World's First Modular Seal-Less Compressor for Corrosive Gas Applications

Presented at Joint GPA Europe / GPA GCC Annual Conference held in Athens, 21 - 23 September 2016 by
Eyad M. Al Khateeb and Marcel Buse (Authors: Eyad M. Al Khateeb and Ibrahim S. BuBshait, Saudi Aramco & M.P. Buse and M. van Aarsen, Siemens
Abstract:
Hermetically sealed integrated high-speed motor-compressors offer considerable advantages to gas processing applications. Examples of benefits to gas processors include wide operating flexibility 80% reduction in instrumentation over 50% reduction in installed space and for modular design easy fitting/commissioning & relocation. Some designs can even handle wet or dirty gases. When hermetically sealed designs eliminate Dry Gas Seals and lubricated bearings along with their supporting auxiliary systems their operational reliability & safety are boosted from the elimination of the highest source of unscheduled shutdowns. However this means that the entire integrated motor- compressor rotor and magnetic bearings would be exposed to the compressed process gas. This has been done before and is not a challenge for sweet non-corrosive processed gases. When the challenge to the Saudi Aramco team was to provide a modular minimum-utility easily relocatable compression solution that can handle corrosive gases with a very wide variation in gas Molecular Weight flow and pressure it was obvious that the hermetically sealed design needs to be advanced and extended to handle sour gases. The outcome was the World's 1 St Modular Seal-Less Compressor designed for Wet Corrosive Gas Applications. This is arguably the most advanced compressor installed and running in the world. Several major challenges were overcome including the suitability of all wetted components to sour and corrosive gases special design of magnetic bearings cooling process gas and vulnerability of the electrical insulation system. This paper discusses how proven designs were taken through a leap to the next step in compressor development that can handle any gas application. Components were subjected to a series of compatibility tests and the entire package then was put through an extensive test program including emergency landings on the auxiliary bearing system and full- pressure full-load testing to ASME PlC-b 0 Type-1 testing standards at the OEM's facility in Hengelo The Netherlands. Upon successful completion of testing the unit was shipped and commissioned at the site gas compression facilities in Saudi Arabia and started operation in June of 2015. The paper covers the design concept of the 'canned' hermetically sealed technology and how it was advanced to dynamically handle a wet corrosive gas application with huge variations in Molecular Weight (from 26 to 44) and a varying 2000-12000 m3/hr flow range.