbide to address erosion issues caused by abrasive solids. Shaft materials are superduplex.

360-degree Bearing Bracket

The WIKO features heavy-duty, fully enclosed 360-degree bearing housing brackets. This improves reliability by raising the overall pump bearing stiffness out of the range of possible excitation by impeller vane passing.

Hydraulic Flexibility

With state-of-the-art hydraulic design tools and capability, Flowserve engineers custom design every WIKO for the specific project requirements. Applying leading-edge computational techniques and considering previous practical operating experience, every WIKO design is optimized for:

• Operating range
• Suction requirements
• Operating speed
• Pump efficiency
• Mechanical design considerations

In addition, Flowserve unique hydraulic designs combined with large diameter shafts allow the WIKO to achieve a wide range of flow and pressure combinations within a single barrel while minimizing overall pump size and weight – important parameters in offshore installations.

Inconel is a registered trademark of the International Nickel Company.

View the WIKO video animation.