SME SPECIAL SESSION: Subsea Slurry Lift Pump Technology - SMS Development

摘要

Nautilus Minerals', the world's leader in exploration and development of deep ocean seafloor resources, has located arnnumber of Seafloor Massive Sulphide (SMS) deposits in the Bismarck Sea, within the Territorial Waters of Papua NewrnGuinea. Nautilus' business model is based on the notion of ongoing resource accumulation and aggregating numerous highrngrade SMS systems and to sequentially develop them using a floating production system.rnNautilus' project development plans are based on utilizing and / or adapting existing technologies from a number of differentrnindustries. The offshore oil and gas industry in particular has been a primary source of equipment and technology and it isrnfrom this industry that Nautilus is procuring a Subsea Slurry Lift Pump (SSLP) to pump slurry from the seafloor to its surfacernproduction vessel.rnThe SSLP under procurement is a 10 chamber positive displacement lift pump. The pump technology was originallyrndeveloped to pump drill fluids and cuttings in dual gradient drilling of deepwater offshore oil and gas reservoirs. By allowingrnthe pump's discharge pressure to adjust to changes in the slurry (Viscosity, Density & Solids Concentration), the positiverndisplacement pump accommodates variations in flow conditions to remain within its operating envelope. The SSLP has arnnumber of direct technical and operational synergies that make it ideally suited for application in the SMS productionrnindustry.rnThis paper provides an overview of the SSLP design and its suitability for the seafloor mineral production industry and alsornexplores alternate slurry pump or lift technologies suited to this new and developing industry.