[Ken Osment]

If you can start your charge pumps on a restricted discharge, allow suction to establish itself then transition over by restricting flow to the standby while opening flow to the mainline pump the transition will be seamless. We had the same issue of loss of flow to the heaters which has since all but been elliminated. We utilize Flowserve DSTHF pumps which can tolerate a short run at or near deadhead to allow for a seamless tranition. The root cause for our flow interuptions were due to the violent foaming tendency of our gas oil flushant when it came into contact with the hot bitumen from the diluent recovery plant. In standby the flushant was not shut off so it eventually displaced all the bitumen in the trapped space within the pump. When started this gas oil slug foamed resulting in loss of flow.

[Ken Osment]

I know of a number of operations which use captive nuts and self piloting bolts to secure the top heads. Essentally just the impact gun is required and the nuts can be chaned quickly if one becomes damaged. To gain added height the impact guns gan be bought with extended shafts which will elevate the gun slightly. If you have the time (approx 2 additional minutes per drum) there are a number of pneumatic torque tools which go one step further and elliminate the nerve damage associated with repetitive impact tool use.

[Ken Osment]

The coke chutes utilized on our Millennium Cokers are of a very robust design. We typically run twelve hour cycles and tend to cut the drums quite agressively. The chutes have withstood some rather large coke falls over the past four years without any damage or signs of stress to date. Bayside Engineering were involved extensively in the design of these chutes and may be able to offer some assistance. Email myself if you requie any contact information.

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