In one of many world’s largest oil and gas 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 properties, natural gas is a key ingredient in nearly each product we use daily. According to the latest report issued by the International Gas Union (IGU) in 2019, the global demand in fuel has been rising by 35% of the previous decade alone.
The causes for this pattern are manifold, however the IGU determines three main components. First, the fee competitiveness of gas in distinction to other vitality sources. Secondly, larger safety of supply with regard to infrastructure, supply, and versatile use. Thirdly, fuel represents a sustainable type of vitality that may mitigate local weather change and lower localized pollution. It has 50% fewer CO2 emissions in comparability with coal, for instance.
In order to fulfill this growing demand and use, the eco-friendly potential gas will have to be extracted utilizing a sustainable process. One of the most important methods is the Åsgard oil and gas area on the Haltenbanken, 200 km off the coast of Norway. It accommodates 52 wells combined in 16 gasoline fields and linked by 300 km of oil pipelines. As of December 2018, the field has estimated assets of 9.9 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalent of oil and 51.1 million normal cubic meters of oil equal of fuel.
The system used comprises 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 gasoline 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 complex to the north of Stavanger, Norway.
First on the planet Aker Solutions ASA has been supporting the Åsgard gasoline subject with various gasoline area merchandise, techniques, and services since 2010. In เกจอาร์กอน , the stress in the storage facility in gas-producing fields drops. Compressors are wanted to maintain the output. Aker delivered the first-ever underwater compressor system worldwide to Åsgard to be able to increase the output to 306 million barrels. These are normally installed on platforms above sea level.
However, Åsgard relies on an underwater system. By using compressors on the seabed the restoration rates are improved and the investment and operating costs are reduced. In addition, underwater compression leaves a smaller ecological footprint and is more dependable than a platform. The Åsgard system consists of modules for 2 identical sets of compressors, pumps, scrubbers, and coolers. The motors needed to drive the pumps come from ANDRITZ.
Small, but essential
In 2010, Ritz Pumpenfabrik GmbH in Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany, turned ANDRITZ Ritz GmbH and part of the ANDRITZ Group, as did the production of submersible motors. Due to the renewable winding, ANDRITZ submersible motors are suitable for driving deep well pumps, bottom intake pumps, suction pumps, seawater pumps, and underwater equipment.
Depending on the realm of application, the motors could be manufactured from cast iron, bronze or completely different type of stainless steel and installed either 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 special cooling technology. In designs with interior everlasting magnet motor know-how, or IPM for brief, these maintenance-free motors can obtain spectacular outputs, efficiencies and, in consequence, price savings.
The effective and measurable motor cooling system retains the inside temp- erature as little as attainable. Drinking water is used as a cooling liquid, which is why the motors can operate in media of as much as 75° C. An impeller with optimized suction and delivery is mounted on the decrease shaft finish of the rotor. One of its two primary duties is cooling and lubricating the nearby thrust bearing. By doing so, the impeller ensures there’s a fixed move of cooling liquid in the right direction.
This liquid moves through the inside of the motor from the bottom to the highest. The specially developed cooling channels define the exact path over all warmth sources to discharge the heat effectively and systematically. At the highest end, the heat from the liquid is then discharged through the motor’s outer wall. Here, it’s transferred by way of the floor of the motor to the medium to be pumped.
The ANDRITZ submersible motors are just a tiny part of the underwater compressor system, but they’re additionally an especially essential part. The whole underwater station cannot function without these motors to drive the pumps. Since first being put in in 2016, these submersible motors have been working without any 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 these liquids that are removed by the separator upstream of the fuel compressors.
In 2017, because of a failure in a half of the system which was not supplied by ANDRITZ, the motor was sent in for repairs, throughout which an extensive examine was performed. Thermal distribution in the cooling flow and the recent spots had been analyzed in additional element. The outcomes also led to the design of a brand new plate crosssection for the rotor plates.
Because of this, the motor to be repaired was additionally utterly overhauled and fitted with a model new winding and a new rotor. This examine and the implementation of its findings not solely profit the present buyer and future clients on this case, but also strengthen confidence in the ANDRITZ submersible motor technology.
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