New Concept of On-Line Wash for Centrifugal Compressor
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Abstract
This paper introduces the development of new concept of on-line wash oil injection system which includes the optimization of
quantity of washing oil, location of injection nozzles, direction of nozzle entry, hole size as well as control system.
The process gas compressor is the most critical unit in an ethylene plant and several types of contaminates can often foul the
compressor flow path, causing deterioration in performance and significant losses in plant production. In order to prevent the
efficiency losses due to fouling during long term operation, wash oil is injected as regular intervals/ continuously in process gas
compressors. As common practice, wash oil injection nozzle are usually installed on the suction piping as well as return bend
on each stage. Foulant material has been reported during turn around (and with few years of operation) even though wash oil
injection has been carried out at required intervals.
User and OEM investigated the root cause of this phenomenon and constructed the new concept design of on-line wash oil
injection system in consideration of wash area, oil quantity, erosion and feasibility of machine construction etc. by means of
FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis as well as CFD (Computational fluid dynamics). To verify the effectiveness of this new
concept of oil injection system, component test and actual machine verification test was conducted and successfully completed
under User’s witness.
After completion of the test, OEM delivered newly developed oil injection system in user site that the fouling materials on the
compressors were reported with conventional oil injection system, and commercial operation was started. User and OEM
confirmed the effectiveness of newly developed system at site process gas compressor by checking the compressor
performance.
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