In one of many world’s largest oil and fuel fields, the firstever underwater compressor system employs ANDRITZ submersible motors. With their renewable winding these maintenance-free designed pumps have achieved impressive results.
We are surrounded by gas. From water bottles to the insulation in our houses, natural gasoline is a key ingredient in nearly every product we use every day. According to the newest report issued by the International Gas Union (IGU) in 2019, the global demand in gasoline has been rising by 35% of the previous decade alone.
The reasons for this development are manifold, however the IGU determines three primary factors. First, the cost competitiveness of gas in distinction to other vitality sources. Secondly, larger security of provide with regard to infrastructure, delivery, and flexible use. Thirdly, gas represents a sustainable form of vitality that can mitigate local weather change and lower localized pollution. It has 50% fewer CO2 emissions compared to coal, for instance.
In order to meet this growing demand and use, the eco-friendly potential fuel will have to be extracted utilizing a sustainable course of. One of the largest systems is the Åsgard oil and gasoline subject on the Haltenbanken, 200 km off the coast of Norway. It contains 52 wells mixed in sixteen gas fields and connected by 300 km of oil pipelines. As of December 2018, the field has estimated assets of 9.9 million normal cubic meters of oil equivalent of oil and 51.1 million commonplace cubic meters of oil equivalent of gasoline.
The system used contains three important areas: Åsgard A, B, and C. Åsgard A is a floating oil production vessel that has been anchored there permanently since extraction started in 1999. Åsgard B is a floating, semi-submersible gas and condensate processing platform for processing and stabilizing of gas and condensate. This platform is supplemented by the condensate storage facility Åsgard C and the 707 km-long Åsgard gasoline pipeline to the Karsto processing complicated to the north of Stavanger, Norway.
First in the world Aker Solutions ASA has been supporting the Åsgard gasoline subject with numerous gas area products, systems, and services since 2010. In time, the pressure within the storage facility in gas-producing fields drops. Compressors are needed to sustain the output. Aker delivered the first-ever underwater compressor system worldwide to Åsgard in order to increase the output to 306 million barrels. These are usually installed on platforms above sea level.
However, Åsgard is based on an underwater system. By utilizing compressors on the seabed the recovery rates are improved and the funding and working costs are reduced. In addition, underwater compression leaves a smaller ecological footprint and is extra reliable than a platform. The Åsgard system consists of modules for two similar units of compressors, pumps, scrubbers, and coolers. The motors needed to drive the pumps come from ANDRITZ.
Small, however important
In 2010, Ritz Pumpenfabrik GmbH in Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany, became ANDRITZ Ritz GmbH and a part of the ANDRITZ Group, as did the manufacturing of submersible motors. Due to the renewable winding, ANDRITZ submersible motors are appropriate for driving deep properly pumps, bottom intake pumps, suction pumps, seawater pumps, and underwater equipment.
Depending on the area of utility, the motors may be made of cast iron, bronze or completely different kind of stainless steel and installed both vertically or horizontally. These are water-filled and watercooled, three-phase asynchronous motors with squirrel cages and a mech- anical seal. They are fitted with MCT, a particular cooling technology. In designs with inside permanent magnet motor expertise, or IPM for short, these maintenance-free motors can obtain impressive outputs, efficiencies and, in consequence, price financial savings.
The effective and measurable motor cooling system keeps the inside temp- erature as low as potential. Drinking water is used as a cooling liquid, which is why the motors can function in media of up to 75° C. An impeller with optimized suction and supply is mounted at the lower shaft finish of the rotor. Light of its two main tasks is cooling and lubricating the close by thrust bearing. By doing so, the impeller ensures there is a fixed circulate of cooling liquid in the best path.
This liquid strikes via the within of the motor from the underside to the highest. The specially developed cooling channels outline the exact path over all heat sources to discharge the warmth successfully and systematically. At the highest finish, the heat from the liquid is then discharged by way of the motor’s outer wall. Here, it’s transferred through the floor of the motor to the medium to be pumped.
The ANDRITZ submersible motors are only a tiny a half of the underwater compressor system, however they are also an extremely important half. The whole underwater station cannot function without these motors to drive the pumps. Since first being installed in 2016, these submersible motors have been operating with none faults. All in all, ANDRITZ Ritz delivered three twopole submersible motors with an output of 736 kw. The motor types the condensate unit together with the pump and conveys those liquids which may be eliminated by the separator upstream of the gas compressors.
In 2017, due to a failure in part of the system which was not supplied by ANDRITZ, the motor was sent in for repairs, throughout which an intensive examine was performed. Thermal distribution in the cooling circulate and the hot spots had been analyzed in additional detail. The outcomes also led to the design of a new plate crosssection for the rotor plates.
Because of this, the motor to be repaired was also fully overhauled and fitted with a brand new winding and a brand new rotor. This examine and the implementation of its findings not solely benefit the current buyer and future customers on this case, but in addition strengthen confidence within the ANDRITZ submersible motor know-how.
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