Dry Gas Seal System Design Standards For Centrifugal Compressor Applications.

Abstract

Dry gas seals have been applied in process gas centrifugal compressors for more than 20 years. Over 80 percent of centrifugal gas compressors manufactured today are equipped with dry gas seals. Despite the 20-year trend of increasing dry gas seal applications, and industry accepted standard for gas seal support system design does not exist. The American Petroleum Institute (API) has only recently addressed gas seal system design in its Standard 614 (1999). This paper proposes a set of gas seal system design standards for process gas centrifugal compressors on the basis of safety, reliability, and economics. This paper presents the philosophy of one centrifugal compressor and dry gas seal original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in regard to gas seal system design standards. These standards are based on over 20 years of experience in the area of gas seal system design, drawing form actual field experience of thousands of compressors. The reader shall recognize, however, that numerous gas seal system design philosophies can be applied to achieve the same system objectives.