Abstract
The need to minimize the total cost of ownership for offshore plants requires the development of technologies focused on both reducing equipment footprint and weight (capital expenses) and increasing performance, reliability and availability (operational expenses).
The OEM has been working on those features through the development of different products:
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Maximize reliability/availability by removing most critical items (such as mechanical dry gas seals) with an integrated motocompressor design;
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Minimize the overall equipment (reduced footprint combined with improved reliability) through:
High head and high-speed stages (High Pressure Ratio Compressor);
Liquid tolerant compressor;
Integrated auxiliaries.
The reduction of installed equipment is first obtained through combination of newly developed high head and high-speed compressor stages, which allow to increase the pressure ratio that can be performed in a single compressor casing, minimizing the total number of compressor casings required for a certain duty.
Secondly, these stages can also be combined with a compressor design which is liquid tolerant, thus allowing higher resistance to the liquid carry over from upstream scrubbers and eventually decreasing the scrubber size (or in some instances its removal). It should be noted that this technology is not only limited to flange to flange centrifugal compressor, but the overall auxiliary system (including dry gas seals’ system).
Finally, the OEM has been working on the integration of auxiliary systems: the possibility to reduce number of compressor casings, leading to possibility to handle most of services in a single body, and the reduction of required lubrication oil, allows integration of lube oil console within the compressor baseplate. This design has been proved for reinjection services up to 50 MW and for floating LNG compressors up to 70 MW.
The present paper will thus describe the design and validation strategy of the proposed technologies, showing how they can positively impact the total cost of ownership of compressor stations.
