Abstract
Pumps are large consumers of energy and play a vital role in daily operations at the Oil & Gas processing facilities. General tendency to oversize pumps during design phase in order to tackle all possible scenarios or conditions leads to inefficient pump operation thus resulting in higher energy costs. Changes in feed characteristics and throughput for a given facility due to numerous reasons also supplements higher energy costs and inefficient pump operations. Energy performance study has been conducted for selected pumps at an Oil & Gas processing facility. In this study, most of the pumps indicated higher head than actual requirements for the given flow conditions, highlighting potential of energy savings. Generally, multiple solutions are applicable for optimization of any pump operation. Potential solutions include changing running / standby configuration, installing Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), replacing pump motor, trimming impeller, replacing pump and modifying the system resistance by adding, removing or changing the components like valves and orifices etc. Each solution exhibits different magnitude of energy savings and CAPEX requirements. This paper introduces a systematic methodology for a structured analysis of pump systems, to explore and evaluate potential solutions for energy efficiency improvement. Targeting pumping system improvement thru this structured approach would help to evaluate all pertinent solutions, in conjunction with techno commercial analysis, and identify the best solution. Proposed methodology has been applied on four different cases of pump operation optimization and the results are discussed in this paper.
