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n Volume XIV: Issue III ................................................................................4

n Global Perspective — LNG Spot Contracts are Gaining Ground ..................6

n Market Talk — Compression Equipment Business Feeling Effects of Economic Developments ..............................................10

n Flowserve Signs Valve Manufacturing Joint Venture with S&A Abahsain Co. Ltd. ....................................................................11

n GE's Power Crystal Technology Debuts ..................................................12

n TECHCorner — Loose Piston Detection for Reciprocating Compressors ....14

n VetcoGray to Supply Equipment for OGX Drilling Campaign Offshore Brazil ..................................................30

n Water to Make the Sahara Flourish ........................................................34

n Stimulating Canada's Energy Sector ......................................................36

n The P-51 Goes On-Stream in the Campos Basin ......................................38

n New SWT Series of Speed Switches from Dynalco ..................................39

n When Operating Equipment Has to Meet Noise Abatement and Emission Standards ..............................................40

n Custom Control Installation for Gas Plant ................................................46

n SBCO Celebrates 86-Year Anniversary with Move to New Facility ............50

n Optimizing Power Load on Hydrogen Makeup Compressor ......................54

n EPA Proposes New Emissions Regs For Stationary Diesel, Gas Engines....59

n Black Powder Removal ..........................................................................60

n About The Business — Burckhardt Compression … Selltech … Cook Compression … Ariel … Hoerbiger … Tritech … JAG flowcomponents........64

n Dateline ..................................................................................................8

n Literature Library ..................................................................................29

n Products................................................................................................31

n Scheduled Downtime..............................................................................44

n Industry News........................................................................................45

n Advertisers’ Index ..................................................................................56

n Marketplace ..........................................................................................58

p. 12

p. 34

APRIL 2009

p. 46

p. 50

APRIL 2009 3 COMPRESSORTechTwo

COMPRESSORTechTwo(ISSN 1085-2468) Volume 14, No. 3 — Published 10 issues/year (January-February, March, April, May, June, July,

August-September, October, November, December) by Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications, 20855 Watertown Road, Waukesha, WI 53186-1873, U.S.A. Subscription rates are $75.00 per year/$10.00 per copy worldwide. Periodicals postage paid at Waukesha, WI 53186 and atadditional mailing offices. Copyright 2009 DIESEL & GAS TURBINE PUBLICATIONS.Canadian Publication Mail Agreement # 40035419. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: P.O. Box 456, Niagra Falls, ON L2E 6V2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Circulation Manager, COMPRESSORTECHTWO, 20855 Watertown Road, Suite 220, Waukesha, WI53186-1873 U.S.A.

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PUBLICATION STAFFCTTwo Founder .......................Joseph M. KaneEditor and Publisher ........D. Phillip BurnsideAssociate Publisher ............Roberto ChelliniManaging Editor ....................Brent D. HaightSenior Editor .................Michael J. BrezonickSenior Editor .......................Sheila GailloretoSenior Editor .....................Michael J. MercerRegional Manager/Editor .........Ian CameronFeature Editor.......................Dawn M. GeskeField Editor/Business Manager .....................Bo Svensson

Advertising Manager....................Kara KaneProduction Manager ..........Christa L. JohnsonGraphic Artist........................Marisa J. RobertsGraphic Artist ......................Brenda L. BurbachGraphic Artist ...........................Carla D. LemkeGraphic Artist .............................Amanda RyanCopy Editor .........................Melissa C. McNultyCirculation Manager ................Sheila Lizdas

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Chairman of the Board ..........Russell PalmerPresident ..........................Michael J. OsengaSenior Vice President ......Michael J. Brezonick

Joe Kane

Volume - XIV: Issue - III

tionable substances to our environ-ment than the gasoline it replaces. Inaddition, ethanol does not containnearly the energy potential of gaso-line, so a given trip requires greaterfuel consumption.

Now, for renewable energy sources— the total kilowatt hours generatedby wind and solar energy (some45,493,000 MW) was approximately1.1% of the total U.S. consumption in2008. The administration wants todouble this amount in the next threeyears. You do the math. One barrel ofoil contains the energy equivalent of1.64 MW. So, wind and solar energydisplaces approximately 76,000 barrelsof oil per day. This is equivalent to theraw energy extracted from one aver-age coal mine. This pales before the4,118,198,000 megawatt hours con-sumed in the U.S.A. in 2008. Con-sequently, we can double renewablesover and over and not significantlydisplace hydrocarbon-based energy re-quired to drive our economy. So, ourpresent primary energy source will bewith us for quite some time.

Incidentally, I’m not sure of thedrinking age in Ireland for beverageswith alcohol. However, I don’t thinkmany Irishmen worried about it dur-ing St. Patrick’s Day. Also, a flagonor two of Guinness is often con-sumed for its medicinal properties.With that thought, may the Lord con-tinue to hold you in the hollow ofHis hand. n

A cartoon attracted my attention theother day. It showed a mugger hold-ing up at gun point what looked likean average citizen. The victim, withhis hands held high said, “You’re toolate.” This is somewhat how many ofus feel as we watch whatever paltrywealth we were able to accumulateevaporate. Is there anyone out therethat knows what’s going on? If so, Iwould appreciate a short note. Ihaven’t a foggiest notion where thingsare headed.

Not all is gloom and doom. I un-derstand France will boost the lawfulage for consuming certain alcoholicbeverages from 16 to 18. That meansthat more of the nectar emanatingfrom that country will be available forthe rest of us. So my recommendationis that when you go home after ahard day’s work, relax in your favoriteeasy chair and … hit the sauce.

Next, the ethanol industry is ex-pected to supply some 36 billion gal-lons (136.2 billion liters) by 2022.With gasoline consumption downabout 7% and expected to drop more,and because ethanol production is ar-bitrarily mandated and ratchets upeach year, does anyone wonder whatwe will do with the surplus? Ethanol?Production is heavily subsidized anddoes not measure up to its intendedbenefit. That’s because the wholesupply chain of ethanol from growingfertilized corn to actual productionand transportation adds more objec-

The Muddle WeLive In

4 COMPRESSORTechTwo

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The LNG market is relatively young;the first production of LNG on an in-dustrial scale was back in the late1960s. At the start of the business,long-term contracts (typically 20years) were signed to guarantee allpartners a return on investment in:liquefaction plants, regasification ter-minals and LNG carriers transportingthe product from production to con-sumer markets.

With the growth of this business,the increased number of players andthe need for more flexibility on bothsides, the spot market has been devel-oped in parallel to that governed bylong-term contracts.

The majority of LNG activities areconcentrated in the Asiatic Pacificarea. The size of this market is fore-cast to be around 5.3 Tcf (150 x 109

m3) in 2009. Major import countriesare Japan, 3.2 Tcf (92 x 109 m3); fol-lowed by South Korea, 1.3 Tcf (38 x109 m3); Taiwan, 424 Bcf (12 x 109

m3); and India and China with 282 Bcf(8 x 109 m3) each.

Major export countries in the areaare Malaysia with 1.13 Tcf (32 x 109

m3); followed by Indonesia 1.12 Tcf(31.7 x 109 m3); and Australia with812 Bcf (23 x 109 m3). Qatar in theMiddle East, with 1.5 Tcf (43 x 109

m3) production capacity, also is ex-porting a large share of its LNG toAsia Pacific, while minor suppliescome from elsewhere.

The spot LNG market is highly re-munerative when demand is high and

long-term contracts fail to meet de-mand — forcing LNG importers tobuy spot cargos. However, if spotprices tied to the actual demanddrops, remuneration will suffer. Withthe global economy slowdown poten-tially reducing demand for energy in2009, the Asian LNG market is likelyto order fewer LNG cargos.

In the longer term, the market willrecover — with India and China re-quiring substantially more energy tosupport their economic growth.However, recent findings of substan-tial natural gas reserves both in Indiaand China suggest that most of theadditional demand will be coveredby the distribution of gas locally

through newly built domesticpipelines, limiting growth of LNG im-ports. LNG prices that in 2008 haveexhibited peaks over US$10 per mil-lion Btu, could fall to US$5 or evenless in 2009.

Marketing strategy adopted by themajor players goes both ways. Whilemajor international oil companiessuch as Shell, BP and Total havebased their sales on long-term con-tracts, the BG Group has preferred tokeep a large share of its LNG capacityto cover spot market requests. Thisstrategy proved highly profitable dur-ing 2008, but is showing its weaknessin 2009. Apparently BG expects oper-ating profits from their global LNGbusiness to fall 7% in 2009, to £1.3billion, from £1.4 billion in 2008.

Imports from the Atlantic Oceanbasin (where the majority of BG’sLNG production assets are located) toJapan, South Korea, India and Taiwanslowed at the end of 2008, loweringthe spot price of LNG.

While falling spot prices have a neg-ative impact on BG, the largest sup-plier of spot LNG cargos to Asia, majorLNG importers such as Korea Gas andTokyo Electric Power are benefitingsubstantially. It is said that these utili-ties will save more than US$5 billion ayear for every US$1 per million Btudecline in LNG prices.

BG stands to lose out as utilitiescover gas demand from existing long-term contracts and avoid the spotmarket. n


n Roberto Chellini

LNG SPOT CONTRACTS ARE GAINING GROUNDA Risky But Potentially Profitable Possibility

Raising Some Doubts in the Present EnvironmentBy Roberto Chellini, Associate Publisher

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APRILApr 7-9 — NEFTEGASEXPO - 11th Interna-tional Specialized Exhibition Oil and GasExploration and Development Know-HowTechnologies and Equipment, Lenexpo, St.Petersburg, Russia; Contact: Elena Rytova,Restec Exhibition Company, P.O. Box 268,St. Petersburg 197110, Russia.Tel: 0812 320 9660Fax: 0812 320 8090E-mail: [email protected]: www.restec.ru

*Apr 21-22 — Gas Compressor Institute- Seward Community College, Liberal,Kansas, U.S.A; Business and Industry,Seward County Community College, P.O.Box 1137, 810 Stadium Road, Liberal,Kansas 67905-1137, U.S.A.Tel: (620) 629-2653Fax: (620) 629-2689Web: http://www.liberalgasinstitute.com/GCI/GCI.html

*Apr 21-22 — Texas Energy Alliance

Expo & Annual Meeting - Multi-PurposeEvent Center (MPEC), Wichita Falls, Texas,U.S.A.; Texas Alliance of Energy Producers719 Scott Avenue, Suite 930, Wichita Falls,Texas 76301, U.S.A.Tel: (940) 723-4131/(800) 299-2998Fax: (940) 723-4132 E-mail: [email protected]: www.texasalliance.org

MAY*May 4-7 — Offshore TechnologyConference - Reliant Center at ReliantPark, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.; OTCHeadquarters, 222 Palisades Creek Drive,P.O. Box: 833868, Richardson, Texas75083-3868, U.S.A.Tel: (972) 952-9494Fax: (972) 952-9435Web: www.otcnet.org

*May 11-15 — ACHEMA 2009 - Frankfurtam Main, Germany; Dechema e.V.,Postfach 15 01 04 60061, Frankfurt/Main,Germany.Tel: +49 69 7564-230 / -238Fax: +49 69 7564-0E-mail: [email protected]: www.achema.de

*May 12-14 — Eastern Gas CompressionRoundtable - Robert Morris University,Moon Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.;West Virginia University, P.O. Box 6070Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6070,U.S.A.Tel: (304) 293-3745 or (304) 293-3745Fax: (304) 293-6751E-mail: [email protected]: www.egcr.org

May 19-21 — AGA Operations Conference& Biennial Exhibition - David L. LawrenceConvention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,U.S.A.; American Gas Association, P.O. Box79580, Baltimore, Maryland 21279-0580,U.S.A.Tel: (410) 997-0763Fax: (202) 824-9184E-mail: [email protected]: www.epponline.com

*May 25-28 — Gastech 2009 - Abu DhabiNational Exhibition Center, U.A.E; Contact:Tony Stephenson, Event Director, DMGWorld Media (UK) Ltd., Westgate House,120/130 Station Rd., Redhill, Surrey, RH11ET, United Kingdom.Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855000 Fax: +44 (0) 1737 855482E-mail: [email protected]: www.gastech.co.uk

Dateline

*Indicates shows and conferences inwhich COMPRESSORTechTwo is participating.

For a complete listing of upcoming events, please visit our website at www.compressortech2.com

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*May 26-28 — Sensor + Test 2009 -

Nuremberg Messe, Nuremberg, Germany;

AMA Service GmbH, Contact: Ms.

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49, 31515 Wunstorf, Germany.

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Fax: +49 5033 1056E-mail: [email protected]: www.sensor-test.com

*May 26-28 — Power-Gen Europe 2009Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany, Contact:Kevin Marlow, PennWell Global EnergyGroup, Pennwell House, Upshire, EN93RS, United Kingdom.Tel: +44 1992 656 610Fax: +44 1992 656 700E-mail: [email protected]: www.powergeneurope.com

May 31-Jun 5 — OMAE 2009 – 28th

International Conference on Ocean,Offshore and Arctic Engineering - Honolulu,Hawaii, U.S.A.; Sea to Sky MeetingManagement, Suite 206, 201 Bewicke Ave.,North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,V7M 3M7.Tel: (604) 984 6455E-mail: [email protected]: www.omae2009.com

JUNE*June 3-4 — Energy Exposition - Cam-Plex Convention, Gillette, Wyoming,U.S.A.; Bulldog Industries LLC, P.O. Box51151, Casper, Wyoming 82605, U.S.A.Tel: (307) 234- 1868Fax: (307) 234-1868Web: www.energyexposition.com

*June 8-12 — ASME Turbo Expo - WorldCenter Marriott Resort & ConventionCenter, Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.; ASMEInternational Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI),6525 The Corners Pkwy, Suite 115,Norcross, Georgia 30092, U.S.A.Tel: +1-404-847-0072Fax: +1-404-847-0151E-mail: [email protected]: www.turboexpo.org

*June 9-11 — GO-EXPO : Gas and OilExposition 2009 - Roundup Centre,Stampede Park, Calgary, AB, Canada; DMGWorld Media, #605, 99-8th Street SW,Calgary, AB, Canada T2R 1J5.Tel: (403) 209 3555 or (888) 799 2545Fax: (403) 245 8649E-mail:Web: http://www.petroleumshow.com

*June 16-19 — SGA Offshore

Conference - Moody Gardens, Galveston,

Texas, U.S.A.; Southern Gas Association

3030 LBJ Freeway, Suite 1300, Dallas,

Texas 75234, U.S.A.

Tel: 972-620-8505

Fax: 972-620-1613

Web: www.southerngas.org

*June 23-26 — MIOGE 2009 - MoscowInternational Oil & Gas Exhibition,Expocentre, Moscow, Russia; Contact: IrianGorshkova, Project Director, ITE Group Plc(London), 105 Salusbury Road, London,NW6 6RG, United Kingdom.Tel: +44 (0) 207 596 501Fax: +44 (0) 207 596 5106E-mail: [email protected]: www.mioge.com

Dateline

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The turmoil in the commodityand credit market is showing signsof affecting gas compression re-quirements. Fourth quarter resultsfrom compression packagers reflectlowering demand as producers con-tinue to “cut back” on planned capitalexpenditures pending recovery in de-mand and pricing. While Exterran re-ported an increase in its backlog atthe end of 2008, it also called atten-tion to the likelihood of order cancel-lation and request for delayed deliv-ery that could adversely affect thisbacklog. One could conclude that theimpact has already been felt in itscontract compression that saw its uti-lization rate decline to 76% from 80%the previous year.

Similar reports were seen fromCanadian packagers. Toromont re-ported a 30% decline in booking inthe fourth quarter and Enerflex re-ported a 6% decline in its backlog.

These impacts shouldn’t be sur-prising. Future commodity pricescontinue to hold in a US$4 to $4.35range for April delivery, with the 12-month strip now averaging $5.12.Continuing concern regarding de-mand and oversupply seem to be de-pressing the market’s outlook. Cur-rently EIA is expecting Henry Hubspot price to average $5.01 per Mcf in2009 and $5.93 per Mcf in 2010. Theydo not foresee a rebound until 2010.

Recognizing the suppressed state ofthe natural gas market, drilling activ-ity has dramatically declined. Inthe most recent report from BakerHughes, for the week ending Feb. 27,rigs drilling for natural gas have de-clined to 970. These levels have notbeen seen since the spring of 2004.Average natural gas rig activity inFebruary 2009 was 1037 in compari-son to 1426 a year ago.

An interesting analysis by Spearsand Associates calls attention to the

parallel in rig activity decline in2008/2009 to that of the previous cy-cle in 2001/2002. If this analysis holdstrue, it is likely that the bottom willoccur sometime midyear , withsmall incremental increases thereafter.This is assuming that economic activ-ity in the U.S. market stabilizes as iscurrently projected, which at this timeremains in question.

As we prepare to exit the with-drawal season, it is likely that wewill do so with elevated levels ofnatural gas in storage. As of the most

recent report, current gas in storage isrunning 218 Bcf (6.17 x 109 m3) aheadof the five-year average and 270 Bcf(7.65 x 109 m3) over levels in storage ayear ago. Assuming a rate of drawcomparable to that of the five-year av-erage, we will exit the storage with-drawal season with 1596 Bcf (45.2 x109 m3) in storage 317 Bcf (8.98 x 109

m3) ahead of that in storage in 2008.Entering the injection season withlikely lower industrial demand couldlead to substantial build-up ahead, fur-ther complicating future pricing. Thecurrent long-range forecast from theNational Weather Service does not in-dicate abnormally warm temperaturesin the Midwest and Northeast, whichcould weaken demand for coolingload and lessen the demand from nat-ural gas-powered generation.

It is difficult at this time toclearly project when prices fornatural gas will stabilize. Producerscontinue to be cautious, awaitingsome signs of recovery. In reportingtheir capex budget, many do so witha caveat of built-in flexibility of re-sponse dependent on market condi-tions. It is apparent that current futureprices leave little in the way of incen-tive for producers to expedite capital.Hedging, which in the past has pro-vided a means to manage risk associ-ated with new production, is currentlynot providing much value.

As the economy continues to strug-gle to find footing, each day seemsto bring more questions than an-swers. Hopefully the coming monthswill bring some clarity but unfortu-nately one had hoped that we wouldhave had the clarity by now. Theglobal implications of this downturnonly complicate the recovery and itwill likely be a long recovery, but atthis time one could only hope forsome stability in the market as a posi-tive sign. n


n Harold Lampe

Harold Lampe is the principal ofEnergy Research Services of Tulsa,Oklahoma, U.S.A., which providesmarket research, customer satisfac-tion analysis, competitive and mar-ket intelligence and business develop-ment strategies for the energyindustry, on which he has focused forover half of his 30 years conductingmarket research projects. He can bereached at [email protected].

COMPRESSION EQUIPMENT BUSINESS FEELINGEFFECTS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

Analysis of Current Parallels in Rig Activity Decline in 2008/2009to that of 2001/2002 Cycle Predicts Bottom by Midyear

By Harold Lampe

CT223.qxp 3/25/09 8:49 AM Page 1


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Global flow control products andservices provider Flowserve Corp. hassigned a joint venture agreement withS&A Abahsain Co. Ltd., a diverseSaudi Arabian business entity.

Building on existing joint ventureswith the Flowserve Pump and Seal di-visions, Abahsain and Flowserve haveexpanded their relationship to includethe manufacturing of control valves,ball valves, plug valves, butterflyvalves, and electric and pneumatic ac-tuators for the oil and gas, petrochem-ical, power and water industries.

“We are pleased with this newjoint venture with Abahsain Group,”said Lewis Kling, Flowserve presidentand chief executive officer. “Thisnew agreement and partnership posi-tions us well to continue to serve ourvaluable customers in the SaudiArabian market.”

The joint venture, calledFlowserve/Abahsain Flow Control Co.Ltd., will begin initial manufacturing

from a temporary facility in AlKhobar, Saudi Arabia. A new facilitycapable of manufacturing the full lineof valve products is planned to beconstructed in Dammam in 2009, andis expected to be operational byJanuary 2010.

“Flowserve has existing Pump andSeal operations in Saudi Arabia,” saidTom Pajonas, president of the Flow-serve Flow Control Division. “Bysigning this agreement with Abahsain,we are increasing Flowserve’s pres-ence in the Kingdom by adding localvalve and actuator manufacturing ca-pabilities. This underscores our com-mitment to Saudization and to theneeds of our customers in the SaudiArabian market.”

“This agreement substantially ex-pands our existing relationship withFlowserve,” said Shaukat Sheikh, di-rector of Abahsain Group. “We are es-pecially pleased to be associated withthe prestigious Flowserve line of flow

control products. Abahsain is alreadya local manufacturer of commodityvalves, and with this new joint ven-ture agreement we expect to becomea major player in the critical engi-neered valve segment.”

Operating in more than 55 coun-tries, Flowserve produces engineeredand industrial pumps, seals and valvesas well as a range of related flowmanagement services.

S&A Abahsain Co. Ltd. was foundedin 1947 by brothers Saleh and Ab-dulaziz Abahsain as an electrical con-tracting company and has sincegrown into a diverse business entityspanning industry, trading, construc-tion, real estate and services mar-kets. The company was recentlynamed one of the top 50 companiesin Saudi Arabia in recognition of itscontributions to the development ofthe Saudi economy. n

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The announcement last fall that GEwould upgrade gas turbines and sparemodules at the Egyptian OperatingCo. for Natural Gas LiquefactionProjects’ (Egyptian LNG) LNG facilitylocated in Idku, Egypt, was significanton two fronts. The agreement wasvalued at more than US$60 million,but more importantly, signifies the in-troduction and first use of GE’s PowerCrystal technology on power turbinesin the oil and gas industry. The tech-nology is designed to help operatorsmeet future power output or durabil-ity requirements of their gas turbines.

Egyptian LNG is a joint venture oflocal shareholders including EGPC andEGAS, and foreign shareholders suchas BG Group plc, PETRONAS and Gazde France. At the time of writing, therewere two LNG trains running at theIdku plant, each with a capacity of 3.6million tons of LNG per year.

Under the agreement, GE is to sup-ply Power Crystal parts retrofit kits toupgrade 12 GE MS5002D gas turbinesand four spare modules that are usedat the LNG facility. Parts for Phase I(upgrade of spare modules) will beshipped this year and shipment forPhase II will take place in 2010 to2012. The upgrade will be carried outduring the next major overhaul of the

gas turbines (Phase II) and it will bebased on a modular replacement basiswith no impact in terms of the origi-nal time schedule, according to GE.

The Power Crystal kits are based onsingle-crystal technology that wasoriginally developed for GE’s aircraftengines and adapted for use on its ad-vanced, heavy-duty gas turbines. The

technology has been used in almostall of the company’s aviation enginessince 1990. In addition, GE has expe-rience with single-crystal materials inits LM2500+, LM2500+G4, LM6000PDaeroderivative gas turbines as well asits LMS100 and all FB and H class in-dustrial turbines.

The kits use single-crystal advanced

GE’S POWER CRYSTAL TECHNOLOGY DEBUTSUpgrades Designed to Boost Performance or Extend Life of MS5002

Gas Turbines in Oil and Gas Applications

n The Power Crystal kit is a program devel-oped to safely enhance the output powerand/or availability of GE’s MS5002C and Dgas turbines. The first application of thistechnology in the oil and gas market will beused at the Egyptian LNG-owned LNG facilitylocated in Idku, Egypt.


n The Power Crystal technology retrofit kit for MS5002C and D GE gas turbines includesfirst-stage buckets that are manufactured in single-crystal material. All grain boundaries areeliminated, and the single crystal with controlled orientation is produced in an airfoil shapeto improve high-temperature strength, transverse creep and fatigue strength.

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alloys for high-performance turbineblades that enable turbine firing temper-atures to be raised at least 72°F (22°C)(designed for 91°F [33°C]). This, accord-ing to GE, leads to a 4% increase in tur-bine power output with no increase inNOx emissions for the MS5002D and apotential power increase of 6% for theMS5002C gas turbine.

“This power output increase can bekept independent of the ambient tem-peratures at the site,” said FilippeCinelli, new product introductionleader for global services at GE.“Alternatively, if the firing tempera-tures are left unchanged, the PowerCrystal technology can enable longermean time between maintenance in-spections. So, the Power Crystal tech-nology allows operators to choose be-tween a power increase or availabilityincrease option.”

With the Extendor technology, themean time between maintenance ofPower Crystal-equipped units with ei-ther standard or LHE combustors is24,000 equivalent running hours. Thisallows operators to skip the traditional12,000 equivalent running hour in-spections. According to GE, the base-line for the maintenance plan of aPower Crystal unit running on theavailability increase option includes aliner and transition piece inspection at24,000 hours and a major inspectionat 48,000 hours. If the firing tempera-tures of the turbine are not increased,GE said operators can postpone themajor inspection to 72,000 hoursbased on the improved materials anddesign of the Power Crystal kit. This,according to GE, can allow customersto gain up to 10 days of productionover a full maintenance cycle.

The kit features an improved designof the first-stage hot gas path compo-nents and the latest in GE’s combus-tion Extendor technology. This up-grade is similar to the evolution thatwas made between the MS5002B andMS5002C models.

The kit for GE’s MS5002C and D gasturbines touches three areas of the en-gine. These are the first-stage nozzles,first-stage buckets and other flow-pathcomponents. The first-stage nozzles in-clude a new and improved cooling pat-tern, but no aero change. The first-stagebuckets feature a material change froma directionally solidified GTD111 to theproven single-crystal material to en-hance creep resistance. The combustionchamber transition pieces and liners,fuel nozzles and cross fire tubes, andcross fire tube retainers now feature theExtendor Kit modifications. These con-sist of the latest hard coating materialand the redesign of parts to optimizeclearances to reduce wear. The first-

stage shroud material has been changedfrom AISI410 to AISI310, and the innernozzle ring has been redesigned to in-clude additional cooling holes.

With the single-crystal material, allthe grain boundaries are eliminatedfrom the structure and a single crystalwith controlled orientation is pro-duced in an airfoil shape. The elimina-tion of all grain boundaries and the as-sociated grain boundary strengtheningadditives allow a substantial increasein the melting point of the alloy —providing a corresponding increase inhigh-temperature strength. According

to GE, creep and fatigue strength arealso increased compared to equiaxedor directionally solidified structures ofprevious generation turbines.

“This retrofit kit has been developedwith the aim to be the least invasivepossible in the existing hardware, andthe control system will not be part ofthis kit,” said Cinelli. “The customercan keep his controls, and a lightmodification of the software could berequired only if the customer selectsthe power increase option.” n




CT219.qxp 3/23/09 12:03 PM Page 2


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Reciprocating compressors frequently play a critical rolein hydrocarbon processing plants, particularly in providingmakeup and recycle hydrogen compression service. In re-cent years, so-called “de-bottlenecking” projects have seenmany of these machines move into more prominent roleswhere they have a larger impact on process throughput. Asa result, the need for reliable mechanical condition moni-toring has escalated because of the significant impact onproduction that total or partial loss of a machine entails.While valve failures typically account for the majority of un-planned outages1, failures of bolted joints on the runninggear (connecting rod, crosshead, piston rod and piston) canlead to long and extensive outages. This article explainshow reciprocating compressor condition monitoring sys-tems can detect mechanical looseness and provides an ex-ample of how to detect a loose piston.

ApplicationThree, six-throw, balanced-opposed horizontal reciprocat-

ing compressors provide makeup hydrogen for the catalyticcracker unit at a large refinery. In order for the unit to run atfull capacity, all three compressors must operate in parallel— loss of one machine results in a 20% reduction in pro-duction, which can have enormous economic repercussions.Each compressor has two distinct services, based on processstream requirements; each of these services has three com-pression stages. Each compression stage consists of onedouble-acting compressor cylinder. Suction valve plug typeunloaders provide capacity control for second- and third-stage cylinders. The first-stage cylinder capacity control in-cludes a head end (HE) variable clearance pocket as well asvalve unloaders.

InstrumentationBecause of the crucial role these machines play in the re-

finery’s production, the customer embarked on an ongoingreciprocating compressor equipment health managementprogram. An online instrumentation system, consisting ofGE Energy’s Bently Nevada 3500 Series, transducers and GEEnergy’s System 1 diagnostic and optimization software,monitors and trends critical management parameters. Table1 summarizes the parameters monitored by the system.

This article focuses on the combined application of theonline cylinder pressure and crosshead acceleration.While it has long been understood that cylinder pressurehas value for thermodynamic measurements and P-V


LOOSE PISTON DETECTION FORRECIPROCATING COMPRESSORS

Reciprocating Compressor Condition Monitoring Systems ProvideSufficient Data To Detect Loose Components

By Brian Howard, P.E.

Brian Howard is a senior engineer/technologist, GE Energy. Foradditional information, contact the author by e-mail:[email protected].

Table 1 – Monitored Parameters

Temperature • Cylinder valves• Main bearings• Cylinder suction• Cylinder discharge• Valve covers• Packing

Vibration/ Force • Frame (velocity)• Crosshead (acceleration)• Piston rod (displacement)• Maximum rod load (compression)• Minimum rod load (tension)• Degrees of rod reversal

Pressure • Cylinder pressure vs. volume (PV)• Peak cylinder pressure• Minimum cylinder pressure• Discharge pressure• Suction pressure• Compression ratio

curves, the ability to correlate events in the crosshead ac-celeration signal (and cylinder or valve cover accelerationsignal, if available) with known events in the pressureand/or rod load curves proves to have great value in de-tecting mechanical looseness in the running gear. Usingonline cylinder pressure data in this manner provides tim-ing information in a manner analogous to a Keyphasorsignal on rotating equipment.

Impact/Knock Monitoring MethodologyWhile not necessarily a new measurement, online cross-

head acceleration has really gained broad acceptance inonly the last 10 or so years. As a result, industry has littleexperience in applying and analyzing this measurement.The signal generated by an accelerometer on a crossheadshows different frequencies with different amplitudes at dif-ferent points in the revolution. In contrast, transducersmonitoring rotating machinery generate signals with rela-tively constant frequency content over the shaft revolutionwith few harmonics. For this reason, most descriptionscharacterize signals from rotating equipment as “sinu-soidal.” But how to characterize the rich, complex signalgenerated by a crosshead accelerometer?

continued on page 16

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Figure 1 shows an unfiltered crosshead acceleration sig-nal sampled synchronously with crankshaft rotation plottedon a crank angle domain plot. (The term “unfiltered” meansthat no filters have been applied to the accelerometer sig-nal. Only the response corners of the transducer, 10 Hz and30 kHz, limit the frequency content of the accelerometeroutput signal.)

The peaks and valleys of the signal frequently draw themost attention of analysts. Interestingly, these portions of thesignal resemble the idealized response of a first order systemto a sudden change. For example, consider a cantileveredbeam struck by a sledgehammer. Initially, the beam displacesunder the hammer motion, then, as the hammer moves pastthe beam, the beam vibrates freely. Figure 2 shows this ex-ample and the oscilloscope output for a proximity probeviewing the beam during the event.

The shapes shown in Figure 1 and the right pane ofFigure 2 occur often in mechanical engineering, electricalengineering and signal processing applications. Qualita-tively, this shape represents the system response to an im-pulse input. By definition, the accelerometer measures theresponse of the crosshead guide to internal forces; there-fore, these shapes correspond to impulse inputs, or events,within the compressori. Although the accelerometer signalrepresents the response to impulse events, these signatureson the curve are often referred to as impulse events, ratherthan impulse response events for the sake of brevity.

Not all impulse response events within the crosshead ac-celerometer signal convey the same information. Referringto Figure 1, two impulse events have been labeled. Impulse#1 has high frequency content compared to Impulse #2.Mechanical knocks or bangs excite resonances of the recip-

rocating compressor components such as crosshead guides,distance pieces, etc. Typically, these frequencies lie below2000 Hzii. In contrast, impulse events originating in gas flownoise, valve opening or valve closing events express amuch higher frequency. Therefore, the high frequencyImpulse #1 likely relates to a valve opening or closingevent and the lower frequency Impulse #2 relates to a me-chanical knock or impact.

Mechanical impacts represent the greatest potentialthreat to machine health. Filtering ensures the protectionsystem alarms on only signal content related to mechanicalproblems. In addition, comparing an unfiltered to a filteredsignal has diagnostic value. Bandpass filtering the signalfrom the crosshead accelerometer with a 3 Hz high passand 2000 Hz low pass results in a waveform that repre-sents only those impulse events associated with mechani-cal impacts. Applying this filter to data sampled synchro-nous with crankshaft rotation results in a “filteredsynchronous” waveform.

The unfiltered signal has value too; however, separatingout the mechanical events from the valve noise presents achallenge. For example, a loose valve has significant mechanical content, but occurs at very nearly the same timeas the valve opening. The impulse event generated by thegas flowing through the valve completely covers the im-pulse event generated by the collision of the valve with thecage or valve seat. Since whistles, pops and other noisescan completely obscure impulse events associated with me-chanical knocks, shutdown on the unfiltered crosshead ac-celerometer signal is not recommended.

One final note on crosshead acceleration concerns unitsof measurement. Three distinct sets of standards address vi-bration measurements on reciprocating compressors. API-618 recommends frame vibration, but has nothing oncrosshead acceleration. However, section 7.9.4.2.5.2.4 pro-vides vibration criteria for pipe in units of displacementpeak-to-peak (pk-pk) and velocity peak-to-peak. API-670 in-cludes a discussion on accelerometers, but nothing on ve-locity transducers or accelerometers on the crosshead.Section 5.4.5.5 of API-670 recommends acceleration in units


Impulse #1 Impulse #2

n Figure 1. Unfiltered synchronous crosshead acceleration versuscrank angle.

n Figure 2. Hammer impacting a cantilevered beam resulting in an impulse signal.

iThroughout GE Energy Reciprocating Compressor literature, prod-uct descriptions and case histories, the term “impulse event” refersto a signal shaped as shown in the right hand pane of Figure 2. Inthis context, impulse event does not have the same definition aswhen the term applies to physics or dynamics. Within these subjects,impulse refers to the strength and duration of a collision force.

iiThis is an empirically derived value for large API-618 style recip-rocating compressors mounted on block type foundations. It doesnot represent an absolute value grounded in a rigorous first prin-ciples analysis.


CT171.qxp 3/23/09 10:33 AM Page 2

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of true peak (0-pk) and velocity in root mean square (RMS).ISO-10816-6 generically covers displacement, velocity andacceleration all in units of RMS. What is the best representa-tion of the amplitude of crosshead acceleration?

RMS can be addressed first. For pure waveforms (i.e.,sinusoidal, square, etc.) simple conversions exist to con-vert amplitudes in 0-pk or pk-pk to RMS. However, asshown in Figure 1, the crosshead accelerometer signal isnot a pure waveform. Therefore, the value has to be cal-culated numerically as:

For the data shown in Figure 1, the calculation results ina value of 0.57 g’s RMS. The value does not correlate wellwith the critical features of the signal. RMS proves to havelittle value in quantifying the amplitude of a rich signal likethose coming from crosshead accelerometers.

That leaves the choice of either 0-pk or pk-pk forcrosshead acceleration. Many power and other electricalengineering calculations use a 0-pk value to represent theamplitude of a signal. To be consistent with this practice,both crosshead acceleration and frame vibration preferredunits are 0-pk(2). All acceleration data presented in this pa-per will be in units of g’s 0-pk.

Even with filtered and unfiltered crosshead acceleration sig-nals and meaningful units of measurement, the many movingparts of a typical reciprocating compressor cylinder present areal challenge for those attempting to determine the source ofa knock. Not only does the compressor have many movingparts, but the forces acting across the parts change constantly

throughout the revolution. For example, consider thepiston in a double-acting cylinder, as shown in

Figure 3. (For the pur-poses of the

following qualitative discussion, the difference in areas of thepiston face created by a piston/tail rod will be neglected).With the piston at bottom dead center, the crank end cham-ber has completed the discharge of gas and is at dischargepressure. In contrast, the head end chamber has completedthe intake of gas from the suction manifold and is at suctionpressure. The higher pressure in the crank end chamber re-sults in a net force that tries to move the piston toward thehead end head. The piston rod resists this force and is placedin tension.

The gas pressure acts not only on the piston assembly,but also on the cylinder. Again, neglecting the piston rodarea, note that the higher pressure in the crank end cham-ber compared to the head end chamber results in a netforce on the cylinder that tries to move it toward the com-pressor frame. The distance piece and frame extension re-sist this force and come into compression.

As the piston begins to move toward the head-end head,the pressure in the crank end falls to suction pressure andthe pressure in the head end rises to discharge pressure. Atsome point during this transition the forces on either side ofthe piston (and therefore the cylinder) will be equal. Withthe piston at top dead center, as shown in Figure 3, the pres-sure in the head end chamber is higher than the pressure inthe crank end chamber. This places the rod in compressionand the distance piece and frame extension in tension.

In practice, within the 3500 monitoring system, the cylin-der pressure measurement at each 0.5° of revolution is mul-tiplied by the area of each piston face minus the area of thepiston/tail rod. The monitor then sums the forces acting oneach piston face to obtain the resultant gas load curve. Theblue line in Figure 4 shows the gas rod load for an operat-ing cylinder on a makeup compressor.

Forces also transition from tension to compression at thecrosshead pin, piston to crosshead connection and connect-ing rod to main bearing. As these parts move, the inertiaforces (the mass of the moving parts times the accelerationexpression given in the Appendix) must be added to the gasforces. The red line in Figure 4 shows the inertia force.Summation of the inertia and gas force at each point in theplot results in the combined rod load curve. Since the calcu-

lation of the inertia load includes the mass of the pistonassembly, rod and crosshead assembly, the combi-

nation of this inertia force and gas force, rep-resented by the green line, is the

crosshead pin load3. Within thescope of this presentation, the

¦=

=n

i

iRMS xn

Amp1

21


n Figure 3. Cross-section of a typical double-acting cylinder, piston at top dead center (TDC).

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terms combined rod load or combined force always indicatecrosshead pin load.

While the loading curves have intrinsic value in assessingthe stress on the machine, they also have value in localizingknocks and impacts on reciprocating compressors. For ex-ample, consider the case in which excessive clearance devel-ops between the crosshead pin and crosshead bushing. Asthe combined rod load forces at the crosshead pin transitionfrom compression to tension, and vice versa (shown by thegreen dots on Figure 4), the pin moves from one side of thebushing to the other. Excessive clearance enables a rapidbuild-up of velocity that must be absorbed by the bushing.This results in a knock at the point where the combined rodload crosses the neutral axis. Therefore, knocks that occurnear the point of combined rod load reversal typically indi-cate looseness or problems within the crosshead assembly.

What about a knock that occurs at gas rod load reversalpoints (shown by the blue dots on Figure 4)? Such a knockmust not have much influence from the reciprocating mass.Therefore, the connection or joint with the least mass must

be suspected of being the cause of the knock. For mostreciprocating compressor running gear, this is the piston-to-piston rod connection (or, in the case of integral piston-rodassemblies, the piston rod-to-crosshead connection).

Case HistoryAnalysis — During a routine audit, plant personnel ob-

served an impulse event on the crosshead accelerometerof the LP Stage 2 cylinder. Although the filtered synchro-nous waveform amplitude had not yet crossed the alarmlimit, the level of the impulse event was close enough towarrant a detailed analysis.

The large impulse event in the unfiltered synchronouswaveform, highlighted by the red ellipse in Figure 5, drewthe attention of the analyst. This event begins approximately211° after top dead center (ATDC) near the pressure curvecrossover point and 4° before the crank end suction valveopens. The format of the data in Figure 5 provides somevaluable insight into the possible causes of this impulseevent. The left vertical axis represents the point at which thepiston moves closest to the head end head. If liquid werepresent in the cylinder, it is near this point that an impulseevent would be observed3. Likewise, piston-to-head endhead contact would result in an impulse event left verticalaxis. The situation is analogous at the 180° crank angle,when the piston moves closest to the crank end head.

Mechanical knocks, valve opening/closing events or gasflow can cause a response in an unfiltered synchronouswaveform. In addition, the event lies close to both the pres-sure cross over and the suction valve opening events. Withthis information, the analyst can construct two hypothesesabout the source of the impulse event:

1. The impact event results from a loose valve or loosecage on the crank end suction side of the cylinder. Inthis case, a corresponding knock should occur when thepressure inside the cylinder rises above suction pressure.

2. The impact event results from a loose piston or pistonring slap. In this case, a corresponding knock shouldoccur for each time the pressure curves cross.


n Figure 4. Gas rod load, inertia rod load and combined rod loadversus crank angle.


n Figure 5. LP stage 2 cylinderpressure, crosshead acceler-ation and rod position versuscrank angleiii.

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Observations fromonly the unfiltered syn-chronous waveformand the cylinder pres-sure curves do not pro-vide enough informa-tion to support orrefute either hypothe-sis. The analyst requiresadditional informationto determine the causeof the impulse event.

Referring to the fil-tered crosshead ac-celerometer signal inthe lower-left pane,observe that the im-pulse event at 211°ATDC also appears. Inaddition, the filteredsynchronous wave-form shows anotherevent occurring at 53°ATDC, between thecrossover of the pres-sure curves and thehead end suctionvalve opening. Notethat this impulse event


n Figure 6. LP stage 2 rod load, crosshead acceleration and rod position versus crank angle.

n Figure 7. LP stage 2 rod load, crosshead acceleration and rod position versus crank angle. Zoomed display of rod position waveform.


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barely could be seen in the unfiltered synchronous wave-form because of the noise from the valve opening andclosing and the gas flows in the cylinder manifolds. The lo-cation of this event, long after the crank end cylinder pres-sure rises above suction pressure, provides enough infor-mation to refute the first hypothesis of a loose valve.

As the first event does not line up with a valve openingevent and both events contain significant amplitudes relatedto mechanical looseness, plant personnel then examined therod load curves alongside the crosshead acceleration androd position waveforms. As only the second hypothesis re-mains, the analyst expected that the two events in the fil-tered synchronous waveform would line up closely with thegas reversal points.

Referring to Figure 6, note that the first event occurs ap-proximately 4° after the gas rod load crosses the neutral axis.


n Figure 8. Typical heavy-duty piston assembly.

n Figure 9. As-found condition of the piston and piston nut.

n Figure 10.LP Stage 1after returnto service.

The second impulse event occurs approximately 2° after thegas rod load crosses the neutral axis a second time. Theproximity of the impulse events to these gas reversal pointsstrongly suggests a loose piston. With this information, the


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analyst now has sufficient data to support the hypothesisof a loose piston.

In this case, the rod position probes provide importantsupporting evidence for the loose piston hypothesis. System1 allows users to zoom in on a particular event in a wave-form, but still keep the cursors synchronized across plots.Figure 7 shows the same data as in Figure 6; however, theplot format separates the data into four distinct panes andthe focus of the lower right pane is zoomed in around theehigh-frequency ring-down of the vertical rod position probe.

Aligning the cursor with the beginning of this ring-downevent on the rod position waveform, note that it begins ap-proximately 4° before the impact appears on either the unfil-tered or filtered synchronous waveform plots. The proximityto gas reversals suggests that the loose piston was initiallyhard against the piston nut (when the gas forces placed theassembly in tension) and then forced to the piston rod shoul-der when the forces transitioned to compression. The motionof the piston and the impact with piston rod shoulder wereenergetic enough to excite vibration on the piston rod.

With the evidence from the filtered synchronouscrosshead acceleration waveform and the rod positionwaveform, the analyst felt confident that a loose pistoncaused the high-amplitude impulse event.

Inspection ResultsWith an online monitoring system in place and requests

from operations to continue running the unit, the plant de-cided to continue running until spares could be obtainedand an outage planned.

Once the plant shut the machine down, the maintenanceteam removed the head, expecting to find the piston nutloose (reference Figure 10 for terminology). In fact, theyfound the small stake holding the piston nut to the head


n Figure 1A. Crank slider arrangement.

end postion (shown inside the red circle in Figure 9). Thepresence of the stake indicated the nut had not comeloose, with respect to the head end piston half.

Further inspection of the piston assembly revealed thatthough the nut had not come loose, sufficient relaxation ofthe piston assembly occurred, allowing the piston halves tobe rotated by hand on the piston rod. It appeared thatsome event, such as liquid ingestion, had created sufficientforce to plastically deform the threads under the nut and/orthe piston rod between the nut and piston rod shoulder.The maintenance team removed the piston assembly andreplaced it with a new, spare assembly.

Figure 10 shows the rod load, crosshead acceleration androd position data after the compressor returned to service.Note the absence of significant impulse events on eithercrosshead acceleration waveform.

ConclusionSystem 1/3500 provided critical insight into the compres-

sor condition, allowing the plant to understand and diagnosethe compressor condition. Without proper pre-load, fatiguecycles accumulate on the portion of the piston rod under-neath the piston. Unchecked, this can eventually lead to se-vere mechanical damage. Even if the failure had progressedto the level of an audible knock, detection of the loose pis-ton would have been extremely difficult without quality datato guide the disassembly and inspection process. n

References1. Leonard, Stephen M. “Increasing the Reliability of

Reciprocating Compressors on Hydrogen Service.”Dresser-Rand: Painted Post, NY. 1995.

2. General Electric. “Protecting and Managing API-618Reciprocating Compressors.” Document Number178896, Revision NC.

3. Atkins, K.E. Martin Hinchliff, and Bruce McCain. “ADiscussion of the Various Loads Used to RateReciprocating Compressors.” Proceedings of the GasMachinery Conference, 2005.

4. Howard, Brian and John Kitchens. “On-line Accelerationand Cylinder Pressure (PV) Measurements forReciprocating Compressor Diagnostics.” Proceedings ofthe Gas Machinery Conference, 2007.

Appendix — Crank Slider Applied MechanicsGiven the crank slider arrangement shown in figure 1a,

derive the expression for piston/crosshead linear motion asa function of crank angle, the expression for piston/crosshead velocity as a function of crank angle and the ex-pression for piston/crosshead acceleration as a function ofcrank angle.



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From inspection of Figure 1, note that:

And l4 is the crosshead/piston position. Begin by writingthe loop equation for the crank slider:

AccelerationBeginning with displacement, the loop equation for the

crank-slider can be written as:

Differentiating this expression with respect to time givesthe velocity:

Since the stroke is fixed, the derivative of r is zero.Likewise, the connecting rod length is also fixed so that thederivative of l is also zero. Since the crosshead guidesbound the motion of the crosshead, u4 is a constant and itsderivative is also zero. With these simplifications, the veloc-ity expression can be written as:

Differentiating the velocity expression with respect to timeand simplifying results in an expression for acceleration:

Using Euler’s identity to separating into real and imagi-nary parts:

Solving for connecting rod angular acceleration:

Substituting the expression for connecting rod angularacceleration into the real part equation and solving for pis-ton acceleration and simplifying the expression:

Another common form of the equation for accelerationcan be found by rearranging the numerator:

Further simplification of this expression for hand cal-culation can be obtained by observing that, for most rec-iprocating compressors, the radius of stroke divided bythe connecting rod length is usually on the order of 0.2to 0.25. Because of this, the following simplification canbe made:

Which results in the following simplified expression foracceleration of the reciprocating mass:

Rewriting in terms of crankshaft rpm and the reactionforce of the crosshead pin gives:

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CT171.qxp 3/25/09 9:05 AM Page 8

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Transmission AndControl Website

Altra Industrial Motion has de-veloped a new website. Thesite is organized in nine cate-gories, including steam tur-bines, fans and blowers, gasturbines, nuclear powerpumps, wind turbines, tidalpower turbines, inclined con-veyors, cooling towers andconveyors. Equipment for coal-fired and ethanol plants is alsoincluded. For products, photosand features visit www.altraenergyoilandgas.com.


Rubber Gaskets

Topog-E Gasket Co. offers atechnical specification andusage guide for its moldedrubber handhole and man-hole gaskets for steam, hotwater boilers, water heaters,softeners, deaerators, make-up tanks and other pressurevessels. The company alsooffers a pocket slide rule thatcharts steam temperature ver-sus pressure.


Electronic Measure-ment Product Guide

A product guide is availablefrom Noshok, a manufacturerof transmitters, transducers,switches and indicators. Eachproduct is listed with a pic-ture, description, features andspecifications. The guide alsofeatures an environment rat-ings guide and hazardous lo-cation classifications in theback along with a frequentlyasked questions section.


MultijacketTensioners

Superbolt Inc. has brochuresavailable detailing applica-tions of its multijacket tension-ers in gas compression serv-ice. Tensioners provide a safe,fast and cost-effective productfor problems with difficultbolting applications. Thebrochures are available onlineat www.superbolt.com.


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VetcoGray, a GE Oil & Gas business,has signed a four-year frame agree-ment with OGX Petroleo e Gas to sup-ply subsea wellhead systems and cas-ing strings for an exploratory drillingcampaign that could include more than50 wells offshore Brazil. The drillingcampaign has the potential to signifi-cantly increase Brazil’s oil discoveries.

Created in 2007, in response togrowing interest in major oil reservediscoveries off the Brazilian coast,OGX is the country’s largest indepen-dent oil company. OGX has alreadysecured long-term contracts with foursemi-submersible drilling rigs to con-duct a massive four-year offshore ex-ploratory drilling campaign that has apotential for up to 51 wells to bedrilled in several blocks located inSantos, Campos, Espírito Santo andPará-Maranhão basins offshore Brazil.

OGX has the exploration rights in22 offshore high-potential blocks,with 4.8 billion barrels of oil equiva-lent (boe) of total estimated riskedrecoverable resources of oil and nat-ural gas.

The frame agreement with OGX,one of the largest agreementsVetcoGray has ever secured in Brazil,will cover the supply of MS-700 andMS-800 subsea wellhead systems, in-cluding large-bore casing strings, as-sociated rental tools and onshore andoffshore assistance during the entiredrilling campaign.

The order for the initial six wells al-ready has been placed and first deliv-ery is planned for July 2009. The well-heads will be manufactured atVetcoGray’s Jandira Plant located inSão Paulo state, Brazil, and the casingstrings package will be fabricated at

the service center located in Macaé,Rio de Janeiro state.

VetcoGray has been providing sub-sea wellheads and subsea tree sys-tems in Brazil for more than 30 years,with over 1200 subsea wellheads and180 subsea trees produced and in-stalled there.

GE Oil & Gas continues to expandits presence across Latin America’s oiland gas sector, with more than 1000units of gas turbines and compressorsinstalled throughout the region andover 31,068 mi. (50,000 km) of oil, gas,water and refined product pipelinessuccessfully inspected to date. With theacquisition of VetcoGray, the businessnow has key regional offices inArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador,Peru, Mexico and Venezuela, providingcustomers with local manufacturing,sales and services capabilities. n

VETCOGRAY TO SUPPLY EQUIPMENT FOR OGX DRILLINGCAMPAIGN OFFSHORE BRAZIL

Program Could Include up to 51 Wells and Significantly Increase Country’s Discoveries

CT213andProducts.qxp 3/23/09 1:54 PM Page 1

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Measurement AndAlignment Software

Pinpoint Laser Systems has introducedPinpoint Capture software for use with thecompany’s Microgage line of measuringand alignment products. Capture is aWindows-based application for recordingand monitoring measuring and alignmentresults. It’s designed to view readings fromone Microgage display and up to four re-mote receivers on a computer at a time.The data can then be uploaded to otherspreadsheet and statistical packages foranalysis. Pinpoint Capture was pro-grammed with a large screen format witheasy-to-read measuring values and a choiceof plots and graphs to follow measuring re-sults. The Laser Microgage 2-D is a lasertransmitter that projects a compact, focusedlaser bean that is detected by a portable re-ceiver. Measurements can be made over a

range of 180 ft. (54.86 m) with precision ofless than 0.0001 in. (0.000254 cm) in a fac-tory environment, said the company.


Vibration Switch

Metrix now offers Hardy Instruments’HI 5800 vibration switch, along withother Hardy vibration monitoring prod-ucts. The HI 5800 is designed to providemachine protection for rugged workingenvironments — in a compact package. Itis self-contained and can be mounted toany location on rotating or reciprocatingequipment, said Metrix. If excessive vi-bration levels are reached, the unit isequipped to provide alarm or shutdown.All sensing and electric componentsalong with an LED alarm display are en-gineered into a stand-alone switch box,making installation easy, said Metrix. The

switch also incorporates an integral relayto provide operation with both normallyopen and normally closed contacts inrugged installations.


Control Valve Asset ManagerFlowserve Corp., a manufacturer of

flow control products, has launched theFlowserve ValveSight, an asset manage-ment system for integrated control valvesand automated quarter-turn valve pack-ages. ValveSight is designed to predictpotential failure modes and prioritizecondition-based maintenance beforeprocess downtime and to identify criticalissues before they occur.

The diagnostic software captures datafrom the valve, actuator, position and con-trol signal while the process is running, thendisplays the data in a graphical user inter-face. The interface allows the user to trans-late different alarms and data point into at-a-glance color-coded health indicators. Thesystem runs on FDT/DTM and can be con-nected to a host DCS, workstations or anysystem that supports the FDT/DTM format.


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The Algerian government has beenwell aware of the need for develop-ment of water systems in its commu-nities and over the years has imple-mented extensive water supplyprograms. However, the water min-istry of Algeria is now extending wa-ter supply programs into the deepSahara Desert. The establishment ofthe ministry ADE, L’Algérienne desEaux, has launched an ambitious proj-ect, a potable water supply toTamanrasset from In Salah.

Construction of the pipeline is al-ready under way and the project hasbeen given considerable priority inAlgeria. Initially, water from this proj-ect will be supplied to 100,000 inhabi-tants of Tamanrasset, but eventuallyhalf a million inhabitants may get wa-ter from this pipeline.

In the future, the development willinclude enhancing communicationand energy connections, providingcrucial support to agriculture and the

travel industry in the area. The supplysystem starts from the water aquifernorth of In Salah. The groundwater isgathered up from several wells toflow lines, down to the reservoirs ofthe first pump station.

“Wärtsilä is delivering 18 engine-driven pump sets and their ancillaryequipment to the Tamanrasset potablewater supply project in the Sahara,”said Pekka Laine, application man-ager, Oil Pump & Power, PowerPlants, Wärtsilä. “The water supply isa vital part of the development ofTamanrasset and of the whole area inthe Ahaggar Mountains. Huge groundwater reserves have been found inconnection with oil and gas explo-ration — providing new chances andvisions to the host countries.”

The contract received by Wärtsiläcalls for both pump sets and ancillaryequipment to be installed at sixpumping stations, with each stationhaving three pump sets. Each pump

set will include a six-cylinder, Wärtsilä32GD dual-fuel engine, a speed-in-creasing gearbox and a centrifugalpump. For the first few years the en-gines will run on diesel fuel oil. Oncea supply of natural gas becomes avail-able, they will operate in gas mode.Light fuel oil (LFO) will then be usedfor pilot injection and as the backupfuel. The gearbox is a single-stage,parallel-shaft, double-helical gear unitwith a ratio of 2.288. It is manufac-tured by BHS, Germany. It drives thesingle-stage pump, made by Sulzer,Brazil, at a speed of 1716 rpm.

The main contractor for the pipelinepump stations for ADE is the construc-tion company China Petroleum En-gineering and Construction Corp.(CPECC), which is a daughter com-pany of China National PetroleumCorp. The equipment will be deliveredto the pumping stations during the sec-ond half of 2009, and the pipeline willbe fully operational and tested in early

n For the Tamanrassetpump project, a six-cylinder Wärtsilä 32GDdual-fuel engine willdrive each centrifugalpump via a speed-in-creasing gearbox. In-itially, the engines willrun on diesel fuel oil.Once a supply of nat-ural gas becomes avail-able, they will operatein gas mode.


WATER TO MAKE THE SAHARA FLOURISHAlgerian Pipeline Project Designed to Support, Among Other Things, Future Energy Projects

By Bo Svensson

CT216.qxp 3/23/09 10:22 AM Page 1

2011. At the moment, the project implementation is in the in-tensive design stage at Wärtsilä. “The requirement for just2.5 MW [3353 hp] of pumping power was too low for ourportfolio of DF and SG gas engines, but very suitable for the32GD,” said Laine.

Once full daily capacity is reached, two of the engines ineach pumping station will run, with one on standby. In theearly stages, when the volumes being pumped are lower,one engine will run and two will be idle.

Because CPECC wanted the pumping houses to be assmall as possible, the project team borrowed the principlesemployed by Wärtsilä Ship Power for designing machinerooms on vessels. The layout of the pumping units, there-fore, corresponds to the configuration used onboard — re-ducing total pump house volume by 50%.

The pipeline will extend 456 mi. (740 km) from In Salahaquifer at an elevation of 1444 ft. (440 m) to Tamanrasset atthe elevation of 4593 ft. (1400 m) above the sea level. Thewater conduit will be two 31.5 in. (80 cm) parallel pipes,and the total design capacity of the supply system is 3.5MMcfd (100,000 m3/day).

“The reservoir tanks at each pumping station have a vol-ume of 141,260 cu.ft. (4000 m3), which corresponds to justone hour’s supply,” said Laine. “The flow control will beaccording to signals from the water level of the water reser-voir tanks, and by varying the speed of the pumps the cor-rect level will be maintained.”

The project has some challenging aspects. One is that thepumping stations are located in remote areas of the SaharaDesert in very harsh site conditions. The Sahara is huge —covering some 3.47 million sq.mi. (9 million km2), the areaalmost equal to China or Canada, and extending 3728 mi.(6000 km) east to west and 1243 mi. (2000 km) north tosouth. It includes sand, rocks, mountains and more sand. n


n The pipeline will extend 456 mi. (740 km)from In Salah at an elevation of 1444 ft.(440 m) to Tamanrasset at an elevation of4593 ft. (1400 m) above sea level. The wa-ter conduit will consist of two 31.5 in. (80cm) parallel pipes, and the total design ca-pacity of the supply system is 3.5 MMcfd(100,000 m3/day). The supply system startsfrom the water aquifer north of In Salah,where the groundwater is gathered up from several wells, to flow linesdown to the reservoirs of the first pump station (SP1).


CT216.qxp 3/23/09 10:23 AM Page 2



As 2009 unfolds, the realities of theglobal economic slowdown’s effect onthe oil and gas industry in WesternCanada are becoming more pro-found. The Petroleum ServicesAssociation of Canada (PSAC)recently revisited its 2009drilling forecast and arrived at astartling realization — drillingactivity in Western Canada willmost likely be at its lowest pointin 10 years. This year the pre-dicted number of wells drilled inCanada will drop by 21% to13,500 (see Table 1) because oflow commodity prices.Alberta

Alberta, where the bulk ofCanada’s oil and gas is pro-duced, will feel the most im-pact with drilling activity ex-pected to drop by 28.6% to8455 wells — its lowest totalsince 1998. Some industry an-alysts predict that the PSACforecast may be on the highside, particularly in light ofthe 12-month natural gas stripprice currently being aroundUS$5.00 per MMbtu. Somealso forecast that when thewinter heating season windsdown, gas prices could falleven more and furthercurtail drilling. Drillingrigs in Western Canadaare currently operating atabout 50% capacity.

The other bellwetherindicator for oil and gasactivity is land sales. Thesale of conventional oiland gas drilling rights inAlberta is off to its sloweststart since at least 1996(the earliest year AlbertaEnergy has statistics on itswebsite). At a recent landsale, Alberta receivedCAD$8.4 million for anaverage price of $42.59per acre ($105.24 per

hectare) — both record lows.Land sale activity in Alberta isexpected to remain low formost of 2009.

On March 3, 2009, the Gov-ernment of Alberta announceda new three-point incentiveplan to help keep the energysector active while the currenteconomic slowdown contin-ues. The stimulus plan is ex-pected to cost the provinceabout CAD$1.5 billion in roy-alty payments over the life ofthe plan. The three programsare the Drilling RoyaltyCredit, the New Well In-centive Program and theOrphan Well Fund.Drilling Royalty Credit

The Drilling Royalty Creditis a one-year program thatapplies to new conven-tional oil and natural gaswells drilled between April

1, 2009, and March 31, 2010. It pro-vides a CAD$61-per-foot-drilled ($200-per-meter-drilled) royalty credit on asliding scale and uses the company’s2008 level of production as its base.(see Table 2).

The amount of the credit is deter-mined by the depth of the wellsdrilled, with the highest benefit goingto companies with the smallest pro-duction rates in the previous year. Forexample, the total value of availablecredits would be based on a com-pany’s cumulative measured depth ofnew drilling in the fiscal 2009-10 pe-riod. If the company produced an av-erage of 8000 BOE/day in 2008, thenit would receive a credit of up to 50%of the total royalties it owed in 2009-10. The program is intended to maxi-mize the benefits of small to midsizedproducers and free up capital for allproducing companies.New Well Incentive Program

The New Well Incentive Program is

STIMULATING CANADA’S ENERGY SECTORProvincial Governments in Western Canada Announce

Stimulus Programs to Offset Drilling SlowdownBy Neil Purslow


2008 Production Levels Maximum Credit as a Percentage(BOE/day)* of Royalties Owed for Fiscal Year 2009-10

Less than 10,000 50%

10,001 to 15,000 40%

15,001 to 20,000 30%

20,001 to 25,000 20%

Greater than 25,000 10%* BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) is a measurement used by industry that is based on the amount of energy con-tained in a barrel of crude oil.

Table 2. Sliding Scale Table.

Province 2009 2008 Percentage(Wells) (Wells) Change

Alberta 8455 11,844 (28.6%)

British Columbia 905 844 7.2%

Saskatchewan 3805 3986 (4.5%)

Manitoba 250 287 (12.9%)

Other Provinces 85 82 3.7%

Canada 13,500 17,043 (20.8%)2009 revised drilling forecast based on crude oil prices of US$50.00 per barrel and natural gas prices of US$5.50per thousand cubic feet.

Table 1. Wells drilled in 2009 versus 2008.

CT217.qxp 3/23/09 10:27 AM Page 1

a one-year program that offers amaximum royalty rate of 5% for thefirst year of oil and gas productionfrom new conventional wells com-mencing production between April 1,2009, and March 31, 2010. The 5%rate applies to the first 12 months ofproduction, up to a maximum of50,000 bbl for oil and 500 MMscf(14.2 x 106 m3) for natural gas. As anexample, a well commencing pro-duction on Aug. 15, 2009, would beeligible for the reduced royalty ratethrough to Aug. 15, 2010, or until itsproduction cap is reached. The pro-gram is intended to free up cashflow, which will in turn provide pro-ducers with capital to reinvest in theoil and gas industry in Alberta.Orphan Well Fund

When an oil or gas well has noparty legally responsible or financiallyable to handle its abandonment andreclamation, it is called an “orphan.”To encourage the clean-up of inactivewells, an Orphan Well Fund was de-veloped as part of the stimulus plan.The province is providing CAD$30 mil-lion to the Orphan Well Association,whose purpose is to manage aban-donment and reclamation projects fororphaned sites. The Association willfocus on high-priority and very oldsites, and on the final reclamation ofabandoned locations — all of whichpre-date the creation of the OrphanWell Association and the establish-ment of modern industry practicesand regulatory standards regardingwell abandonments. There are esti-mated to be more than 600 sites thatare orphans. The purpose of this fundis to reduce the environmental foot-print of the energy sector by returningwell sites to their former states, whileat the same time keeping the serviceindustry busy.British Columbia

The one bright spot on the drillingscene is British Columbia (BC), wherePSAC forecasts a 7% increase in drillingto a total of 905 wells this year. This islargely the result of shale gas opportu-nities in the province’s northeasternfields, which have attracted numerousproducing companies to the area. Thatattraction was evident in 2008 whenBC raised CAD$2.66 billion in landsales, in contrast to Alberta andSaskatchewan at CAD$937 million andCAD$1.12 billion, respectively. Buteven the hot spots — Montney andHorn River plays — are cooling thesedays because of capital limitations andaccess problems in the areas.

To ensure the province remainscompetitive and drilling activity con-tinues, the BC government an-nounced changes to its Deep Royalty

Program on Feb. 3, 2009. First, it relo-cated the east/west line to reflect up-dated geological, reservoir anddrilling data. The east/west line di-vides the province into two regionsbased on the cost of drilling in eachregion. Wells drilled on the west side(less access to infrastructure andmore complex geology) are awardeda higher royalty credit than wells onthe east side.

Next, the horizontal length factorfor deep horizontal wells was recalcu-lated. The factor determines the al-lowable horizontal well depth that isused to calculate royalty credits. Thefactor was changed to recognize theincreased technical challenges andhigher costs associated with drillinghorizontal wells in BC.

And lastly, well qualification criteriawere changed for horizontal and ver-tical wells. The “top of pay” rule wasreplaced with a “measured depth tothe completion point” concept, whichreduces uncertainty in depth calcula-tions. The new concept measuresdepth along the wellbore from the in-tersection with the completion pointto the kelly bushing used when thewell was drilled.

In addition to the deep royaltychanges, the BC government has im-plemented infrastructure and road-building programs that reflect the chal-lenges of developing high-costresources in remote areas. Royaltybreaks for 2009 total CAD$120 million.Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan, which saw an in-crease in activity with the Bakken oilplay and heavy oil regions in 2008,will see drilling fall by about 5% to3805 wells in 2009. Although these ar-eas remain active, they have recentlycooled somewhat because of lowcommodity prices and infrastructurelimitations. The Saskatchewan govern-ment does not plan to make royaltychanges at this time because it feelsits present structure is well suited fordeveloping energy plays now andinto the future.Conclusion

Prices for oil and gas have crashedby about 70% from record highs in2008. This has led to billions of dollarsin spending cuts by producers, as theytry to match their spending levels withthe dramatic deterioration of cash flow.At this point, low commodity pricesappear to be the main deterrent todrilling, rather than provincial con-straints. The various provincial govern-ments in Western Canada recognizethat the industry is facing a tight-money situation, and it is doing its partby reducing royalty payments to stimu-late activity within its jurisdictions. n

APRIL 2009 37

HOSS Gas Field Compressor.When it comes to gathering, storing,processing, or transporting largevolumes of gas (including CO2),you need the muscle to handle the job.The Dresser-Rand HOSS or “SuperHOS”compressor is big—yet can still be conventionally packaged. It’s engineeredto be strong—for applications up to8,700 horsepower (6,488 kW) at 1,200rpm, and it’s an excellent match with today’s high horsepower gas enginedrivers...not to mention that it can bedelivered fast—leaving others in the dust.

The Americas: (Int’l +1) 713-354-6100ESA: (Int’l +33) 2-35-25-5225Asia-Pacific: (Int’l +60) [email protected]

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The P-51, the first semi-submersible platform built en-tirely in Brazil, went on-stream, beginning the productionof well MLS-99, in the Marlim Sul field in the CamposBasin. Installed at a water depth of 4117 ft. (1255 m) and93 mi. (150 km) off the coast of Macaé, the new unit is ca-pable of producing up to 180,000 barrels of oil per dayand is considered strategic for the maintenance of Brazil’soil self-sufficiency.

The new platform is part of the Brazilian FederalGovernment’s Growth Acceleration Program (GAP) andgenerated 4000 direct and 12,000 indirect jobs during itsconstruction. The total investment made in this productionunit neared US$1 billion. The FSTP (Keepel Fells Technip)consortium, Nuovo Pignone (gas compression module),Rolls-Royce (power generation module), and Nuclep (hull)were in charge of construction.

The P-51 is capable of compressing 211 MMscfd (6 x 106

m3/d) of gas. This production is part of the Natural GasProduction Anticipation Plan (Plangás), created to reduceBrazil’s foreign dependence on this fuel. Its four turbinesare able to generate 100 MW of energy, enough to supply acity of 300,000 inhabitants.

The new unit will be interconnected to 19 wells (10 oiland gas producers and nine water injectors, and to 85pipelines, which together add up to 208 mi. [335 km]).Measuring 410 ft. (125 m) in length, 360 ft. (110 m) wide,and weighing a total of 48,000 tons (43,544 tonnes), the P-51 will lodge up to 200 people.

The platform is one of four expected to enter productionin coming months. The “Cidade de Niteroi” floating produc-tion, storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, will produceat the Marlim Leste field.

In the Espirito Santo Basin, Petrobras expects to installthe FPSO “Cidade de Sao Mateus.” The FPSO “BW Peace”was scheduled to start pilot production at the deepwatersubsalt Tupi field in the Santos Basin in March. n

THE P-51 GOES ON-STREAMIN THE CAMPOS BASIN

The P-51 is Capable of Compressing 211 MMscf (6 x 106 m3) of Gas


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Dynalco has introduced a new SWTseries of speed switches for the moni-toring and protection of rotating andreciprocating machinery. The SWT se-ries of speed switches are DIN railmountable for easy installation and arefully isolated for compatibility with ex-isting systems, the company said.

The SWT-2000, a Two-ChannelSpeed Switch/Transmitter, containstwo isolated speed switches in onepackage. The SWT-2000 is able tomonitor and protect two separate ma-chines or processes simultaneously,with separate 4 to 20 mA proportionaloutputs. It also contains four relay set-points and two open collector outputswith a variety of configuration op-tions. Applications would include dualturbocharger protection and redun-dant protection for critical operations.Programming is done via an Ethernetconnection.

The SWT-1000 Speed Switch/Transmitter has a single relay set-point for overspeed protection andprovides 4 to 20 mA isolated output.This product is configurable viaWindows software.

The SWTD-1000 Speed Switch/Transmitter has the same functionalityas the SWT-1000 and includes an inte-grated backlit display. This product issoftware programmable and utilizes a1/8 DIN package for easy installation.

The SW-100 is a DIN rail mountablespeed switch that uses a single set-point for over/underspeed protection.According to the company, the SW-100 is simple to configure with no testequipment or computer needed.

Dynalco, a Crane company, pro-vides intrinsically safe instruments,sensors, controls and gauges, portableanalyzers, intelligent real-time predic-tive analysis systems, asset manage-ment software and comprehensiveservices for the oil and gas produc-tion, natural gas pipeline, marine,power generation and processing in-dustry. The SWT series enhances thecurrent Dynalco line of speedswitches and transmitters, allowing awide range of solutions for machinemonitoring and protection, the com-pany said. n


NEW SWT SERIES OF SPEED SWITCHES FROM DYNALCO

Designed to Monitor and Protect Rotating and Reciprocating Machinery

n The SWT-1000 Speed Switch/Transmitter has a single relay set-point for overspeed protection andprovides 4 to 20 mA isolated output.

APRIL 2009 39

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The recent economic downturn hashad many far-reaching effects. Onecasualty of the slowdown has beencommodity prices, including crude oiland natural gas, which are now at lev-els that have not been seen in almosta decade. These low prices havecaused a significant decrease in ex-ploration and drilling activity inCanada, with energy companieschoosing instead to concentrate ontheir producing assets. Working withexisting assets has created somebright spots. Stealth Acoustical &Emission Control Inc. (Stealth) ofCalgary, Alberta, Canada, is one.

Stealth designs, manufactures, as-sembles and installs advanced andcomplete noise abatement and emis-sion reduction products on new andexisting equipment and facilities. Thecompany uses the most advanced ma-terials available to create modular de-signs for quick on-site installation. Easeof construction results in minimal orno operational downtime, while pro-viding excellent performance.

Colin Davison, president of Stealth,said that he started the company in2006 with one employee in his base-ment. Stealth’s staff has since grown to65 at the end of 2008. “We attributeour success to delivering excellenttechnical advice and high-quality tech-nology, all of which are used to ensurethe reduction of customers’ noise andemission concerns. We guarantee ourproducts and services — and their out-come — and never leave a site untilthe noise and/or emission levels thatwere promised have been achieved.We plan on growing to 100 employeesby the end of January 2009.”

Stealth’s acoustical products includefan silencers, ventilation packages, ex-haust systems and enclosures/buildingpackages that are used to encapsulatenoise-generating equipment. Acousticalproducts are generally mobile and arereuseable on other applications.Emission control products include cat-alytic silencers and converters, dieselparticulate filters, air-fuel ratio con-trols, oxygen sensors and other equip-

ment components. Davison said thattheir line of emission control productsis one of the most advanced and com-plete in the industry.

A variety of materials are used inthe manufacturing process to createStealth’s products. Carbon steel, coreten, metalized coatings, aluminum orstainless steel, powder coatings andhigh-heat paint are some of the mate-rials used. The type of material andthe configuration of each product de-pend on the requirements of the ap-plication where they will be used.“We have developed a range of stan-dard products that are customized toeach project,” said Davison.

The company employs a dedicatedengineering group that is uniquelyqualified in acoustical and emissiontechnology. Solutions to resolve noiseon a package often require a tremen-dous amount of engineering and prac-tical expertise. If it is not designedright, fixing one item often leads toother problems, said Davison. Stealthcreates designs that minimize or elimi-

WHEN OPERATING EQUIPMENT HAS TO MEET NOISE ABATEMENT AND EMISSION STANDARDS

Stealth Acoustical and Emission Control Provides Expertise and Manufactures High-Quality Products that are Guaranteed to Meet Legislative Requirements

By Neil Purslow

n This is one of three electrical MCC houses being packaged for Suncor’s Stage 3 Firebag Oilsands Mine project located near Fort McMurray,Alberta, Canada. The building contains electronic equipment that will be used to control the power generation equipment located on-site. Thebuilding will be split into four separate components for shipping, and then be reassembled on-site.


CT208.qxp 3/24/09 9:54 AM Page 1

nate critical low-fre-quency and shellnoise, and can beeasily integrated withoperational equip-ment. All productsare manufactured forextended life and areavailable with quicklead times.

A large portion ofStealth’s noise andemission projects in-volve gas compres-sion and power gen-eration. In mostcases, projects beginwith a site-specificanalysis to measurethe current soundand/or emission lev-els. Then the levelsrequired by the clientare determined. Theanalysis may be theo-retical, such as whena new package is being designed; oractual, using existing on-site facilitiesboth before and after the new equip-ment is installed. For example, whenperforming an acoustical study on agas compression package, the radiatednoise from each piece of equipmentmust be measured. From that data,Stealth determines the best way to re-

duce the specific sound frequencies.Depending upon the application, itmay be best to use baffles, or to putthe sound through the walls and haveit travel down to the bottom of theskid and into the ground. The processbecomes more difficult when morethan one equipment item is operatingsimultaneously in a facility.

Most of the analysis re-ports for gas compres-sion packages deter-mine that the exhaustsilencers are too loudand the ventilation sys-tems are inadequate.When Stealth developsa plan for silencing apackage, the companyconsiders a number offactors in the design.For instance, Stealthdesigns ventilation sys-tems in packages tooperate year roundwith the doors andwindows closed. Thisis important because ifcompressor packageshave to operate withtheir doors and win-dows open duringwarm weather,landowners are an-noyed by the noise be-

cause they too have their doors andwindows open.

One area that requires significantengineering is noise abatement forlarge cooling fans. Air movement iscritical, so when designing a silencerto quiet an aerial fan, backpressuremust not be allowed to develop since

n The manufacturing facilities in Calgary, Alberta, are divided into two buildings.Activities that generate airborne particles, such as cutting, welding and grinding, are lo-cated in the first building. In the second building, final assembly of products and skids isperformed. Stealth fabricates complete power generation packages using a variety of on-staff trades, including electricians, welders and sheet metal workers.

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most fans cannot operate with much,if any, backpressure. Along with airmovement, consideration for sounddampening includes such factors asthe type of perforation, thickness ofthe materials, distance between thebaffles and type of insulation. Oftenthe result is very large silencers usingspecial designs and materials. A re-cently completed project included themanufacture of a 25 ft. wide x 40 ft.long x 20 ft. high (7.6 x 12.2 x 6.1 m)silencer containing baffles and perfo-rated liner. The silencer was a singleunit that fit over the cooler and waslifted into place. The air and noise ex-its the top of the unit.

“Producers are beginning to realizethe benefits of putting sound attenua-tion into their packages when they arefabricated,” stated Davison. “A retrofitcosts about 10 times more thanputting the abatement equipment inplace initially. For the same cost as asingle retrofit, producers can install 10quiet packages and drastically reducelandowner concerns about noise. Inmany cases, we install silencing equip-ment that far exceeds current regula-tions. Many believe that since the rulesare continually evolving and gettingtighter all the time, better sound atten-uation now will significantly save highretrofit costs later. As an added bonus,installing sound components duringfabrication eliminates the need to in-stall oversized equipment that runsslower to reduce noise.”

Stealth works with all major gascompression packagers to create stan-

dard and acoustic buildings and prod-ucts that are offered to the packagers’clients. The company’s standard build-ings that do not include acoustics, con-tain design elements that allowacoustics to be inexpensively addedlater if noise issues arise. “We have nointention of entering the fabricationbusiness for gas compression,” saidDavison. “We leave that to the folksthat know how to do that best. We as-sist them by providing expertise andhigh-quality acoustic technology thatworks well on their packages — it’swhat we know best.”

In power generation, activitiesrange from designing, manufacturingand installing sound attenuation andemission control equipment to fabri-cating complete power generationpackages. Approximately 35% of thecompany’s work activity for powergeneration is for prime power and65% is for standby. Packages can in-clude walk-in, skin-tight or drop-overenclosures that are acoustic or non-acoustic, and contain internal UL/ULCfuel tanks. All packages and retrofitwork meet exacting quality standards.

The company stated that the exper-tise they have developed with gascompression and power generationbenefits each other. For power gener-ation, Stealth designs packages thatare useable and maintainable by oper-ators and maintenance staff becauseof what they learned from gas com-pression packages. And for gas com-pression, sound attenuation conceptsand materials, such as using higher

gauges of steel that are typical inpower generation units, have beenemployed to create very quiet com-pressor packages.

Power generation packages are fab-ricated for various types of facilities,including hospitals, schools, airportsand telecommunication data centers.Since many are placed in highly pop-ulated areas, noise requirements arevery stringent. In one instance, astandby power generation unit for adata center was only allowed to pro-duce 60 dBA at 7 ft. (2.1 m). Thecompleted unit was placed on theroof of a high-rise office building in amajor city. For existing standby units,drop-over enclosures with or withoutacoustics are often provided.

“Oilfield facilities are a growingmarket for power generation,” saidDennis Seitz, U.S. operations man-ager for Stealth. “Our Denver[Colorado, U.S.A.] operation is cur-rently seeing significant growth indemand for prime power units inColorado, Utah, New Mexico andWyoming.” The company manufac-tures single power generation skidsup to multiple units in a singlebuilding. Buildings range from skin-tight, to 20 x 40 ft. (6.1 x 12.2 m)walk-around skidded enclosures, torigid-frame buildings that house fouror more 2000 hp (1490 kW) engine/generator combinations.

Engineering services also includeassisting clients in analyzing facilitiesand developing proper sound andemission recommendations. Specificresolutions may include replacing theexhaust silencer, eliminating air flowrestrictions or adjusting the speed ofthe fan. A report is prepared detailingthe specific outcomes that will beachieved if the recommendations arefollowed. For large projects, changesare often staged with the results re-viewed at the completion of eachstage. All results outlined in the reportare guaranteed by Stealth.

For some applications, packagedesign, faulty equipment or poorfoundations may be the cause of vi-bration — not low-frequency noise.When this occurs, Stealth worksclosely with the client to analyze thepackage to arrive at an optimum so-lution. On one particular coalbedmethane (CBM) project, it was deter-mined that the skid on the packagehad been designed and built withtoo much vibration in it. To solvethe problem, a very rigid secondskid was built and the existing skidwas mounted onto the new skid us-ing vibration isolators. Since then,solving vibration in small horse-power gas compression and power


n This sea-can container willhouse power generationequipment when it is fin-ished. The container will bedeployed in the Caspian Sea.

CT208.qxp 3/23/09 12:01 PM Page 3

generation skids used in CBM hasbecome somewhat of a niche marketfor Stealth, said Davison.

Stealth also assembles electrical sys-tems. These systems can includeportable buildings, which containelectronic and electrical componentsused to control plant equipment andfacilities. In one key project, Stealthwas contracted by Siemens andSuncor to package three electricalMCC houses for Suncor’s Stage 3Firebag Oilsands Mine project locatednear Fort McMurray, Alberta. Becauseof the size of the houses, they mustbe split into four separate compo-nents for shipment to northernAlberta, and then be reassembled on-site. In addition, Stealth providedheat, lights, platforms and steps for allthe houses.

Stealth also supplies a variety ofother products, such as roof-mountedhoods and vents, power generationunits built in sea-can containers, andindividualized engine enclosures. Inone plant where an acoustic buildinghad not been installed, a sound enclo-sure was installed around the com-pressor inside the building. Re-quirements for the enclosure includedmaintaining air movement and provid-ing adequate access for operating andmaintaining the equipment. The com-pany has also created soundproof

rooms in noisy plants. It is sometimeseasier and less expensive to sound-proof an existing control room in a fa-cility than silence the equipment.

Stealth currently has three manufac-turing plants that fabricate the com-pany’s products. The main facility, lo-cated in Calgary, has 42,000 sq.ft.(3900 m2) of office and shop space.The Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,plant has 6000 sq.ft. (560 m2) and theDenver plant has 32,000 sq.ft. (2975m2). Each facility contains the neces-sary overhead lifting capacity and ac-cess doors to accommodate the fabri-cation of most packages. The Denversite also provides complete engineer-ing services and on-site administrationfor its clients.

An internally developed QC pro-gram is rigorously followed in all ar-eas of the company, with each powergeneration unit undergoing a thor-ough physical evaluation for noise be-fore shipment. Noise levels must beproven before a unit is allowed toleave the yard. Since a large numberof the power generation units are soldto Caterpillar, Cummins, Siemens andWaterous for resale to their customers,Stealth endeavors to ensure units areas close to perfect as possible. Thesame quality concepts are applied toall products manufactured by Stealth,including gas compression.

Researching new materials andprocesses to improve sound attenua-tion and emission control is an ongo-ing process at Stealth. For instancewith sound, Stealth is continuallyevaluating different baffles and mate-rials; employing a variety of metalsand thicknesses in walls; using differ-ent combinations of metals, vinyl andinsulation; and trying a range of sizesand shapes of perforation holes.Positive results are filed for future usewhen subsequent and unusual proj-ects require new ideas.

“Our sales continue to grow inNorth America, as well as internation-ally with recent shipments to Russia,Peru and other South American loca-tions,” said Davison. “But a portion ofour growth must be attributed to thenew regulations regarding acousticand emission control. These standardsare continually being refined and arebecoming more stringent, especiallyas equipment is located closer topeople. The interesting thing aboutthe standards is that they are inde-pendent of commodity prices forcrude oil and natural gas. If existingequipment is to continue to operate,it must meet the new standards.Achieving this is keeping us verybusy 12 months a year.” n



CT208.qxp 3/23/09 12:01 PM Page 4



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Offshore Challenge

Visit www.compressortech2.com for answers.


BUSINESS GLOBALARITYAgentAgreementBarriersBill of LadingBorderBRICCECertificationCommerceCommunicationConcessionConsulContractCoordinateCourtesyCSACustomsDeclarationDestinationDevelopmentDiplomacyDocumentationDutyEmigrateEuropean UnionExchange RateExportFair TradeFeeFlexibilityForwarderFreightGeopolitics

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AprilPuzzle.qxp 3/24/09 8:47 AM Page 1


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Donaldson Co.Donaldson Co. has recognized Phillip

Johnson, director, Liquid Filtration, newbusiness development, for his work on“Fuel Filtration Reality Check,” a studythat predicts by 2010 diesel injection sys-tems will require much higher efficiencyfiltration and will need to be significantlycleaner than the technology today.Johnson presented his study at the 9th

International Filtration Conference hostedby Southwest Research Institute and wasawarded the Peter Herman Award foroutstanding technical presentation.

CECO Pipeline Services David G. Nolan has been named to

the business development team at CECOPipeline Services. Nolan will work withcustomers in project management, safetysupervision and refining policies and pro-cedures. He has more than 32 years’ ex-perience in the industry, most recently atTruckline Gas Co., where he worked inproject management, estimating and bud-get. For his new role, he will be basednear Alexandria, Louisiana, U.S.A.

JAG flocomponents JAG flocomponents USA Inc. has

added Rick Doughten as product man-ager and John Stuart as operationsmanager. Doughten, with more than 30years of experience, will provide tech-nical support to the sales team in addi-tion to working with customer auditteams for the company’s quality assur-ance programs. Stuart, in his new role,will work to enhance sales processesand inventory management followingmore than 20 years of experience withvalve companies.

Cook CompressionSteve Newton has joined Cook

Compression as regional manager forthe Middle East. He will be based inBahrain. Newton graduated in 1976from West Wythenshawe TechnicalCollege, where he obtained hisONC/HNC in Mechanical Engineering.He worked for Ingersoll-Rand/Dresser-Rand in the U.K. and France for over 25years, including six years in the MiddleEast as area sales manager. During hiscareer, Newton has served in after-market sales, quality control, machinetools, f ield service, business de-velopment and product services.

GE Oil & GasGE Oil & Gas has moved into its new

office building in Houston, Texas, U.S.A.The new GE Oil & Gas building is thefirst site to house all GE Oil & Gas busi-nesses at one location, since the acquisi-tion of PII Pipeline Solutions in 2002,

VetcoGray in 2007 and Hydril PressureControl in 2008. The move signifies a sig-nificant step in GE Oil & Gas’ commit-ment to long-term growth in the oil andgas industry.

Almost 500 employees from sales, en-gineering, commercial operations andother supporting functions have co-located to the new office building. Thisregional headquarters will support allsegments of the oil and gas industry –from drilling and completion to produc-

tion, LNG, pipeline, refining and petro-chemicals. In addition to the new officebuilding, GE Oil & Gas also has threemanufacturing plants and two servicecenters in the Houston area. In total, GEOil & Gas employs more than 2000 peo-ple in the Houston area.

Building facilities include an audito-rium, training and meeting rooms, caféand a TelePresence room that uses thelatest technology to enable virtual meet-ings around the globe.


Industry News COMPRESSORTechTwo

®


IndustryNewss045.qxp 3/24/09 8:52 AM Page 1


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DCP Midstream has five FairbanksMorse MEP 6G engines at theirGiddings Gas Plant in LaGrange,Texas, U.S.A. They were acquired in2000 and were in use until 2005, buthad been idle until, in 2008, DCP des-ignated the first of these power plantsfor use in a dual-purpose separablepackage powering a four-throw, two-stage Ingersoll Rand reciprocatingcompressor, providing both inlet andresidue service.

Originally manufactured as dieselsubmarine engines in the 1940s or’50s, the natural gas-fueled, spark-ignited engines were converted fromFairbanks Morse naturally aspiratedmodel 38 D 8 1/8 opposed piston,two-cycle engines with an output of1350 hp (1.01 MW) at 900 rpm. Theircylinder bore is 8.125 in. (20.6 cm),with a 10 in. (25.4 cm) stroke.

The Ingersoll Rand compressors arefour-throw, two-stage units, with two9.5 in. (24.1 cm) cylinders for the firststage and two 6 in. (15.2 cm) cylin-ders for the second stage. Stroke is5.5 in. (14 cm) and rated 1000 rpm. Inthis application, compressor suction is235 psi (16.2 bar) for residue serviceand 295 psi (20.3 bar) for inlet servicewith discharge typically around 950psi (65.5 bar).

At the time, DCP was operating twoturbines with a combined throughputcapacity of 100 MMcfd (2.83 x 106

m3/d) of natural gas. That capabilityexceeded demand, so DCP decided touse the MEP in conjunction with oneof the turbines. The turbine/MEPcombination can provide throughputof 62 MMcfd (1.76 x 106 m3/d) and re-sults in increased efficiency. It also al-lows for a significant reduction in fuelgas. Finally, shutting down one of theturbines cut turbine maintenance costsin half.

The lean-burn, two-cycle MEP en-gines have a reputation of being noto-riously difficult to start, run and main-tain, largely because they useold-style pneumatic controls and in-corporate various potentially trouble-some components such as O-rings,sending pistons and volume pots.

Tony Henny, branch manager forIgnition Systems and Controls (ISC),Katy, Texas, U.S.A., proposed a customelectronic control solution using whatamounted to “off-the-shelf” compo-nents manufactured by Altronic Inc. ofGirard, Ohio, U.S.A. His plan would al-low the engine to be controlled with-out the need for a dedicated PLC andthe costly programming inherent to it.

Included in the first-of-its-kind pack-

age from ISC are an Altronic CPU-95Advanced Digital Ignition System, anAltronic GOV10 Gas Engine Governor,an Altronic EPC-200 Engine Perform-ance Controller, an Altronic DE-3000Configurable Safety Shutdown andControl System, and the AltronicEZRail Modular Ignition Rail System.The engine was already equipped withan Altronic ETS Digital TemperatureScanner, which remained in place.

The MEP refit project was under-taken as a collaborative effort betweenISC and DCP. DCP relied heavily on theexpertise of Henny to directly programthe DE-3000 and coordinate it with theother controls and the mechanical ex-perience of their own team, which in-cluded Donnie Wesneski, equipmentanalyst/mechanical support, DCPAustin Gathering, and Bobby Jarrett,maintenance supervisor, DCP Mid-stream Central Texas Asset, to imple-ment the rebuild. Eventually, 75% of allpneumatic tubing will be replaced,along with most of the high-mainte-nance mechanical components, includ-ing the original governor and linkage.

According to Wesneski, a local MEPexpert was openly skeptical of theplanned approach. In that expert’sopinion, the Altronic control packagewould not be able to start — let alone

CUSTOM CONTROL INSTALLATION FOR GAS PLANTISC and Altronic Develop Entire System for DCP Midstream

Using “Off-the-Shelf” Components

n DCP Midstream has five FairbanksMorse MEP-6G engines at its Giddingsfacility in Fayette County, Texas, U.S.A.


CT221.qxp 3/24/09 11:46 AM Page 1

run — the cantankerous engine. In the end, however, allsuch doubts were erased when the old engine sprang to lifewithout hesitation at the touch of a button on the DE-3000.That same expert now admits that the MEP runs as well as itpossibly can. Emissions control, provided by the AltronicEPC-200, was well below permit level on the initial start-up.When the engine was restarted in a cold weather test atabout freezing, it again responded immediately.

According to Altronic, the DE-3000 Configurable SafetyShutdown and Control System utilizes advanced microcon-trollers and surface-mount PCB assembly technology toprovide a sophisticated, yet reliable, means of protectingand controlling both the MEP and the compressor. The DE-3000 offers a number of digital and analog outputs, as wellas 60 inputs that can be individually configured for usewith switch contacts, thermocouples or analog transducers.The company explained that a single DE-3000 can controlall of DCP’s MEP units, thus simplifying maintenance andpart stocking requirements, as well as system training re-quirements for operating personnel. USB-based connectivityto the device and a Windows-based terminal program forsystem configuration eliminated the need for any knowl-edge of ladder logic or other functional programming lan-guages. ModBus-RTU communications are fully supportedfor remote monitoring and/or control applications.

The Altronic CPU-95 Digital Ignition System is 24 Vdcpowered and microprocessor based. It includes a full-featured user display and interface, spark characteristic con-trol, advanced timing adjustment options, serial communica-tions and diagnostics. Operating data and control functional-ity are available through a user-friendly display module orvia a PC. The CPU-95 displays rpm, timing angle, spark en-ergy level and diagnostic messages, along with global andindividual cylinder timing adjustments, spark energy levelcontrol, overspeed setpoint and double strike/extendedspark (VariSpark variant) selectability.

Altronic also indicated that the Enhanced Display Modulealso features extensive spark reference number graphing andtrending. Patented CPU-95 diagnostics and prognostics (pre-dictive diagnostics) supervise all ignition system-related func-tions. The secondary analysis capabilities detect shorted sparkplugs and leads, as well as spark plugs that exhibit high volt-age demand or are not firing at all. A display of the relativevoltage demand of each spark plug is provided, allowingspark plug changes to be predicted and scheduled. Moduleand pickup operation, timing input and primary output func-tions are also monitored for operation within preset limits.

Using its standard Terminal Program and the EnhancedCPU-95 Display Module, Altronic said that DCP has the added


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n This idle MEP-6G engine was pneumatically controlled at the begin-ning of the project described in this article.

CT221.qxp 3/24/09 11:47 AM Page 2


flexibility and convenience associatedwith a USB-based connection to thesystem for programming. Ignition oper-ating parameters (firing code, numberof monitored gear teeth, 4 to 20 mA orrpm control loop, for example) can bedownloaded from the connectedIgnition Module and retained in theEnhanced Display Module. Should theIgnition Module ever require replace-ment, the Enhanced Display Modulecan simply upload the correct ignitionoperating parameters into the new unitwithout need for a laptop, the TerminalProgram or the services of an instru-mentation technician.

The Altronic GOV10 is both a fuel

valve and electronic governor inte-grated into a single unit for enginesup to approximately 3500 hp (2.6MW). The GOV completely eliminateshydraulic governors, actuators andlinkages, and Altronic said it signifi-cantly improves starting performanceand speed stability. The GOV can alsobe ordered with a fuel flow measure-ment option utilizing a built-in orificemeter and built-in pressure, differen-tial pressure and temperature sensors.Utilizing fuel flow and fuel flow/revo-lution values, maximum engine horse-power and maximum engine torquelimits can be applied for improvedengine/compressor safety. Altronic

credited a sophisticated engine start-up and governing algorithm that isresident in the GOV10 for its ability tooperate as a stand-alone replacementgovernor. All control parameter, timerand setpoint configuration is accom-plished through the GOV DisplayModule. The complete governor sys-tem consists of the GOV10, a speed-sensing magnetic pickup and theDisplay Module, a small computer-based terminal that serves as a displayand configuration device.

The Altronic EPC-200C EnginePerformance Controller used in the re-fit strategy is designed to maximizeengine performance and efficiency,according to the company. Micro-processor based, the EPC electroni-cally controls ignition timing andair/fuel ratio and replaces the pneu-matic control system traditionally usedfor these functions. Engine rpm, plusup to four other analog inputs, can beused as control variables. Typically,these would include fuel manifoldpressure, air manifold pressure and airmanifold temperature.

In addition to the two analog con-trol functions (ignition timing andair/fuel ratio), the EPC-200C also hassix user-programmable solid-state re-lay outputs related to common start-up


n Taken during the retro-fit, this photographshows the MEP-6G andan array of Altronic elec-tronic components inplace. When finished,more than 75% of theoriginal pneumatic tubingwill have been removed.

CT221.qxp 3/24/09 11:47 AM Page 3



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sequencing functions such as purge,overcrank, crank disconnect andflooding. A seventh discrete outputprovides a signal in the event of over-speed, overload or loss of any input. Ifthis occurs, timing and air/fuel ratioare set to preset values. In addition,there is a manual override mode to al-low changing and checking of pro-gram data while the engine is running.The EPC-200C has an RS422 interfacefor communications capability withother process or control computers.

The ETS Electronic TemperatureScanner from Altronic is a micro-

processor-based product that displaysand processes monitored temperaturesto protect the engine. Up to 40 pointscan be monitored and divided into asmany as 14 different groups and sevenoutputs. For each group, there is achoice of protection from any combi-nation of absolute high limit, absolutelow limit and differential. All setpointtemperatures, output logic and lockouttimes are user-entered from thesealed-membrane keyboard. The de-vice can be used to monitor tempera-tures from more than one engine, andRS422 capability allows data and alarmstatus to be communicated to othercomputers. The display’s capability in-cludes the monitored temperature ofeach point, automatic scan of allpoints or of a selected output and av-erage temperature for each group.There is also a fault display featurewith a first-out fault display channeland a channel showing the fault statusof all seven outputs simultaneously.Regardless of the display mode, scan-ning of all points continues.

Finally, Altronic’s EZRail ModularIgnition Rail System is a CSA-certified,complete wiring/mounting systemfrom the ignition unit to the ignitioncoils that the company said eliminateshours of wire and conduit cutting in

the field and eliminates skinned insula-tion due to long conduit pulls. Theuniversal design of the EZRail takesadvantage of standard cables, wiringrails and integral/flange or off-mountedcoils (shielded or unshielded). Bolt-oncoil mounting rails provide a robustand reliable means of mounting igni-tion coils without compromising theintegrity of the wiring rail or the abil-ity of the rail to be serviced if neces-sary. The EZRail System is flexibleand can be upgraded if coil types arechanged. Altronic pointed out thatEZRail features high-quality aluminumextrusions, sealed junction boxes, andmilitary-style connectors and har-nesses, and that all connector backshells are potted and strain relieved.

The installation also uses standardAltronic ignition components includ-ing the primary and secondary cablesand leads. The EZRail system can beeasily disconnected, removed and re-installed if necessary.

Given the success of this project,DCP has indicated it is seriously con-sidering similar retrofits to one ormore of the four remaining MEPs atGiddings, as well as talking to ISCabout other units in East Texas. ■




■ All components are accessible in the newAltronic Controls panel. Here, a technicianinspects the lockout tag.

CT221.qxp 3/24/09 11:48 AM Page 4


http://toromontsystems.com


Lubrication is the lifeblood of mostmachinery, without which the machinewill most likely come to a “grinding,”expensive and unscheduled halt.Repair costs can be very high, andcosts of downtime and loss of produc-tion can often far outweigh those justto repair the equipment. Additionalconsequences of over-lubrication, bothfinancial and environmental, com-pound the importance of proper ma-chinery lubrication.

Environmental consequences caninclude fugitive emissions into the at-mosphere as well as improper dis-posal of excess oil. Additional finan-cial costs include the cost of wastedoil (which can amount to several thou-sand dollars per year) as well as re-moval of excessive oil from naturalgas and associated processing systems,and the proper disposal of that oil.

Sloan Brothers Co. (SBCO) hasmade lubrication systems the lifebloodof its company by specializing exclu-sively on critical machinery lubricationsystems, particularly for engines andcompressors, for its entire 86 years ofexistence. Walter Sloan, president ofSBCO and a member of the third gen-eration of Sloans to operate the busi-ness, explained that numerous oppor-tunities for diversification into otherfields have occurred over the years.

He said, however, that “SBCO’s deci-sion to maintain a narrow focus onmachinery lubrication has been drivenby a desire to provide customers witha level of lubrication system knowl-edge and experience that is second tonone in the industry.”

The original Sloan brothers (Ralph,Paul and Walter) founded the companyin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in1922. Sloan Brothers at that time wasstrictly a lubrication system sales com-pany, selling systems that were manu-factured by others. Walter explainedthat over the years, and for a variety ofcompelling reasons related to productavailability and quality, SBCO evolvedinto a manufacturer of complete lubri-cation systems and components. Thismetamorphosis from only sales tomanufacturing as well as sales andservice, began in 1975 under the lead-ership of the second generation ofSloans (John and Margaret), withWalter manufacturing their first lubrica-tion systems in a basement workshop.

Since that initial basement work-shop the company has found it neces-sary to double its shop space aboutevery eight years, said Matt McCarthy,sales manager for SBCO. After sevendifferent locations in 85 years, SBCOmoved to its current facility, which isa modern 20,000 sq.ft. (1858 m2) in-

dustrial building in Freeport, Pen-nsylvania, (about 25 mi. [40 km]northeast of Pittsburgh). Walter ex-plained that this move has providedthe floor space necessary to accom-modate CNC machine tools (such as anew four-axis horizontal machiningcenter) and other machinery andequipment used in the high-precisionmanufacture of its products.

These machines were selectedspecifically for manufacturing the mostcritical component of any pressurizedlubrication system — the dividerblock. Walter further explained that“making the high-precision, high-pres-sure, low-volume divider block and itscomponents from the ground up haslaid the groundwork for the legacy ofthe fourth generation of SloanBrothers. C.J., Eric and Brian (Walter’ssons) have quite convincingly begunto contribute to the family business.

“C.J., already active in the businessfor a number of years, is the inventorof the patent-pending Sloan Brothers’visual cycle indicator and also hasbeen the driving force behind SloanBrothers’ venture into the manufactur-ing of divider blocks.” Eric and Brianhave more recently joined the com-pany — Eric in manufacturing andBrian in sales and customer service.

Matt and Walter said that divider

n Walter Sloan, president of SBCO (left), is shown in the lobby of the company’s new building (right photo) — which is located in Freeport,Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 25 mi. (40 km) northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — pointing out his grandfather who co-founded the company in1922. The family photograph was taken in 1912.


SBCO CELEBRATES 86-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH MOVE TO NEW FACILITY

Sloan Brothers Co. (SBCO) Continues to Focus on Machinery Lubrication as it Expands Further into Lubrication System Manufacturing

By Richard P. Schook

CT218.qxp 3/23/09 10:26 AM Page 1

blocks are all about moving oil through a maze of internalports by pistons designed to cycle precisely. Between threeand nine blocks are assembled on what is called a baseplate. The sideways motion of the piston uncovers one in-ternal port at a time, allowing oil to move through theblocks. As each piston completes its cycle the next block’scycle begins, until each piston in each block on the platehas completed one back-and-forth cycle. The end result isthat a very accurate amount of fluid is delivered to eachoutlet port. They further explained that Sloan Brothers’ di-vider blocks are available in a variety of displacementsranging from the SB-6T for 0.006 cu.in./cycle per outlet (0.1ml) to the SB-30S that displaces 0.06 cu.in. (0.98 ml) per cy-cle. For comparison, 0.006 cu.in. is roughly equivalent tothree drops of oil.

Lubricating both the power and compressor cylinders on a10-cylinder integral engine/compressor may require accurateoil delivery to hundreds of points for 200 gal. (757 L) totaldelivery per day, whereas a small plant air compressor mayhave only two lubricating points that need less than 1 pint(16 oz.) a day. Micro lube systems may use under 2 pints(33.3 oz.) per month. Divider cycle times can range from oneper second to one in 15 minutes. These varied critical appli-cations require a precision-manufactured divider. To furtherunderstand what a workhorse of a component the dividerblock needs to be, Eric Sloan, shop manager for SBCO, said

APRIL 2009 51

n An SBCO technician is shown assembling a lubrication panel in oneof the company’s fabrication shops in its new building (top). The bot-tom photo pictures SBCO’s new four-axis horizontal machining center,which adds the precision manufacturing capabilities required to man-ufacture close tolerance divider block assemblies.


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that when manufacturing blocks, veryclose internal tolerances are critical forachieving optimal operation. Whenproviding minimal lubrication to com-pressor cylinders with high internalpressures, the blocks — as well asother system components — must becapable of operating at up to 7500 psi(51,700 kPa).

Meeting these possible extreme con-ditions explains why precision-milledsurfaces, tight connection tolerancesand the reproducibility of fine pistonfits is so important in order to achieveproper, uninterrupted, reliable opera-tion over millions of cycles anddecades of service. Walter said, “Itstands to reason that a dependable au-tomatic lubrication system would needto be automatically monitored, and theoptions vary from simple indicatorsand switches to dedicated stand-alonePLC-based monitors.” He further ex-plained that there are visual indicatorsto show divider cycles, fault indicatorsto show over-pressure, proximityswitches to connect to a control oralarm system and monitors that displayactual delivery rates. The SloanBrothers’ lubrication system monitor,the Wizard, can display the actual oilflow rate in up to four lubricationzones (power cylinders, compressorcylinders, multiple compressor stages,etc.). It tracks and displays the totalvolume of oil delivered in pints perday. In case of a lubrication fault, theWizard will generate an alarm or signala safety shutdown to prevent damageto the equipment to which oil is beingsupplied. Other components of thecomplete lubrication system, whichSloan Brothers provides under theWatchman System name, are the lubri-cator boxes and pumps, check valves,filters and associated accessories.

Sloan Brothers typically providescomplete lubrication systems customengineered for each application, butmany configurations are either skidmounted or panel mounted. TheWatchman skid-mounted lubricationsystem is completely self-containedand ready to run, and includes a drivemotor, oil tank, pumps, dividerblocks, monitor, etc. It is designed tobe physically installed and easily con-nected through tubing to the lubrica-tion points in a short time once on-site. Sloan Brothers strives to shipskid-mounted Watchman Systemswithin two days of ordering.

The other common configuration oflubrication system is the Watchmanpanel, which is more typically usedon larger on-compressor applicationswith machine-driven pumps and ex-ternal oil supplies. In this arrange-ment the panel typically is mounted


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Ricardo Bartsch, North and Central America Managing Director:

“Global presence means:We are there.Global service means:We are there for you.”

n A Watchman free-standingskid-mounted lubrication sys-tem is pictured here installedon a Clark integral compressor,which is in service for Cinergy.


CT218.qxp 3/23/09 10:27 AM Page 3

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to the side or end of an engine. Oncemounted it can be connected throughtubing with the other system compo-nents, from crankcase supply with fil-ters, to secondary divider blocks andterminal check valves for a totally in-tegrated system that is neat, clean andeasy to inspect and service.

Matt McCarthy, who has been withSloan Brothers for 18 years, identifiedthe typical Watchman system market.“In natural gas and CNG, it is at everycompression stage from wellheadthrough transmission to storage anddistribution. Also refinery and chemicalgas compression, manufacturing plantair, cement bulk handling, vapor recov-ery — if there is gas moving, it is likelymoved by a compressor that we lubri-cate. There are other applications notrelated to gas — from food mixers, at-omizers and kilns, to pulverizers anddrilling equipment. Automatic Lubrica-tion even includes a potato peeler.”

He said that over the long history ofthe company, an exhaustive databasehas been developed that holds designdetails for every application. “Chancesare, when a customer calls with an ap-plication, we already have the details.We may have done one like it 5, 15 or30 years ago.” He further pointed outthat “each one can be slightly different,so attention to those details is critical.”

Walter and Matt both said that “thecompany is constantly mindful of thefact that the machines being lubri-cated by their systems are perform-ing extremely critical operations inprocesses where machine downtimecannot be tolerated. Because of thiscriticality, we strive to ship systemspare parts and components thesame day they are ordered, and todeliver (and install if logistically pos-sible) complete lubrication systemsas soon after the order as possible.”

They also said that they serve bothoriginal equipment manufacturers andend users not only in the United Statesbut also throughout the world. Walterlamented lightheartedly that sometimeshe feels that “our systems don’t needto be maintained or replaced nearly of-ten enough. One customer called lastweek, stating that he’s never had aproblem with the system we installedin 1972 and admitted that he shouldprobably get a quote on a completenew system.” He said, “This is whatbuilds customer loyalty — properly de-signed lubrication systems from peoplewith experience — systems that workright and seldom need help. And, in afew decades when they do, SloanBrothers plans to still be providing thebest service available.” n



n A Watchman engine-mounted lubrication panel ispictured here mounted on theside of a Clark BA-8 integralengine/compressor in naturalgas pipeline compressor serv-ice for Michigan Gas.


CT218.qxp 3/25/09 9:14 AM Page 4



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A diesel hydrotreater (DHDT) wascommissioned in the Mathura Refineryin 2005 to produce Euro 2, Euro 3and Euro 4 diesel fuel (for blending

with diesel from other units to finallysupply Euro 2 and Euro 3 diesel tothe market) until April 2010. The re-finery will supply Euro 3 and Euro 4diesel (no Euro 2) after April 2010 on-

ward, according to recommendationsof the Indian Government’s task forceon auto-fuel policy.

The hydrotreater is operated at highpressure (reaction section pressure is

OPTIMIZING POWER LOAD ON HYDROGEN MAKEUP COMPRESSORAnalytical Formula Determines Hydrogen Consumption

By Devesh Kumar Agrawal and Ashis Kumar Dhar

n Figure 1. The hydrogen makeup compressorwas manufactured by Mitsui Engineering &Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan (MITSUI). Thecompressor is a double-acting, four-cylinder,two-stage horizontal, balanced, reciprocatingmachine, Type C454 rated at 333 rpm with water-cooled cylinder jackets. Stage 1, cylinder boreand stroke are (450 x 350 mm), while stage twobore and stroke are (310 x 310 mm). Each cylin-der is equipped with two loader valves for a totalof eight valves. The first-stage suction and dis-charge pressures are 285.7 psi (19.7 bar) and690.4 psi (47.6 bar), while the second-stage dis-charge pressure is 1535.9 psi (106 bar).


Devesh Kumar Agrawal is a productionengineer in Mathura Refinery of IndianOil Corp. Ltd. He is actively involved inprocess monitoring, troubleshooting andfield operations of a diesel hydrotreatingunit (DHDT). His job profile also includesupdating operation manuals, preparingguidelines and day-to-day instructionsfor operators. He holds a Bachelor ofTechnology (B.Tech.) degree in chemicalengineering from Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Kanpur, India.Ashis Kumar Dhar is a production man-ager and has been associated with theIndian Oil Corp. Ltd. for 27 years. He hasworked on different refinery units includ-ing atmospheric and vacuum distillationunit, FCC unit, hydrocracker unit, dieselhydrotreating unit. He also has performedvarious assignments in the commissioningof hydrocracker unit (licensor: Chevron,U.S.A.) and a diesel hydrotreating unit (li-censor: Axens, France). He actively partic-ipated with Shell Global Solutions for anIntegrated Refinery Business ImprovementProgram. He obtained BS degree inChemistry with honors and, at present, heis in charge of DHDS and DHDT units ofthe Mathura Refinery.

Comparision of online & calculated values

of hydrogen consumption

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

1/7/2008

3/7/2008

5/7/2008

7/7/2008

9/7/2008

11/7/2008

13/7/2008

15/7/2008

17/7/2008

19/7/2008

21/7/2008

23/7/2008

25/7/2008

27/7/2008

29/7/2008

31/7/2008

Date

Hyd

rog

en

Co

nsu

mp

tio

n

H2 Consp. (Online)

H2 Consp. (Calculated)

n Plot 1: Comparison of online and calculated values of hydrogen consumption (kg/h), CN=53.

CT212.qxp 3/25/09 9:18 AM Page 1

1477.81 psi [101,891 mbar]), which fa-cilitates aromatics saturation resultingin the enhancement of cetane number(CN). The quality of diesel is repres-ented by its cetane number and thepart per million (ppm) of sulphur pre-sent. The objective is to improve thequality of diesel products to reduceSO2 emission to the atmosphere fromrunning vehicles and to improve en-gine performance.

The quality improvement is achievedby hydro-treatment of the diesel fuel(mainly hydro-desulphurization andaromatics, olefins saturation), which in-curs additional cost to the refineries.This additional cost mainly includeshydrogen, HP, MP, LP streams, amine,water, fuel gas, chemicals and electric-ity consumption.

In the present work: 1. Mathe-matical formula for the calculation ofhydrogen consumption is presented,which is used to optimize power loadon the hydrogen makeup compressor(MUC) designed for 6035 hp (4.5MW); 2. Strategies are also discussedto reduce power load on the hydro-gen makeup compressor.

Details of the DHDT MakeupCompressor

The DHDT unit has makeup com-pressor step control at zero, 25, 50, 75and 100% load only to maintain the re-action section pressure by supplyinghydrogen from the header. The com-pressor is operated at 50 and 100%loads only for the purpose of maintain-ing reaction section pressure (not oper-ated on 25 and 75% for load balanc-ing). The electricity consumption at100% loading of the compressor withmaximum feed rate (225 tons/h) is5365 hp [4 MW (not 4.5 MW)] becausespill back remains open around ~16%.The key point in running the MUC at50 or 100% load is the amount of hy-drogen consumption in the hydro-treat-ing reactions. The consumption of hy-drogen mainly depends upon thepercent of sulphur, olefins and aromat-ics present in the feed — mixture ofdiesel and total cycle oil (TCO) —which is a cracked product from a fluidcatalytic cracking (FCC) unit to thetreating unit. The hydrogen consump-tion is less per ton of diesel processedcompared to per ton of TCO processedin the unit. Therefore, hydrogen con-sumption will vary with the amount ofTCO mixed in the diesel even if thefeed rate of the unit is fixed.

Formula for Calculating theHydrogen Consumption

From the actual average hydrogenconsumption with different combina-tions of feed rate, TCO processing rate

and cetane number, a formula was de-veloped for optimizing hydrogen con-sumption and MUC power load.

Hydrogen consumption (HC) = aW1 (feed rate) + bW2 (TCO) +c(Cetane number - 53) …… (Formula 1)

W1(feed rate): is the amount of feedrate processed in the unit in tons/h.

W2(TCO): is the amount of TCOprocessed in the unit in tons/h and a,b are constants and c is the function ofcetane number. For different values ofcetane numbers, “a” and “b” will be

constants and “c” will vary to compen-sate for increase and decrease in hy-drogen consumption because of cetanenumber. The value of coefficient “c”can be calculated from the actual aver-age hydrogen consumption data.

a = C1, b = C2 and c= f(Cetanenumber)

HC is in kg/h

Cetane number mentioned in theformula covers the severity of the


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system. Cetane number can be ob-tained from formula.1

So, HC = C1W1(feed rate) + C2W2(TCO)+ f(CN)(CN - 53)…….(Formula 2)

Where, constant “C1,” “C2” and thevariable “f” can be obtained by keep-ing two variables constant and vary-ing the other one. The coefficient “C1”can be found by keeping W2 and CNconstant, and varying W1. Similarly C2and f can be found. We have calcu-lated C1, C2, f for cetane number 53.

For CN = 53, HC = C1*W1(feed rate) + C2*W2(TCO) +

0 …(Formula 3)Where, C1 =11.5 and C2=13.5 was

obtained by solving Formula 3 bykeeping W2(TCO) constant and varyingW1(feed rate) and vice versa.

HC=11.5W1(feed rate)+13.5W2(TCO)……(Formula 4)

Formula 4 infers that hydrogen con-sumption increases by 18.1 lb./h (13.5kg/h) for each ton/h increase in TCOprocessing rate at constant feed rate. TheFormula 4 is used in calculating hydro-gen consumption for different combina-tions of feed rate and TCO (for CN=53),which helps in deciding the compressorload, i.e., 50 or 100%. Similarly, hydro-gen consumption equations can be de-veloped for other cetane numbers.

The online and calculated values ofhydrogen consumption for differentcombinations of feed rate and TCOprocessed in the unit (for July 2008)are plotted in plot 1.

Optimizing Power Load onMakeup Compressor

The strategies with the help of aboveformula are developed to optimize theelectricity consumption in the MUCwhile processing the desired feed rate.

The different combinations of feedrate and TCO can be obtained basedon hydrogen consumption (fromFormula 4), which can be processedwhile running the unit on 50% MUCload. At 50% MUC load, maximummakeup hydrogen flow is ~5512 lb./h(~2500 kg/h). Based on CN and feedrate (W1(feed rate)), as decided by plan-ning and coordination (P&C) and oilmovement and storage (OM&S) de-partment, TCO processing rate(W2(TCO)) was adjusted accordingly asfound by the Formula 4. The remain-ing amount of TCO was stored in theOM&S tanks and TCO tank level wasallowed to build up. For example: forprocessing the unit on 180 tons/h offeed rate, <25 tons/h of TCO can beprocessed at 50% MUC load and re-maining TCO (~30 tons/h) was storedin the OM&S tank.

While on maximum feed rate, i.e.,225 tons/h (as per demand from mar-keting), TCO processing rate wasmaximized (as permitted by design)and TCO tank level (which earlierwas allowed to build up) was broughtdown on 100% MUC load. In thisway, because of this strategy, we arerunning our unit on 50% MUC loadaround 15 days in a month, which re-sults in huge saving in the operatingcost for the company.

We found that running MUC at50% load consumes ~2 MW of elec-tricity and at 100% load, ~3.5 to 4MW, depending upon spill backopening. Therefore, on running theunit on 50% MUC load results in 1.5to 2 MW saving of electricity, whichon calculation comes out to be ~2lacks rupees (~US$4000 at 4 rupeesper kWh) per day. So, even if theMUC runs on 50% load for 15 days amonth, it will result in the saving of~30 lacks rupees (US$60,000) permonth on a recurring basis. Annually,it will be ~3.6 chores rupees orUS$720,000. n

Reference: 1. Dhar, A. K. “Improve calculating

cetane numbers. “ HydrocarbonProcessing, vol. 87, no. 10, October2008, p. 117.


ACI Services, Inc. ......................................................................43

AXH air-coolers..........................................................................28

Air-X-Changers ............................................................................9

Altronic, Inc. .................................................................................1

ARIEL.........................................................................................15

BRM, Brush Research Manufacturing Co., Inc. ...........................8

*Burckhardt Compression AG................................................21, 27

CECO, Compressor Engineering Corp. .....................................53

*CPI, Compressor Products International....................................17

Cameron’s Compression Systems Group.............................32-33

*Cook Compression ......................................................Third Cover

*Dresser-Rand Company.......................................................37, 39

ECG, Ellwood Crankshaft Group ...............................................11

EMIT Technologies, Inc. ..........................................Second Cover

Energy Exposition ......................................................................62

Exline, Inc. .................................................................................38

FLSmidth Inc..............................................................................19

GCIC ..........................................................................................29

*GE Oil & Gas................................................................................5

Gaumer Process ........................................................................41

Generon IGS..............................................................................26

*HOERBIGER Kompressortechnik Holding GmbH ................30-31

In The News ...............................................................................62

LCEC, Louisiana Chemical Equip. Co., LP ................................38

LMF, Leobersdorfer Maschinenfabrik AG.....................................7

*MAN TURBO AG........................................................................23

Masters Synthetic Oil Solutions .................................................45

MOTORTECH GmbH.................................................................59

Multi-Wing ..................................................................................13

Murphy, FW ..............................................................Fourth Cover

*Neuman & Esser Group .............................................................25

Petro-Canada.............................................................................55

Platts Midstream Development & Management Conference........61

SGA, Southern Gas Association................................................63

Safety Seal Piston Ring Company.............................................35

Stewart & Stevenson..................................................................47

Synthetic Oil Solutions, LLC ......................................................45

*Tech Transfer, Inc..........................................................................2

Testo, Inc....................................................................................51

Toromont Energy Systems.........................................................49

WEG Electric Corp.....................................................................52

Wesco Valve & Manufacturing Company ...................................35

Company Name Page Number Company Name Page Number

* Further information on this company’s products can be foundin the 2008 Edition of the Global Sourcing Guide and 2009 Compression Technology Sourcing Supplement.

Advertisers’ Index

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ticipate voluntarily and represent Harris County’s (Texas)best interest in terms of producing quality graduates tosupply the industry.

Adjunct faculty are part-time instructors responsiblefor teaching courses related to their education or indus-try. Adjunct faculty support full-time faculty to teachcourses hosted at non-conventional times (nights andweekends), or for courses that are unique to industry.Adjunct faculty require a minimum of an associate’sdegree and three years of industry experience. Someexceptions can be made.

The Lone Star College System is the former NorthHarris Montgomery Community College District. TheLone Star College System consists of six main collegesand seven satellite campuses throughout its 1400-square-mile district. Lone Star College-CyFair was built in 2003as a response to the needs of the growing residential andindustrial communities of northwest Harris County.

For more information contact Christopher Newton,Professor - Industrial Maintenance Technology.Phone: 281-290-3281 E-mail: [email protected]: CyFair.LoneStar.edu/advtech

The Industrial Maintenance Technology Program ofLone Star College-CyFair (Cypress, Texas, U.S.A.) is seek-ing equipment and educational materials to use as instruc-tional aids. Any type of equipment, new or used, will begreatly appreciated – small pumps, hydraulic cylinders andcomponents, seals, bearings, gearboxes, compressors,engines, rigging equipment, hand tools, etc. Educationalmaterials include photos, drawings, digital images, posters,video, and literature – anything students can utilize to gaina well rounded view of today’s technology.

The program is also seeking advisory committee mem-bers and adjunct faculty. The advisory committee meets afew times throughout the year to discuss and review thecurriculum and industry needs. Committee members par-

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The U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) said it is proposing na-tional emission standards for haz-ardous air pollutants for stationaryreciprocating internal combustion en-gines that are not already covered byearlier EPA regulations.

The newly announced regulationwould set emission limits for for-maldehyde, benzene, acrolein andother air toxics from certain stationarydiesel and gas-fired engines. EPA saidthe plan is expected to be fully imple-mented by 2013.

The schedule for completing thisregulation is part of a consent de-cree with Environmental Defense,which required the EPA administra-tor to complete a proposed rule byFeb. 25, 2009, and a final rule byFeb. 10, 2010.

EPA’s announcement said that in2008, over 1 million of these enginesgenerated electricity, powered equip-ment and operated during emergen-cies at industrial, agricultural andother facilities. The proposed limitswould apply to engines located atsmaller sources of air toxics.

Specifically, EPA said these enginesare used at facilities such as powerplants, chemical and manufacturingplants to generate electricity andpower pumps and compressors, aswell as applications to produce elec-tricity and pump water for flood andfire control in emergencies.

EPA said this rule would apply toengines that are smaller or equal to500 hp (327 kW) that were manufac-tured, or remanufactured, before June12, 2006. It also covers engines largerthan or equal to 500 hp (327 kW) thatwere manufactured or remanufacturedbefore Dec. 19, 2002, at major sourcesof air toxics.

The EPA definition of major sourcesof air toxics are operations that emit 10tons per year of a single air toxic or 25tons per year of a mixture of air toxics.

EPA said that owners or operatorsof existing engines would be requiredto install emissions control equipmentthat would limit air toxics emissionsby up to 90%, perform emissions teststo demonstrate engine performanceand compliance with rule require-ments, and burn ultra-low sulfurdiesel fuel in non-emergency engineswith a site rating greater than 300 hp(223 kW).

To meet the proposed emissions re-quirements, owners and operators ofthe engines covered in the regulationwould need to install aftertreatmentcontrols, such as filters or catalysts, toengine exhaust systems, EPA said.

This proposed EPA rule focuses ontwo options for aftertreatment controlof emissions from existing diesel en-gines. One option is oxidation cata-lysts, a technology that EPA said canachieve up to 90% air toxics reduc-tions from diesel engines but can onlyreduce fine particle pollution byabout 25 to 30%. Oxidation catalystsalso provide negligible reductions ofblack carbon soot, EPA said.

Also in EPA’s plans are catalyzeddiesel particulate filters that can re-duce air toxics and fine particle emis-sions from diesel engines. This tech-nology is very effective in reducingdiesel black carbon soot at over 90%,EPA said.

The agency also said it expects thatowners or operators of existing rich-burn engines, burning natural gas,gasoline or other fuels, would install anonselective catalytic reduction deviceto meet the proposed limits on airtoxics emissions. n

EPA PROPOSES NEW EMISSIONS REGS FOR STATIONARY DIESEL,

GAS ENGINES Plan is Expected to be Fully Implemented by 2013


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Black powder generally consists ofvarious forms of iron sulfide or ironoxide, and is included with the otherunwanted constituents such as water,liquid hydrocarbons and sand in nat-ural gas and fluid transmission deliv-ery systems. The ferrous contaminate,ranging from 10 microns to sub-mi-cron sizes (finer than talcum powder),is created by the internal erosion/cor-rosion of the carbon steel used inpipelines, storage reservoirs and oper-ating equipment. It is found in bothdry and wet gas. Under dry condi-tions, it is a very fine black or brownpowder, and under wet conditions itappears as a tar-like substance.

“Black powder causes many opera-tional problems,” said Roger Simon-son, president of One Eye IndustriesInc. (OEI) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.“It negatively affects operating equip-ment and impairs pipeline perform-ance. It also has a detrimental effecton the quality of the product passingthrough the line. Many individuals be-lieve that since new product is deliv-ered in a closed pipeline, it is contam-inant free. This is not the case.Products delivered by carbon steelsystems always contain ferrous mater-ial caused by internal erosion.”

Black powder occurs in all pipe-lines around the world, with somelines experiencing severe problemsand others not. From data collected, itappears that shorter lines that arecloser to final distribution systems(versus close to gas gathering net-works) are less likely to experiencemajor problems. Simonson stated thatone other important factor is the qual-ity of the carbon steel. Poor qualitysteel tends to produce larger quanti-ties of ferrous particulate.

“High-speed flow in a pipeline picksup metal contaminants, which then actlike sandpaper to create more ferrousparticulate,” said Simonson. “We haveseen situations where there is so muchblack powder in a line that traditionalfilters become clogged, pipeline flow isseverely reduced, meters and burnerorifices become plugged and inopera-tive, and compressors and natural gas-fueled engines shut down. The bestway to avoid these problems and ex-tend the life of pipelines and equip-ment is to remove the black powderbefore it reaches metering stations,processing plants and city gates. Ourmagnetic separation systems are de-signed to do that.”

To remove the fine black powder

from a high-velocity flowing pipelinerequired that OEI design a magneticseparator with the strength to extractand hold sub-micron ferrous contami-nants from the product flow. Usingthe patented OEI design, a new 2 in.(49 mm) diameter separator rod wascreated. It delivers holding power inexcess of 600 lb. (272 kg) of metalper 12 in. (305 mm) of rod.

The design also allows for the sepa-ration and collection of nonferrouscontamination because of static adhe-sion. When product flows through apipeline, static electricity is created,which is attached to the contaminatedferrous and nonferrous materials inthe flow. This causes the contami-nants to join together, which allowsthe nonferrous materials to be ex-tracted and held in place along withthe ferrous contaminants as they passby the magnetic separator.

The separator was placed in anewly designed cone strainer and to-gether they were sent to the CentroDe Tecnolga Em Dutos in Brazil. Thisfacility performs equipment and pro-cessing tests for pipelines, andplanned to evaluate the filtration ca-pability of the new separator rod incapturing pipeline erosion. The sepa-


n (Left) Black powder is a ferrous contaminate that is created by the internal ero-sion/corrosion of carbon steel pipelines and operating equipment. Under dry condi-tions, it is a very fine black or brown powder that ranges from 10 microns to sub-mi-cron size. It must be handled carefully because it can be absorbed through pores intothe body by simply touching it. (Below) The Mechanical Cleaned Magnetic Separatorsystem has been designed to separate black powder from high-velocity processflows in pipelines that are 6 in. (150 mm) in diameter and up. A mechanical cleaningstation is located between the two separation housings, with the piping designed forcontinuous flow during separator cleaning.

BLACK POWDER REMOVALOne Eye Industries Addresses a Growing Concern in Pipeline

and Processing Industries with Magnetic Separator SystemsBy Neil Purslow

CT222.qxp 3/24/09 10:14 AM Page 1

Register by April 17, 2009 and SAVE $300!

Midstream Development & ManagementEnvironment and Outlook for Gathering and Processing — Supply/Demand, Margins, Project Development, and Financing

May 21–22, 2009 • Hilton Americas • Houston, Texas

Registration Code: PC928CTAD

For more information and speakingopportunities, contact:Cynthia Rugg, tel: [email protected]

For sponsorship opportunities,contact:Joshua Vernon, tel: [email protected]

For media inquiries, contact: Gina Herlihy, tel: [email protected]

Industry Leaders from:

Provide In-depth Information for Effective Forward Strategies:• Upstream supply outlook, downstream demand, and pipeline development and constraints • Oil & gas prices, processing margins, and mitigating market risk • Investment issues, project development prospects, and financing strategies• Plus Case Study of Regency’s Haynesville expansion

For a complete agenda or to register and SAVE $300, please visit us online at www.events.platts.comor call us at 866-355-2930 (toll-free in the US) or 781-430-2100 (direct).

Blue Phoenix MidstreamCaiman EnergyCarrizo Oil & GasCDM MAXCenterPoint EnergyCrestwood Midstream PartnersDominion TransmissionEnCana USA

Koch Supply & TradingRange Resources CorporationRegency Energy PartnersTristream EnergyWilliams MidstreamBENTEK EnergyMercator EnergyNGP Midstream and Resources

Petral WorldwideQuantum Energy PartnersRoyal Bank of ScotlandTudor Pickering Holt & Co.UBS Investment BankWindShift Capital Corp.Wood Mackenzie

rator rod and cone strainer were in-stalled in a 14 in. (356 mm) x 1000 ft.(305 m) test loop that had been previ-ously cleaned to remove all metalcontamination. Exactly 2.2 lb. (1 kg)of black powder originating from an-other pipeline was added to the testmedium, and the medium waspumped through the loop at a rate of31,700 gph (120 m3/h). After aboutnine hours of circulation, the mag-netic separator was removed. Theblack powder captured by the separa-tor exceeded the test amount placedin the loop.

“With the new magnetic separatorand cone strainer proven effective forremoving black powder in smaller ap-plications,” continued Robert Albee,sales manager for OEI, “a design forlarger pipelines was started. We devel-oped the Mechanical CleanedMagnetic Separator system to answerthe need for high contamination lev-els in pipelines that are 6 in. [150 mm]and up.” The system uses a duplexdesign for continuous operation —while one separation unit is operat-ing, the other can be cleaned. A me-chanical cleaning station is positionedbetween the two magnetic separationhousings, along with an overheadcrane and an operator walkway.

For a 12 in. (31 mm) pipeline, eachmagnetic separator housing containsnine 4 ft. (1.2 m) long by 2 in. (49

mm) diameter magnetic separators.When it is time to clean a unit, theoverhead crane lifts the separators outof their main housing and placesthem in the cleaning station. Onceclean, the separators are returned tothe main housing ready to be usedagain. During the cleaning process,technicians experience minimal expo-sure to the magnetic fields of the sep-arators and trapped contamination.The contaminants are safely containedin a removable mineral bag for safetransportation to a recycling facility.

Simonson said that the separationsystem is designed for an operating lifeof 10+ years, with minimal operatingcosts and no filter elements to replace.Other advantages include continuouspipeline operation, no flow restrictionand, most importantly, a significant re-duction in black powder. By placingmagnetic separation systems before re-fineries, chemical plants, and residen-tial and industrial distribution systems,downstream processes operate moreefficiently and equipment life can beextended, he explained.

The 2 in. (49 mm) rods have alsobeen used in other filtration productsmanufactured by OEI. Those productsinclude basket strainers; and Y, single




n The 2 in. (49 mm) diameter separator rodwas placed in a newly designed conestrainer, and was sent to the Centro DeTecnolga Em Dutos in Brazil for testing. Thisfacility performs equipment and processingtests for pipelines. The unit was installed in a14 in. (356 mm) x 1000 ft. (305 m) test loop toevaluate its filtration capability in capturingpipeline erosion.

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and dual scrubbers. (For more information on these andother OEI products, see COMPRESSORTechTwo, June 2007.)

OEI recently tripled the size of its production facility inCalgary. The production area is divided into four distinctsections — one each for machining, assembly, product stor-age and research and development. Expansion intoAustralia in the first quarter of 2009 will include a produc-tion facility, with plans to set up facilities in Brazil and Italylater this year.

“The problem with black powder and ferrous metal con-tamination (corrosion slag) in pipelines and equipment isbecoming more serious and costly,” said Simonson. “We areseeing increased metal particulate in pipeline systems be-cause of poor quality pipe being installed, as well as fromthe maturing of existing pipeline systems. Industry is be-coming more aware of the issue and its detrimental effectson their equipment and products.” n





n Exactly 2.2 lb. (1 kg) of black powder that originated from anotherpipeline was added to the test medium, which was then pumpedthrough the loop at a rate of 31,700 gph (120 m3/hr). After nine hours ofcirculation, the magnetic separator was removed. The black powdercaptured by the separator exceeded the test amount placed in the loop.

n This magnetic sep-arator rod removedferrous contaminationfrom diesel fuel as itwas pumped from anon-site storage tankto its final destination.The metal comes fromthe carbon steel com-ponents used in themanufacturing proc-ess, the delivery sys-tem and the storagetank and pumps.

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http://www.energyexposition.com

http://www.inthenewsonline.com

OFFSHORE GAS OPERATIONS CONFERENCE & EXHIBIT

June 17-19, 2009

Moody Gardens Hotel – Galveston TXwww.southerngas.org

Motor And Load ProtectionEaton has announced the first product

from its Intelligent Power ControlSolutions Family. The Motor Insight is de-signed to offer solid-state motor protec-tion, control and advanced monitoringcapabilities in a single device for thepetrochemical, mining, water and waste-water industries. With configurable line,load and motor protection, with groundfault detection, power voltage and cur-rent monitoring and flexible communica-tions, users are able to configure the typeand level of protection required for var-ied applications.

Motor Insight was designed with anIP20 rated terminal block, a user interfacewith an LED display and easy-to-under-stand settings. Options include a remotedisplay and multiple communicationsadapters. It’s available with 240, 480 to600 V, a full load amperes range of 1 to540 Amps, and two output relays.


Oil Reclamation FiltrationQuality Filtration, a designer and

manufacturer of custom-engineered fil-tration products for industrial and hy-

draulic applications, has introducedQMedia. QMedia was designed specifi-cally for oil reclamation systems. It wasdeveloped with high-flow capacity andthe ability to hold more dirt and cleansystems more quickly. Quality Filtration

said QMedia is able to hold 30% moredirt and has proven effective at 1 mi-cron media. It’s engineered for use in18, 36 and 39 in. (45.72, 91.44 and 99.06cm) elements specific to the oil reclama-tion in generation plants, pulp and pa-per mills, mining operations and the oiland gas industry.


Gas Compression ModulePerformance Program

Emerson Process Management has re-leased the version 2.02 of its CopelandScroll gas compression module perform-ance program. The program is designedto project the performance of all produc-tion-released Copeland Scroll modules,proving users a forecast of performancecharacteristics and requirements beforethey purchase and install. The programis Excel based, making downloading,updating and saving data easier. Userscan input specific gravity and compress-ibility factors or enter individual con-stituents using the gas-property calcula-tion page.




Products COMPRESSORTechTwo

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n Burckhardt Compression (US)Inc. has signed an agreement to ac-quire all shares of Selltech — Com-pressor Pumps & Engine Products Inc.in Valencia, California, U.S.A. The pur-chase does not include Selltech’s usedequipment business, which will becontinued in a new company by theformer owner of Selltech.

Selltech was founded in 1996 and hasbeen servicing the oil and gas industryever since its inception, providing cus-tomer service including reconditioningof cylinders, valves, pistons, rods, pack-ing cases and complete compressors.

“Selltech’s capabilities and tradition[of service to] customers is a perfect fitfor Burckhardt Compression. It alsogives us the opportunity to build upour compressor component and serv-ice business and reach new customerson the West Coast,” said RudyBuschauer, president of BurckhardtCompression (US) Inc.

n Hoerbiger has signed a definitiveagreement to acquire 100% ownershipof Tritech Compression Inc., SpruceGrove, Alberta, Canada. Since March2, 2009, the oil field equipment supplyand maintenance service company hasoperated as a business division ofHoerbiger (Canada) Ltd., Mississauga,Ontario, Canada, within Hoerbiger’sService Division.

Tritech Compression Inc. serves cus-tomers primarily in the Northern Albertaregion, and employs roughly 100.Tritech’s Alberta operations are locatedin Spruce Grove, Edson and GrandPrairie, from which they provide servicefor natural gas and oil field equipmentoperators with field and shop servicesand parts supply for compressors andgas engines. According to Hoerbiger,Tritech is known for its extensive inven-tory of swing engines, which help itscustomers profit from short overhaulturnaround times. The possibility of

testing overhauled engines up to 2000hp (1490 kW) on its in-house enginetest rig is an additional strength,Hoerbiger indicated.

“It remains a key strategic objectivefor Hoerbiger Compression Tech-nology to continuously proceed withthe growth course of the HoerbigerService Division. Acquiring TritechCompression — in conjunction withthe recent acquisition of Altronic Inc.— is a significant step in completingHoerbiger’s service offering for endusers of compressors and gas en-gines,” said Franz Ottitsch, presidentof the Hoerbiger Service Division.

Hoerbiger’s stated intention is totransform itself from a valve servicecompany to a leading maintenanceservices provider for rotating equip-ment, including compressors, enginesand turbines in North America. “Theacquisition of Tritech brings new peo-ple, skills and access to new marketsto Hoerbiger,” said Franz Ottitsch.“This gives us the opportunity to dra-matically strengthen Hoerbiger’s engi-neering, maintenance and service ac-tivities in Western Canada.”

n JAG flocomponents LP has es-tablished a valve distribution facilityin the major Mediterranean trans-shipment logistic center in Malta. Thefacility will serve valve customers inthe oil and gas sectors in Europe,Central Asia and Africa. Salvo Grima(Freeport Operations) Ltd. is theMaltese logistics partner for the newoperation. The Salvo Grima Groupwas founded in the mid-19th centuryas a ship supplies company and issaid to be one of the longest-estab-lished organizations in the MalteseIslands, with maritime, commercialand international ties.

Denis Taschuk, president of JAG flo-components said, “JAG is excitedabout setting up this operation in Malta

because it is strategically located in thecenter of the Mediterranean Sea, nearmajor shipping lanes. Malta is approxi-mately 90 km [56 mi.] from Italy and300 km [186 mi.] from North Africa.With excellent port facilities, solid in-frastructure, an educated work force, afavorable tax regime and EU member-ship, Malta represents a location that isideal for servicing our customers inEurope and North Africa.”

JAG flocomponents’ headquartersand first distribution center inEdmonton, Alberta, Canada, was es-tablished in 2001. Its U.S. distributioncenter, located in Houston, Texas,was opened in 2006 to support theoil and gas midstream, upstream andproduction markets. Inventoriedproduct includes 0.25 to 36 in. (6.35to 914.4 mm) ASME Class 150-2500#trunnion and floating ball valves, 2 to24 in. (50.8 to 609.6 mm) checkvalves in all pressure classes and endconfigurations, thru-conduit gates,pigging and mud valves. While theinitial focus was on API 6D quarter-turn valves, JAG’s international ex-pansion includes API 6A, 600 and 603multi-turn valves.

n Cook Compression has beennamed an authorized distributor ofOEM replacement parts for Ariel gascompressors. The arrangement en-ables Cook Compression to purchaseand resell genuine Ariel parts and toutilize them for all maintenance andrepair services in its own shops.

“This development enhances ourability to deliver a full range of qualityrepair services for Ariel compressors,”said Don York, president of CookCompression. “As an authorized Arieldistributor, we offer customers withAriel machines not only the highestquality service and technical support,but also replacement parts that are fullycompliant with Ariel warranties.” n

For up-to-the-minute news on developments in the gas compression world, turn to the COMPRESSORTechTwo Home Page at WWW.COMPRESSORTECH2.COM

About the Business


BURCKHARDT COMPRESSION … SELLTECH … COOK COMPRESSION … ARIEL … HOERBIGER …

TRITECH … JAG FLOWCOMPONENTSEdited By Phil Burnside

CT224.qxp 3/24/09 1:20 PM Page 1

http://WWW.COMPRESSORTECH2.COM

Engineered emissions solutionswww.cookcompression.com

Authorized Arielreplacement parts

distributor

With compressor emissions, a partialsolution is really no solution at all.That’s why Cook Compression offers acomplete range of technical supportand engineered products to satisfyyour emissions goals.

Your answer may include:

• Buffered and purged unloaders and packing cases

• HSR leak-preventing valve restraints

• RTV gas-sealing wiper rings

• Seal-enhancing rod coatings

• Cook Clean purged packing cases

• Patented Seal Assist System secondarycontainment

• Static-Pac® shutdown seals

• Emissions control panel systems

… plus much more

Whether you’re aiming at a specific VOC target or looking to reduce fugitiveemissions within an acceptable range –we have everything you need.

Clear AnswersCompressor Emissions Solutions


Cook.qxp 3/11/09 1:29 PM Page 1


http://www.cookcompression.com

At Quicksilver, if there’s an opportunity to save money, we’ll do it. We’re always looking for ways to save on fuel usage and cost. Murphy Power Ignition controls increased our engines’ efficiency and paid for themselves within a few months.”

“When some of our compressor controls needed an update, we decided to put new MPI controllers instead of rebuilding the old magneto systems. We installed MPI-16 controllers on our 12 and 16 cylinder engines.”

“We track fuel usage closely, and within days the fuel savings was clear. We save an average 7 MCF [thousandcubic feet] of fuel per day. At an average price of $6 per MCF, we are saving $42 per unit per day. That’s anannual total of $15,330 on each unit.”

“It wasn’t a hard decision. MPI has more accurate timing, longer spark plug life and true secondary diagnostics.We’re saving a lot of money with MPI.

BEEN THERE.SOLVED THATTM

.

FW MurphyCorporate Offices, Tulsa, Oklahoma - +1 918 317 4100 Control Systems & Services Division, Rosenberg, TX - +1 281 633 4500e-mail [email protected]

Randy Reiman II Emissions Tech, Quicksilver Resources

“WE INSTALLED MPI AND SAVED$15,330 ON EACH UNIT PER YEAR.”

“

”0710162


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