CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR APPLICATIONS—UPSTREAM AND MIDSTREAM by Peter C. Rasmussen Chief Machinery Engineer Exxon Mobil Corporation Houston, Texas and Rainer Kurz Manager of Systems Analysis and Field Testing Solar Turbines Incorporated San Diego, California GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Peter C. Rasmussen is Chief Machinery OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSORS Engineer for ExxonMobil’s upstream companies. Over the past 30 years he has The performance of centrifugal gas compressors is best held various positions in ExxonMobil displayed in a map showing isentropic efficiency and isentropic upstream organizations working machinery head as a function of the actual inlet flow. (The authors prefer solutions and reliability issues. He currently isentropic head and efficiency to polytropic head and efficiency leads machinery research efforts at the because the isentropic head can be directly derived from station ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company design parameters [i.e., gas composition, suction temperature and in Houston. pressure, discharge pressure], whereas the definition of the Mr. Rasmussen received his B.S. degree polytropic head requires the additional knowledge of the compressor (Ocean Engineering, 1974) from Florida Atlantic University, Boca efficiency or the discharge temperature. In particular, two compressors Raton. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of for the same process conditions will show the same isentropic Texas, and is a member of the Turbomachinery Symposium head, but different polytropic head if their efficiency is different.) Advisory Committee. The means of control are added parameters. Figure 1 shows the map of a speed controlled compressor. Such a map also needs to define the operating limits of the compressor. Rainer Kurz is Manager of Systems Analysis and Field Testing for Solar Turbines Incorporated, in San Diego, California. His organization is responsible for conducting application studies, gas compressor and gas turbine performance predictions, and site performance testing. He joined Solar Turbines Incorporated in 1993 and has authored more than 70 publications in the field of turbomachinery. Dr. Kurz attended the University of the German Armed Forces, in Hamburg, where he received the degree of a Dipl.-Ing., and, in 1991, the degree of a Dr.-Ing. He was elected as an ASME Fellow in 2003 and is a member of the Turbomachinery Symposium Figure 1. Typical Compressor Map (Variable Speed). Advisory Committee. The limitation for lower flow is the surge limit. Some manufacturers also limit the operation of their machines in the choke region, while ABSTRACT others allow the operation of their machines anywhere in choke, as Centrifugal compressors are used in a large number of different long as the head remains positive. Other limits include the compression applications. This tutorial addresses applications for maximum and minimum speed, limits of vane settings, temperature centrifugal compressors in the upstream and midstream sector, limits and others. The head-flow map does not automatically define such as LNG compression, refrigeration, pipeline compression, the temperature limits of the compressor because the discharge compression for gas injection, gas lift, gas gathering, export temperature depends also on the gas composition and the suction compression, air compression, and others. temperature. With the information in the head-flow-efficiency map The focus is on the specific compressor requirements for these and known suction conditions, it can be calculated. The speed upstream and midstream applications, not only regarding the limits are either rotor dynamic limitations or stress limits. It must design of the compressor, but also its performance characteristics be noted that a performance map as described will not change even and control requirements. Specific challenges from different if the inlet conditions are changed within limits. process gases are addressed. To understand the interaction of the compressor with the system, THERMODYNAMICS OF GAS COMPRESSION different control mechanisms (speed, variable vanes, recycle, For a compressor receiving gas at a certain suction pressure throttling) are explained, as well as the requirements for and temperature, and delivering it at a certain output pressure, the antisurge control. isentropic head represents the energy input required by a reversible, 169 170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH TURBOMACHINERY SYMPOSIUM • 2009 adiabatic (thus isentropic) compression. The actual compressor addition generates just the same temperature increase as the will require a higher amount of energy input than needed for the (irreversible) losses in the real process would generate. ideal (isentropic) compression. This is best illustrated in a Mollier The polytropic efficiency ␩p is defined such that it is constant for diagram (Figure 2). Head is the amount of work one has to apply any infinitesimally small compression step, which then allows to write: to affect the change in enthalpy in the gas. (Physically, there is no difference between work, head, and enthalpy difference. In systems (4) with consistent units [such as the SI system], work, head, and enthalpy difference have the same units [e.g., kJ/kg in SI units]. and: Only in inconsistent systems [such as US customary units], one ((5) needs to consider that the enthalpy difference [e.g., in BTU/lbm] is related to head and work [e.g., in ft lbf/lbm] by the mechanical equivalent of heat [e.g., in ft lbf/BTU].) or, to define the polytropic efficiency: (6) For designers of compressors, the polytropic efficiency has an important advantage: If a compressor has five stages, and each stage has the same isentropic efficiency ␩s, then the overall compressor efficiency will be lower than ␩s. If, for the same example, one assumes that each stage has the same polytropic efficiency ␩p, then( the polytropic efficiency of the entire machine is also ␩p. The actual flow (Q) can be calculated from standard flow or mass flow (standard conditions are p = 14.7 psia, T = 60ЊF. Similarly, normal conditions are specified at p = 101.325 kPa, T = 0ЊC), once the density is known (from the equation of state), i.e.,: (7) Finally, the aerodynamic or gas power of the compressor, then, is determined to be: Figure 2. Compression Process in a Mollier Diagram for Methane. (8) The compressor head (H) can be determined from the suction and discharge pressure and temperature, assuming the gas composition Mechanical losses occur in the gas compressor and the gearbox is known. The compressor is usually assumed to be an adiabatic (if one is used). The adiabatic efficiency of a compressor does not system (otherwise, neither the isentropic nor the polytropic work and include the mechanical losses, which typically amount to about 1 to efficiency definitions are very useful). Intercooled compressors can 2 percent of the absorbed power. The predicted absorbed power of a only be considered piecewise adiabatic. The relationship between compressor should include all mechanical losses. By introducing a the pressure, temperature, and enthalpy (h) are defined by the mechanical efficiency (␩m), typically 98 to 99 percent, to account equations of state described below. By using the equations of state for bearing losses, the absorbed compressor power (P) becomes: (Kumar, et al., 1999), the relevant enthalpies for the suction, the discharge, and the isentropic discharge state can be computed. (9) The isentropic head (H*) is: (1) Real Gas Behavior and Equations of State with the isentropic efficiency, Understanding gas compression requires an understanding of the relationship between pressure, temperature, and density of a gas. (2) An ideal gas exhibits the following behavior: ( the actual head (H), which defines the power requirement as well (10) as the discharge temperature, is: where R is the gas constant, and as such is constant as long as the (3) gas composition is not changed. Any gas at very low pressures (p60) can be described by this equation. It should be noted that the polytropic efficiency is defined For the elevated pressures seen in natural gas compression, similarly, using the polytropic process instead of the isentropic this equation becomes inaccurate, and an additional variable, the process for comparison. The actual head, which determines the compressibility factor Z, has to be added: absorbed power, is not affected by the choice of the polytropic or (11) isentropic process. In order to fully define the isentropic compression process for a given gas, suction pressure, suction temperature, and discharge pressure have to be known. To define the polytropic Unfortunately, the compressibility factor itself is a function of process, in addition either the polytropic compression efficiency, or pressure, temperature, and gas composition. ( the discharge temperature have to be known. A similar situation arises when the enthalpy has to be calculated. In particular, both the isentropic and the polytropic process are For an ideal gas, one finds: reversible processes. Both apply to adiabatic systems, but only the isentropic process is adiabatic. The polytropic process is the (12) succession of an infinite number of isentropic compression steps, each followed by an isobaric heat addition. This (reversible) heat where cp is only a function of temperature. CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR APPLICATIONS—UPSTREAM AND MIDSTREAM 171 In a real gas, one gets additional terms for the deviation between The rotating part of the compressor consists of all the impellers real gas behavior