Oil & Gas

Danmar Industries Custom Engineers for Oil and Gas

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

The items included three 550 horsepower (hp), oil-flooded, water-cooled, single-stage air compressors with inlet valve modulation capable of providing 1,540 scfm at 165 psi (11.4 bar), two heatless desiccant, 3,138 cfm, 165 psi (11.4 bar) compressed air dryers, and two nitrogen generators for the main station, as well as two smaller air compressors and heatless desiccant compressed air dryers for each of three smaller facilities. Air compressor packages typically meet API 619, but the customer did not request that in this case. The motors, however, need to meet API 547. Air compressor system piping needed to be carbon steel built to ASME B31.3.

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Sustainability is “Part of Who We Are” at Eastman

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

By making sustainability a requirement and a core element of its growth strategy, Eastman has improved the energy efficiency of manufacturing operations by 13% since its baseline year of 2008 (the year Eastman became an ENERGY STAR® Partner). By 2018, Eastman had decreased its greenhouse gas intensity by 20%, two years ahead of its goal. Additionally, Eastman received the 2019 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence, marking the company’s eighth consecutive ENERGY STAR award: two years as Partner of the Year and six years of Sustained Excellence recognition.
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Chemical Packaging Plant Shaves 41% Off Annual Electric Bill with Compressed Air Energy-Saving Measures

By Ron Marshall, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

A chemical packaging facility had done everything right when they last upgraded their compressed air system a few years ago. They installed a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) air compressor and implemented other energy efficiency measures, but plant expansions caused increased system demand, which exceeded the capacity of the system. The packaging lines were now seeing low pressure, causing shut downs in production. And projections showed plant demand would increase even further.
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Keeping Compressed Air Leaks to a Minimum at Petrochemical Plants

Compressed Air Best Practices® interviewed James Nipper, Vice President of Petro Chemical Energy, Inc.

By Mike Grennier, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

In terms of compressed air systems, it’s not unusual to see a plant with 10 to 15 air compressors, each of which is rated to provide 3,000 to 4,000 scfm of air. The air is used for everything from moving product, to powering pneumatic tools, pumps, and fans, to cleaning. There are easily 1,500 pneumatic control valves at a single plant.
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PCE Compressed Air Leak Surveys for the Petrochemical Industry

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Mr. James Nipper, Vice President, of Petro Chemical Energy, Inc.

Petro Chemical Energy, Inc. (PCE) specializes in energy loss surveys for the refining and chemical industries. We’ve been providing Compressed Air Leak Surveys, Nitrogen Leak Surveys, Steam Leak Surveys and Steam Trap Surveys – for over twentyfive (25) years. We operate totally independent of all equipment manufacturers to ensure our clients receive a complete and unbiased report of the leaks in their facility. PCE has conducted compressed air leak surveys for hundreds of customers at thousands of sites. Undetected, compressed air and gas leaks rob efficiency in manufacturing and processing industries. As a result, businesses lose millions of dollars annually in energy costs and lost production time.
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Making Sense of Compressed Air at a Huge Chemical Plant

By Don van Ormer, APEnergy

A chemical plant spends an estimated $587,000 annually on electrical energy to operate their compressed air system. In addition, the plant has an expenditure on rental air compressors of equal or greater size - but this will not be covered in this article. The plant was built in the 1940s and modernized in the 1970s. The plant generates its own power and serves many processes. The average cost per kWh is $0.0359.
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Aggreko Assists Refineries with Fluctuating Demand

By Roderick Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine spoke with Mark Shedd, Head of Oil-free Air, Aggreko Rental Solutions - There are two distinct compressed air systems in a refinery or petrochemical environment: plant air and instrument air systems. Instrument air systems are almost always 100% oil-free air compressors on both the permanent and temporary systems. The demand for compressed air purity, in instrument air systems, is so high that the permanent install back-up system is usually nitrogen.
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Oversized Dryer Causes Pressure Issues at a Chemical Plant

By Ron Marshall for the Compressed Air Challenge®

A Canadian chemical plant installed a large heated blower-purge style compressed air dryer, years ago, to condition the instrument air system against freezing temperatures. The dryer selected was oversized for the connected air compressors and had unused on-board energy savings features. A compressed air assessment revealed the site air compressors and compressed air dryers were running inefficiently and causing in-plant pressure problems. Repairs to a compressed air dryer and the replacement of aging air compressors and dryers has reduced compressed air energy costs by 31 percent.
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Custom-Engineered Instrument Air Dryers for Refineries

By Ramsaran Palaniappan, Atlas Copco Compressors

Atlas Copco has a long history serving the Houston-based energy and chemical industries with custom-engineered packages. The objective of this article is to show just a few examples of the custom applications typically engineered and manufactured in the Atlas Copco Houston operation. Opened in 2012, Atlas Copco Houston produces standard compressed air dryers as well as completely engineered air dryers for all markets. The air flow capacity of the dryers, produced at this location, vary from 5 to 12,750 scfm. This capacity range covers heatless, heated purge and blower purge air dryers.
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Study Proves Potential Energy Savings of AODD Pump Controls

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Air-operated double diaphragm (AODD) pumps are common to many manufacturing facilities. As estimated by veteran compressed air auditor Hank van Ormer of Air Power USA, approximately 85 to 90 percent of plants in the United States have AODD pumps. They are used for all kinds of liquid transfer applications, like those found in chemical manufacturing, wastewater removal, and pumping viscous food products.
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The Titus Company Customizes Nitrogen Generation and Petrochemical Plant Applications

By Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

In our discussions with Stephen Titus and James Bowers, National Sales Manager of Titus Air Systems, we talked about several examples of how The Titus Company provided custom-engineered solutions to various customers. The diversity and complexity of these jobs exemplify how The Titus Company has grown from a small distributorship operating out of a townhome to a thriving compressed air and gas solutions provider capable of tackling highly nuanced applications.
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The Challenges of Auditing Compressed Air in Chemical and Petrochemical Plants

By Paul Edwards, President, Compressed Air Consultants, Inc.

Compressed air audits for chemical and petrochemical plants have many characteristics in common with audits in other industries, but there are some differences in the way these businesses run that impact the goals of the typical audit and how that audit is conducted. In chemical and petrochemical facilities, the reason for auditing the demand side is different than that of other industries. Additionally, there are frequently applications with opportunities for improvement that are not always seen in other industries.
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Xebec Membrane/PSA Hybrid Systems for Biogas

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine. Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine spoke with Xebec Inc. President, Mr. Kurt Sorschak.

In rural China, approximately 30 million households receive cooking fuel from super-small anaerobic underground digesters? China is just starting to look at industrial biogas upgrading in a serious manner. The market is in its’ infancy but we believe in five years it will be the biggest biogas market in the world. Incineration is not popular as it requires a lot of energy. Here we have many manure-based issues. Soil and water contamination in densely populated areas can lead towards anaerobic digester projects. Today there are very few projects although we are doing one right now in northern China.
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From Dehumidification to Siloxane: Parker Biogas Purification - The Importance of Removing Contaminants from Biogas

By Parker Hiross Zander Filtration Division

Biogas is an extremely valuable energy source. Originating from biomass, sewage, plants and landfill sites, it is gaining ever-increasing worldwide recognition as a premium source of renewable energy. It is also making a major contribution to the global energy supply mix by replacing existing fossil-fuel sources such as coal, oil and conventional natural gas.
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Sullair of Houston Provides Air Compressor Solutions for Extreme Environments

By Neal Lorenzi

Sullair of Houston, one of the largest North American distributors of Sullair industrial and portable diesel compressors, loves a challenge. The company designs customized air compressor packages that fit the rough and rugged world outside the walls of an industrial plant. It builds air compressor solutions that operate efficiently in extreme, harsh environments around the globe. This includes offshore or marine environments, high or low ambient conditions—any environment where a standard air compressor will not operate safely or efficiently.
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Natural Gas Deliquescent Dehydrator Applications

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Tyler Currie, Vice President Business Development, Van Air Systems and Van Gas Technologies.

Triethylene glycol (TEG) dehydrators are the most prevalent technology for removing water vapor from natural gas . Molecular sieve dryers are also quite common in gas processing plants. Molecular sieve units have operating processes similar to industrial heat-regenerated compressed air dryers. Natural gas, however, often needs to be purified at the wellhead before reaching the processing plant. Deliquescent dehydrators are normally used, in remote locations where no power supply exists, to dry small gas volumes located between the wellhead and these main treatment plants. The most common applications are instrument gas, fuel gas, sales gas, and emissions mitigation.
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Universal Air & Gas Products Engineers NGV Refueling Stations

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Kurt Kondas (President), Steve Davis (VP Sales), and John Haslam (Branch Manager - Charlotte) from Universal Air & Gas Products Corporation.

When a submarine docks for maintenance, the Navy requires a high-pressure, dockside, pier-power air compressor ready to be used in an explosion-proof environment. We have technicians working on military ships and submarines worldwide. For this, both UAPC and some of our technicians have been prequalified and have different secrecy clearances depending upon the project. In addition to our rental air compressors, we also have a fleet of CNG compressors available for long-term rent for the CNG refueling market.
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Natural Gas Dehydration and Conditioning for NGV Refueling and Field Gas Upgrading

By Kurt Sorschak (President and CEO) and Guy Couturier (Applications Manager) from Xebec Adsorption, Inc.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is an alternative fuel source (to diesel and gasoline) with far-reaching benefits to North America. Strategically important benefits include energy independence, improved air quality, job creation, and lower and more stable fuel prices. This article discusses natural gas desiccant dryer requirements in Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) refueling stations, compares deliquescent to desiccant dryers and reviews two on-site field gas upgrading examples in displacing diesel fuel.
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The Evolution of Biomass Compressors

By Robert A. Sturdy, CLS

When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed, in1970, it used its congressional mandate to issue all sorts of regulations regarding the discharge of contaminants into the land, water and air of this country. Over the years, air pollution has been one of the key areas where the Agency has put in place stringent requirements to control the emission of VOCs or Volatile Organic Compounds. Today the mandates of this government agency require extensive steps be taken to curtail their release by all operators of tank farms, chemical plants, refineries, fermentation plants and landfill operations. As a result of these regulations the Bio-Mass utilization industry was born.
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Open-Minded System Assessments Part 2. Petrochemical Plant Optimizes Centrifugal Compressors

By Paul Edwards, Compressed Air Consultants

The purpose of the audit is to improve reliability throughout the facility. Reliability on the demand side can be defined by having adequate air pressure and air quality at all times throughout the facility. This outcome is a function of both the operation of the supply side in the operation of the demand side. If a demand problem occurs, such as a dust collector pulsejet failure, it can reduce the air pressure in a local sector. If a compressor fails, any backup compressor takes too long to start, the pressure would drop in this circumstance too
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Centrifugal Compressors and HOC Dryers Reduce Energy Costs by $2.8 Million

By Hank Van Ormer, Air Power USA

This chemical plant spent an estimated $3,153,022 annually on energy (steam and electricity) to operate the compressed air system at their facility. The plant staff established their energy costs as 5.3 cents per kWh and $9.00 /1,000 lbs of steam per hour. The set of projects implemented in this system assessment reduced energy costs by an estimated $2,794,598 or 88% of current use. In addition, these projects reduce demand on the boiler systems and add reliability and back-up to the compressed air system.
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Open-Minded System Assessments Part 1. Petrochemical Plant Optimizes Centrifugal Compressors

By Paul Edwards, Compressed Air Consultants

Keeping an open mind is critical in all system assessments. Each client has different priorities and circumstances. In this case, the elimination of the “close-scrapes” with insufficient pressure was the priority. The energy and rental/maintenance savings realized were just an added bonus. In this article, we have focused on the supply-side of the system and how the centrifugal compressors could be made to supply the system reliably – without the need for rental air compressors.
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Distribution Piping: Understanding Pressure Drop

By the Compressed Air Challenge®

The Compressed Air Challenge® (CAC) is a voluntary collaboration of industrial users; manufacturers, distributors and their associations; consultants; state research and development agencies; energy efficiency organizations; and utilities. This group has one purpose in mind - helping you enjoy the benefits of improved performance of your compressed air system. The mission of the Compressed Air Challenge (CAC) is to provide resources that educate industrial users about optimizing their compressed air systems.
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Four Action Items Save Money and Energy at a Refinery

By Hank Van Ormer

This refinery currently spends $735,757 annually on the electricity required to operate the compressed air system at its plant. The group of projects recommended in the system assessment will reduce these energy costs by an estimated $364,211 (49% of current use). Estimated costs for completing the recommended projects total $435,800. This figure represents a simple payback period of 14.4 months. The firm also reduced compressed air demand by 732 scfm allowing them to save $441,544 by down-sizing the back-up rental diesel air compressors.
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Large Designs – Small Compressors at Hycomp, Inc.

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices®

There are many applications which require a low horsepower compressor built with the technology that has been proven in larger compressors. Often these situations are not addressed well by the general compressor industry.
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