Guidelines For Specifying And Evaluating New And Rerated Multistage Centrifugal Compressors.
Abstract
Refineries, petrochemical companies, and gas processors are
continually trying to increase plant production while budgets are
getting tighter. Rerating process centrifugal compressors has
become an ever-increasing trend as a solution to this problem.
Existing hardware, however, has its limitations. The limiting
factors can be different for different applications of the same
equipment. When rerating existing compressors cannot adequately
meet increased compression production demands, new equipment
must be added to an existing plant or a new plant must be built.
Both of these scenarios require the purchase of new compressors.
Realizing that eventually a new plant may expand or increase
production to respond to increased demand, and that the
differential cost for a new compressor is high, it makes sense to
consider the future uprateability of new compressors when they are
initially purchased and built.
Discussions in this paper will give the rotating equipment
engineer guidance when evaluating the design of a centrifugal
compressor--either new or rerated, including a list of items that
should be reviewed; and guidelines that should be followed. A case
study and examples will be used to emphasize and help explain the
various limiting factors for both new and rerated multistage
centrifugal compressors. Cost implications and tradeoffs along
with the impact on reliability will also be analyzed. With this
information, the rotating equipment engineer will be able to work
with process engineers to effectively optimize compressor
hardware selections for the required process duty.
Description
Tutorialpg. 215-232
Subject
TurbomachinesCollections
Citation
Blahovec, James F.; Matthews, Terryl; Eads, Kevin S. (1998). Guidelines For Specifying And Evaluating New And Rerated Multistage Centrifugal Compressors.. Texas A&M University. Turbomachinery Laboratories. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /163407.