Centrifugal compressors are production-critical equipment in refineries, petrochemical plants, and offshore oil and gas production facilities.
Burckhardt Compression was selected to modernize MOL Petrochemicals' third-party Hyper Compressor at its LDPE plant in Tiszaújváros, Hungary. The goal was to improve production performance and to establish a comprehensive, long-term service capability with a running-hours guarantee.
Oil refineries and large petrochemical plants contain thousands of pieces of process and utilities equipment that are subject to wear, erosion, deterioration, aging, etc., resulting in increasing breakdowns and outages. Imagine being a maintenance engineer and receiving 50 work orders during an overhaul with a limited budget, time, labor, spare parts, tools, machines, etc. How does that engineer prioritize the work?
This issue of Hydrocarbon Processing tackles one of the most integral aspects of the downstream industry (or any industry, for that matter): maintenance and reliability. These two terms go hand-in-hand and help to ensure efficient and safe operations.
At a recent conference attended by failure investigation professionals in San Antonio, Texas, a participant spoke about an explosion and fire event on a multistage horizontally opposed compressor in oxygen (O2) service. He had scant data, but he knew the machine did not have cylinder lubrication.
Skid-mounted units are omnipresent in the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI), as facilities are scattered in remote locations, and site construction is time-consuming and expensive. Skid units are equally popular in downstream refineries and the chemical processing industry (CPI).
Adding ignition and control systems made by Hoerbiger to its portfolio, August Storm is now able to offer engine services at a new level of performance.
Tailored specifically to the requirements of refinery operators, the modular and scalable turbomachinery concept combines centrifugal compressor and prime mover to a single-lift unit, serving refinery applications like hydrotreating and hydrocracking.
Siemens has manufactured and tested the largest geared compressor rotor in the world at its facility in Duisburg, Germany.
GE Oil & Gas has been awarded a contract to supply gas turbine-driven compressors for a third natural gas liquefaction train for the Tangguh expansion.