21st century reciprocating compressors

for downstream applications

Greg Phillippi Ariel Corporation

T
echnology, like time, marches on. Think nology. Over time the rotating and average
about the advancements in technology that piston speed increased as the sealing technology
have taken place in the last 50 years. for piston rod packing and piston rings
Advancements have taken us from punch cards improved. For example, very early piston rod
to medical computers that can be swallowed. packing was called a stuffing box because it
Telecommunication has gone from rotary dial to was a cylindrical cavity surrounding the piston
cell phones. Most advancements led to smaller, rod filled (stuffed) with coiled rope to create a
less expensive means to do the same thing. It seal. This stuffing box was derived from steam
begs the question, why do some industry stand- engine technology. Over time the packing
ards and the people who write them, refuse to became much more sophisticated developing
acknowledge proven technologies that are as into the segmented packing ring sets made of
reliable but less expensive than those used 50 various metallic and non-metallic materials so
years ago? Take the reciprocating compressor common today.
industry as an example. There is end-user interest to increase rotating
For nearly 100 years reciprocating compres- and piston speed because increases in both lead
sors used in downstream oil and gas industry to reduced capital cost. Increases in rotating and
(process) applications have utilised long strokes piston speed reduce the physical size of the
and low rotating speeds. Virtually all have been machine resulting in less mass and therefore less
block mounted and equipped with compressor cost. Today, the vast majority of downstream
cylinder liners and provision for cooling process reciprocating compressors are driven by
supported since 1964 by American Petroleum electric motors, which have their cost decrease
Institute Standard 618 Reciprocating as their rotating speed increases. So an increase
Compressors for Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas in rotating speed decreases the cost of both of
Industry Services. the compressor and the driver.
Today alternate designs are available offering
the industry equal reliability at lower capital Block Mount versus Packaged
cost. Several manufacturers offer designs with The physical size of the typical long stroke (305
shorter strokes, in the 76 to 229 mm (3 to 9 to 508 mm, 12 to 20 inch) low speed (250 to
inch) range, with rotating speeds varying from 500 rpm) compressor, as shown in Figures 1 and
600 to 1000 rpm. These modern designs are 2, lends itself to being stick-built at site (block
packaged into complete compression system mounted) rather than packaged into a module in
modules contributing to reduced capital cost a fabrication facility. Most of the reciprocating
through reduced installation time and therefore compressors that exist today in refineries and
cost. Many of these modern designs omit liners petrochemical facilities are block mounted
and provision for cooling as required by API meaning bare compressors are built in a factory,
Standard 618 further reducing cost. shipped to the installation site assembled or
Very early reciprocating compressors had disassembled (depending on size and shipping
strokes in the range of 914 mm (36 inch) or restrictions), and installed on a large concrete
longer, had rotating speeds that today would be foundation (the block, see Figure 1). After
considered to be very low, in the range of 100 which all the supporting systems, such as pulsa-
rpm, and were derived from steam engine tech- tion bottles, separators, process and utility

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001163 September 2015 1

 Figure 1 Large block mount low speed long stroke Figure 2 Large block mount low speed long stroke
compressor during construction at site compressor in operation

piping, lubrication systems, driver, coupling, Lined versus Unlined

instrumentation and control system, are API Standard 618 requires compressor cylinders
installed. Long stroke low speed compressors to have liners. Fundamentally, liners are
lend themselves to this manner of installation included only for commercial reasons. A liner is
because they are typically very large and heavy. not a part required for a compressor cylinder to
Modern short stroke medium speed compres- be able to compress gas. The reasons a liner may
sors lend themselves to being packaged (as shown be used include:
in Figure 3) as they are smaller and lighter for the A liner can be a lower cost replaceable wear
same capacity. A compressor package is a element in a compressor cylinder assembly
complete gas compression system module having where a bare replacement cylinder body might
the compressor with its driver, coupling, all be very expensive with a long lead time relative
process gas and utility piping, lubrication to the cost and lead time of a replacement liner.
systems, and all the instrumentation and control A liner can be made of a suitable wear mate-
systems mounted on a structural steel skid. This rial, such as grey iron, when the cylinder body is
skid serves as a platform on which to mount all made of an unsuitable wear material. An exam-
the previously mentioned equipment, but also, in ple of such an unsuitable material is ASTM A395
many instances, the compressors foundation. Standard Specification for Ferritic Ductile Iron
Pressure-Retaining Castings for Use at Elevated
Temperatures, the material API 618 requires be
used for cast ductile iron cylinder bodies. ASTM
A395 happens to be a very poor material for use
in an application that subjects the material to
rubbing wear as is the case in a cylinder bore
where the piston and piston rings, or the wear-
bands and piston rings, are rubbing against it.
Consideration must be given to protect A395
ductile iron material and a liner is only one way
to accomplish that.
Utilisation of a liner allows the cylinder bore
diameter to be changed rather easily.
One of the major reasons why liners are not
utilised in short stroke cylinders is the liners
effect on the cylinders capacity capability. This
Figure 3 Packaged medium speed short stroke compressor is a technical issue that leads to significant

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commercial harm. The following
chart, Figure 4, will help to explain.
A liner adds fixed clearance which
reduces capacity. This capacity reduc-
tion can be substantial in shorter
stroke cylinders. The addition of the
liner also reduces piston displace-
ment, which when combined with the
effect of the additional fixed clear-
ance, results in a significant reduction
in a cylinders capacity capability.
The Figure 4 chart takes both into
account. For example consider a 300
mm liner bore diameter (11.8 inch,
300 on the horizontal axis). This is
actually a 325 mm (12.8 inch) diame-
ter bore cylinder with a 12.5 mm (0.5 Figure 4 Chart showing change in capacity capability due to the
inch) thick liner installed, so the addition of a liner
capacity capability has been reduced
from that of a 325 mm bore cylinder to that of a Rockwell C and provides substantial case depth
300 mm. Also, the addition of the liner has with a hardness of approximately 30 Rockwell C
increased the fixed clearance volume, which at a depth of 0.15 mm (0.006 inch).
reduces the volumetric efficiency further reduc-
ing the capacity capability. For the 300 mm liner Cooled versus Non-cooled
bore example this capacity capability reduction API Standard 618 also requires compressor
is on the order of 35 percent for 76 mm (3 inch) cylinders to have provision for cooling. Figure 5
stroke, and is still significant for a 457 mm (18 is a cylinder with a liner and a cooling jacket and
inch) stroke at about a 17 percent reduction. The Figure 6 is a cylinder without a liner or a cooling
chart assumes a compression ratio of 2.5 and a jacket. Like liners, cooling is not required for a
gas adiabatic exponent of 1.4. Assumed liner compressor cylinder to compress gas.
thickness is 9.5 mm (0.375 inch) up to 254 mm API Standard 618 mentions one instance where
liner bore (10 inch) and 12.5 mm (0.500 inch) provision for cooling may be beneficial. It
254 mm bore (10 inch) and larger following API mentions when cylinders are operated while
Standard 618 guidelines. unloaded for extended periods of time. This
For a given required compressor capacity, the refers to the situation when it may be required or
addition of a liner requires a larger compressor beneficial to operate a double-acting cylinder with
by the percentage shown in the chart. Again both the head and crank ends deactivated at the
referring to the 300 mm example, a 76 mm same time. The standard requires that a forced
stroke compressor would have to be about 35 liquid coolant system be used when cylinders may
percent larger if equipped with a liner. So an be required to operate fully unloaded. And it is
end-user is buying a compressor about 35 correct that in some situations the cooling system
percent larger just to have it equipped with lined may have the capacity to remove enough of the
cylinders. parasitic heat generated when the gas washes in
While a liner provides one method of protect- and out of the head and crank end compression
ing A395 ductile iron from wear, other methods chambers to allow operation fully unloaded for
exist. Another possibility is to harden the extended periods of time. It is not a given that
unlined cylinder bore to improve the wear char- every compressor cylinder incorporating forced
acteristics. One proven hardening method uses liquid coolant can operate fully unloaded for an
the ion-nitride heat treat process. A full explana- extended period as the cooling system may not be
tion of the process is beyond the scope of this capable of removing enough parasitic heat, poten-
article but it results in a hardness at the surface tially causing piston ring, wearband and
of A395 ductile iron of approximately 55 compressor valve premature wear or failures.

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 Figure 5 Drawing of a cylinder body with a liner and Figure 6 Drawing of a cylinder body without a liner or
cooling jacket cooling jacket

When discussing the cooling requirement, means there is reduced chance of a future struc-
end-users and manufacturers will often mention tural failure.
the need to use the cooling jackets as heaters. The
cooling jackets will be used to heat the cylinders Conclusion
prior to startup to avoid liquid condensing out of Short stroke medium speed reciprocating
the gas stream (warm saturated gas contacting compressors utilising unlined and non-cooled
cold metal) and causing damage to the compres- compressor cylinder technology represent the
sor valves or other components when the newest technology and are the 21st century
compressor starts. While this certainly works and reciprocating compressors for downstream
can be a valid reason for using cylinders with applications. These compressors dominate the
cooling (heating?) jackets, not every application upstream and midstream oil and gas industries
encounters this issue and its not the only way to and are becoming more common and gaining
start a compressor to avoid this condensation. wider acceptance downstream.
Non-cooled cylinders have been used with However, many downstream end-users have
success in the upstream natural gas industry for been reluctant to consider short stroke higher
50 years and the downstream industry for 20 speed compressors primarily because of concerns
years. There can be no question that the technol- about reliability. Many find it difficult to under-
ogy works, especially considering that almost stand how a higher speed reciprocating
every manufacturer offering reciprocating compressor can have equal reliability to a low
compressors to the upstream and midstream speed, but it is possible and being proven every
markets has models utilising non-cooled cylin- day. An example is two 4.1 MW (5500 horse-
ders with one having shipped over 150 000. power) 146 mm (5.75 inch) stroke 713 rpm
The benefits to end-users of non-cooled cylin- packaged compressors operating in a hydrogen
der technology include: product application in a hydrogen plant in the
Less capital cost as there is no cylinder jacket United States Gulf Coast area. Both have achieved
water system to buy. over 24 000 hours of uninterrupted operation
Less operation and maintenance cost. There is and are scheduled for an overhaul at 32 000
no cylinder jacket water system to operate or hours. This is exactly the type of success being
maintain. achieved with this 21st century technology.
Higher quality compressor cylinder bodies. Although the basic design of a reciprocating
Non-cooled cylinder body castings are of signifi- compressor has not changed much over the
cantly higher quality due to the fact there is no years, manufacturing, design capabilities,
cooling jacket complicating the casting. This also non-metallic materials and performance model-

4 September 2015 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1001163

ling have. Modern reciprocating compressors are LINKS
capable of higher rotating and piston speeds
without compromising reliability. To paraphrase More articles from: Ariel Corporation
an ad from a United States automobile manufac-
More articles from the following category:
turer, these are not your fathers reciprocating Rotating Equipment
compressors.

Originally sourced from the August 2015 issue of Hydrocarbon

Engineering.

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