How to Choose a Slurry Pump 101

The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of the important considerations for selecting a slurry pump for your application. There are many factors and considerations to ensuring the pump that your purchase is appropriately suited for your application needs. Proper pump sizing, motor power, performance requirements, slurry characteristics, and discharge head requirements are only a few of the things that must be factored into the slurry pump selection process.

This Article Includes

• Slurry Pump Selection Overview
• What is a Slurry Pump
• How to Choose a Slurry Pump
• EDDY Pump's Premier Heavy-Duty Slurry Pumps

How to Choose a Slurry Pump ' Overview Video

There are many different types of pumps available, and most pumps are designed for a specific purpose or type of application. Pumps that are designed to transfer thin fluids are different from pumps that are designed for thick, solid-laden, abrasive, heavy materials. Due to the difference in pump design between different types of pumps, it is very important that the most appropriate pump be selected for your slurry application. Selecting the right slurry pump to effectively pump slurry involves considering factors like material properties and pump specifications to avoid issues like clogging and excessive wear.

Slurry pumps (and submersible slurry pumps) are designed for pumping thick materials that can consist of such things as slurries, sand, gravel, mud, crushed rock, muck, manure, and many other highly viscous materials. Typically, a slurry is a mixture of a given material such as crushed rock and water. A slurry pump is purpose built with robust pump components and mechanical seals for pumping abrasive slurries and viscous fluids from the material source, into and through the pump, and downstream to its final destination.

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Slurry pumps are inherently rugged by the nature of what they do and are capable of pumping high viscous and high specific gravity solid-laden slurries without clogging. This is why a standard centrifugal pump will often not move highly abrasive slurries over long periods of time.

The non-clogging aspect of a slurry pump design is one of the most critical differentiating factors compared to other pump types. These pumps usually feature heavy duty construction and high efficiency impellers and perform in some of the harshest environments, including dredging, oil & gas, power generation, mining, wastewater treatment, frac sand pumping, and many other industries.

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How to Choose a Slurry Pump

The following list of 8 significant considerations is to help you understand your pump application necessities in relation to selecting the best-suited pump for your heavy duty abrasive applications. The greater the viscosity, particle sizes, specific gravity, abrasion, and other important fluid and non-fluid characteristics make selecting a pump more difficult because these factors play into the situation at a greater level of importance, making the following application specifics even more critical.  

Critical ' Know Your Application!

1. Type of material will be pumped (abrasive materials, sand, sludge, mud, muck, slurry, etc.). Knowing the characteristics of the material is critical for choosing the most suited slurry pump.
2. Density of material to be pumped (specific gravity ' 2.5 Sg, etc.)
3. Viscosity of material to be pumped (1,000 centipoise (CPS), etc.).
4. Operating temperature of material.
5. The pH level ' pH is a measure of hydrogen-ion concentration. An easy way to remember pH is that a pH of 7 is neutral, below 7 acid, and above 7 alkaline. High chrome steel is well suited for pH levels between 4 and 9. Duplex stainless steel is ideally suited for pH levels less than 3 and above 10.
6. Flow rate required (example: 500 GPM or 100 cu. yards per hour [cu-yd/h]).
7. Discharge Head (example: 100 PSIG).
8. The pump chosen must be able to surpass the total discharge head for the application. This helps to reduce the potential abrasion to the pump and discharge pipeline.
9. Length of inlet and discharge pipeline (example: 1,000-ft.).
10. Diameter of inlet and discharge pipeline (example: 4-in., 10-in., 12-in., etc.).
11. Pipeline material of construction (example: steel, polyvinyl chloride, cast iron, etc.).
12. Pump elevation in relation to fluid source.
13. Flooded suction (pump positioned below fluid source).
14. Submersible suction (pump positioned within fluid source).
15. Elevated suction (pump positioned above fluid source, the pump must beself-priming).

Match the Best Suited Pump to Your Application Requirements

1. Pump size must effectively produce a greater flow rate than the critical flow rate of the pump.
2. Critical flow rate is important when pumping slurries with a concentration of solids. The critical flow rate is the flow rate required to keep the material being pumped from settling on the bottom of the volute. Due to this, the actual flow rate should always be higher than the critical flow rate.
3. Pump's material of construction (cast iron, stainless steel, high chrome steel, etc.)
4. The chemical compatibility of the pump must be suitable for the material that is to be pumped. Also, choosing a material that withstands abrasion is very important. Replaceable rubber liners are available that can be installed internally to the pump to assist with reducing abrasion to the inside of the metallic volute casing.
5. Motor requirements (example: 250 HP).
6. The power rating of the motor must be higher than the power consumption required. Flow rate, specific gravity, and discharge head are used to determine power consumption.
7. Consider the economic impact to your profits of having a pump that is capable of producing the desired flow volume, but do it for a lot less cost. Usually, pumps that can move viscous materials with a very low amount of water can save a large amount of money over a short period of time due to reducing the accruing water volume used.

Centrifugal Slurry Pumps For Abrasive Slurries

The key reason these specialized centrifugal pumps offer reliable performance lies in their ability to transport large volumes of slurry with relatively low energy consumption. The centrifugal action, where a rotating impeller creates a flow by converting mechanical energy into kinetic energy, allows for continuous movement of slurries over long distances with reliable operation. Unlike other pump types (including twin screw pumps and other positive displacement pumps), centrifugal slurry pumps can handle large particles, high solids concentrations, and highly viscous fluids without clogging or excessive wear.

Their robust design, including materials like hardened steel or elastomers for critical wear pump components (such as pump shaft, inlet valve, outlet valve, suction hose and pumping chamber), ensures longevity and minimizes downtime, which is crucial in industrial operations where any disruption of fluid flows can lead to significant financial loss. Centrifugal slurry pumps also have the flexibility to be customized for specific applications, such as varying impeller designs or the use of liners to match the slurry's characteristics (including corrosive liquids or abrasive particles), ensuring superior performance and extended service life.

In dredging, for example, these pumps help transport large volumes of sediment, sand, and rocks, perfectly suited to heavy duty applications, land reclamation and navigation maintenance. In mining, they are used for transporting ore slurry in mineral extraction processes. Their reliability, versatility, and ability to move challenging materials make centrifugal slurry pumps indispensable in any slurry applications.

Understanding Slurries

Slurry Composition

A slurry is essentially a mixture of fluid and fine solid particles, and its composition can vary widely depending on the specific application. Generally, slurries are classified into two categories: non-settling and settling. Non-settling slurries consist of very fine particles and have low erosive wear properties, making them easier to pump. On the other hand, settling slurries are formed by coarse particles and have higher wear properties, which can pose more challenges during pumping. The composition of a slurry can include a diverse range of materials such as manure, cement, starch, or coal suspended in water or other liquids. Understanding the specific composition of your slurry is crucial for selecting the right pump and ensuring greater efficiency slurry pumping.

Slurry Properties

Slurries possess several distinct properties that significantly affect their behavior and handling, making standard pumps inappropriate. These properties include:

• Viscosity: This measures the resistance of the fluid to flow. Higher viscosity means the slurry is thicker and more challenging to pump.
• Specific Gravity: This is the ratio of the mass of a unit volume of slurry to the density of water at a specific temperature. It indicates how heavy the slurry is compared to water.
• Particle Size: The size of the particles in the slurry can range from one micron in diameter up to hundreds of millimeters. Larger particles can increase wear on the pump.
• Density: This refers to the weight of the slurry per unit volume. Higher density slurries are heavier and more difficult to pump.
• pH: The measure of the acidity or alkalinity of the slurry. The pH level can affect the material compatibility of the pump.

Understanding these properties is essential for selecting the right pump and designing an effective slurry pumping system. Each property influences the choice of pump type, material of construction, and overall system design.

Centrifugal Slurry Pump Design and Construction

Centrifugal slurry pumps are specifically designed to handle the heavy and abrasive nature of slurries. Key features of these pumps include:

• Robust Design: They typically feature a heavy-duty casing and impeller to withstand the harsh conditions of slurry pumping.
• Large Internal Passage: A large, open internal passage helps reduce wear and tear on the pump by allowing larger particles to pass through without causing damage.
• Slow-Turning, High-Efficiency Impeller: This design reduces internal velocities, maximizing wear life and improving efficiency.
• Patented WRT Technology: This technology enhances wear performance and reduces the consumption of wear parts, extending the pump's operational life.
• Cartridge-Style Bearing Assembly: This feature allows for easy maintenance and prolongs bearing life, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
• Ductile-Iron, Fully-Lined Casing: Robust pump casing and lining materials offer enhanced durability, strength, and safety, ensuring the pump can handle the demanding conditions of slurry pumping applications.

The design and construction of a centrifugal slurry pump are critical to its performance and longevity. By incorporating these robust features, centrifugal slurry pumps can effectively handle the challenges of pumping abrasive and heavy slurries, ensuring reliable and efficient operation in various slurry pumping applications.

The EDDY Pump Corporation

The EDDY Pump Corporation is a leading provider of unique slurry and dredge pumps and manufactures products that provide superior value versus other pump types. The pump is not a centrifugal, vortex, or positive displacement pump, but rather a pump harnessing the fluid dynamics of an eddy current. This enables the EDDY pump to outperform conventional pumps in applications that involve high viscosity, large weight of solids and particulates, high specific gravity, corrosive and abrasive material, work well in applications that are susceptible to clogging, and do it in an environmentally friendly manner.

EDDY Pump Product Categories

• Self Priming Pumps
• Industrial Heavy-Duty Slurry Pumps
• Dredging Equipment
• Excavator Pump Attachment
• Dredge Sled
• Autonomous Dredge
• Cable Deployed Dredge
• Hydraulic Power Units (HPU)

If you are pumping slurry, brines, high solids, extremely viscous material, paste, high abrasives (sand & gravel), and material filled with solids, then you found the best-suited pump for the job.  Go to:  https://eddypump.com/  or Call Us!

Pump Orientation Options

When choosing a slurry pump for an application, there are two categories of slurry pumpsbased on product orientation; vertical pump and horizontal pumps.  Vertical or horizontal refers to the shaft orientation.  Both pump orientations have their advantages and disadvantages.  Vertical pumps help to reduce the space required for pump location and can be maneuvered into smaller spaces, whereas horizontal pumps are the most common pump orientation. 

EDDY Pump's Premier Heavy-Duty Slurry Pumps

The EDDY Pump is considered one of the premier self-priming high viscosity and high specific gravity pumps in the world and has been designed specifically for demanding applications that require the transfer of thick, abrasive, heavy solid laden materials.  The non-clogging design of the pump includes an enlarged wetted path and recessed rotor.  This allows the pump to move large volumes of viscous material through the pump without clogging and causing downtime to your application.  

Premier Pump Design

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Submersible Slurry Pump. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

The unique design of the recessed rotor creates an Eddy Current as it spins inside the volute.   This method of displacing fluid via the uniquely designed recessed rotor creates a vortex (a circular current of fluid) at the pump inlet that assists with drawing the material to be pumped into the volute, exiting the pump discharge, and pumping the material downstream of the pump to the desired location.  The Eddy Current also keeps particles and solids maintained in suspension which is critical when pumping high viscous, solid-laden material.  The EDDY Pump's ability to pump concentrated solid matter is perfect for moving viscous materials with as much as 40-70% solids by volume; an impossible task for a lot of traditional pump types.  The EDDY Pump can also pass extremely large solids that are almost the size of the liquid inlet and liquid discharge of the pump; these results are beyond the scope of what most other traditional pumps can achieve.  

Low Cost of Ownership

An important factor when choosing the best pump for your application goes beyond whether or not the pump can meet the application requirements; there is also the subject of Cost of Ownership and how much it costs you to operate your pump over the course of the pump's lifetime.  Due to the EDDY Pump's ability to pump high viscous and high specific gravity materials with the volume of very high solid and extremely low water content, the cost to pump the material is drastically reduced.  The accruing cost of water that goes along with using pumps that require a high water content to move viscous materials dig very deep into your profits.   

Materials of Construction

The EDDY Pump is made of the highest quality materials and is extremely rugged, abrasion resistant, chemically compatible with most fluids, and capable of withstanding a great deal of punishment that is typically inherent in abrasive, high viscosity, and high specific gravity, slurry applications.  For more information on the EDDY Heavy-Duty High Viscosity and High Specific Gravity pump go to https://eddypump.com/ or give us a call today!

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EDDY Pump vs. Centrifugal Pumps

How EDDY Dredge Pumps Work Vs. Centrifugal pumps. EDDY Pump technology explained. Learn more about EDDY Pump Technology.

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HD (Heavy Duty) Slurry Pumps / Dredge Equipment

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The design of a slurry pump is critical to making sure that the abrasive and often corrosive aspects of the slurry does not destroy the impeller. Additionally, slurry and sludge may contain large unforeseen solids that will inevitably clog many types of pumps. Since most centrifugal pumps have an impeller with a close tolerance to the volute, the abrasive and sometimes corrosive nature of the slurry will quickly wear the volute and ruin the tolerance. This, in turn, causes the pump to lose its suction capability. This causes massive downtime with slurry pumps along with costly maintenance and spare parts.

For this reason, the EDDY Pump is ideal for slurry pumping applications. The EDDY Pump does not have an impeller, but instead a rotor that does not have any critical tolerances. This allows it to pump slurry at rates of 30% and solids up to 12 inches. This is far more than what centrifugal pumps can handle without any failure or need to change wear parts.

Choosing the proper material for a slurry pump is another critical process for determining the correct pump to handle your slurry. If the slurry is highly abrasive with a neutral pH then the best construction material is a Hi-Chrome. This metallurgy has the highest Brinell hardness that can withstand the abrasive nature of the slurry. On the other hand, if the slurry is not only abrasive but also has a low pH, it is best to go with a duplex stainless steel construction. This material is the best for a slurry pump to withstand caustic material such as acid, while still having a high Brinell level.

Adding lime with water, as a slurry, allows the solution to be pumped considerable distances, making transporting the material easier than mechanically loading into trucks. As you can imagine, the lime slurry is not only corrosive but abrasive as well, which can pose challenges for all types of pumps. Due to these challenges, pump manufacturers are constantly coming up with new designs for reducing the detrimental effects that lime slurry can have on their equipment and production rates. Some of these design ideas are featured on multiple types of pumps including slurry pumps, centrifugal pumps, and peristaltic pumps. Typically, the answer to effectively pumping lime is to keep the fluid moving constantly to maintain the chemical in suspension. With lime slurry, it is important to constantly be reaching a critical line velocity in which there is enough flow and turbulence to prevent sediment from building up in dead spots or crevices found throughout the system. It goes without saying that cleaning limescale in pipes can be very labor intensive, expensive, and particularly in metal pipes. Ideally, the pipeline should be as smooth as possible with an open flow path, making sure the flow rate is directly proportional to maintaining momentum. This is why the EDDY Pump's turbulent flow design is perfect for keeping the slurry agitated enough to not accumulate on the sides of the pipelines.

Determining the proper slurry pump size and power requirements for your application is crucial. Based on the abrasive nature of slurries, it is important to choose a pump size that will allow for the pump to run at a slow enough speed in order to lengthen the duration of the slurry pump's life. An ideal RPM to run a slurry pump at is between 900- RPM. Once you begin to exceed this speed, the life of the pump significantly decreases because the wear points in the slurry pump essentially get sandblasted.

As you can see in the 4' EDDY Pump shown above, the tolerance between the rotor and the volute easily allows the passage of a man's arm, while the tolerance in a centrifugal pump is significantly less.

This means you can pump MORE solids with LESS clogging.

For more information on EDDY Pump technology, click here.

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