Enhance Compressor Performance by Value Engineering

Abstract Background The continuous operations of axial and Centrifugal type of blowers and Compressors are critical for the Gas Processing facilities and Compressor Surge which can cause catastrophic failure of the equipment, leading to loss of containment and production upsets Whenever there is no insufficient forward flow through a compressor, surge occurs. Surge is the inability for the compressor to sustain the forward flow and flow reversal happens very quickly. The purpose of the Anti-surge valve (ASV) is to protect the machine from surge conditions by increasing the suction flow. To sustain the forward flow, a recycle line is provided with ASV which quickly opens as per the requirement with minimum dead time and hysteresis. Hence the response of Anti surge valve plays an essential role in compressor performance and compressor life cycle. In current set up, sometimes the response time of anti-surge valve was not achieved, and this caused machine going to surge or process upset. To overcome this certain minimum opening of ASV is kept, which introduces continuous recycle and energy wastage. New technology Considering the above limitations, a new actuator technology has been reviewed. The newly introduced Electraulic technology is combined between both, Electric mechanism and hydraulic system, to achieve faster response time, almost negligible overshoot and dead time. This enabled anti surge valve to open very fast on demand which comes and bring the machine out of surge quicker. As a Pilot project, this actuator technology has been implemented in one of the anti-surge valve 552FV1583 of the combustion air blower 552B101A, which is critical equipment in Habshan -5 sulphur recovery unit. This new technology actuator was commissioned and in operation since Oct-2021. Conclusion & Recommendation Various tests have been carried out to confirm the smooth and fast performance of the ASV and the results are found to be satisfactory. This has enabled to tune the anti-surge controller settings which caused reduction in surge margin. This has resulted in consistent energy savings due to the less or minimum recycle operation compared to the previous operating scenario with conventional pneumatic actuators. Valve performance parameters are consistently exceeded compared to the KPI /Benchmark for this application. Reduction of motor power and equivalent Energy savings 2800 MW per year observed, which will result in the direct cost savings of fuel consumption to generate the electricity. This saving of motor power is equivalent to saving a 1139 tons of CO2 emission per year. Based on the successful outcome of this Pilot, this technology can be considered for similar applications with existing poor performance of anti-surge valves. Also, for new anti-surge valves in the Project, where this is found to provide the required cost benefit.