Chlorine compressor upgrade

A large chemical company contacted our Hengelo, Netherlands operation for a new titanium impeller for a chlorine compressor and upgrade.

Goals

• Reduce Maintenance Spend
• Increase Power Output
• Life Extension

Sectors

• Power generation

Asset

• Compressors

Location

• Hengelo , Netherlands

 2.6kg

Reduced impeller weight by 2.6kg

 20 years

This unit was running with high vibrations and a strange response to the daily water wash cycles for over 20 years.

Less water wash cycles

The customer can now run the compressor in a stable mode with less water wash cycles.

Project Overview

A large chemical company contacted our Hengelo, Netherlands operation for a new titanium impeller for a chlorine compressor and upgrade. This unit was running with high vibrations and a strange response to the daily water wash cycles for over 20 years. Sometimes the vibration would drop after a water wash, and sometimes the vibration would increase after water wash cycles.

Key Challenges

• EthosEnergy specialists performed a vibration measurement on-site followed by a complete rotordynamic analysis
• The rotor meets the API 617 requirements
• A synchronous rotor instability analysis was executed for this compression rotor (Morton Effect)
• The synchronous rotor instability analysis confirmed the expectation that the compressor operating speed (9,930 rpm) is close to the onset on instability and explained the high sensitivity of the rotor to impeller imbalance

Project Highlights

• Reduce the overhang movements (impeller weight)
• Reduce the differential temperature across the bearing

Overweight and unstable

Rotordynamic analysis confirmed the impeller is overweight and unstable

2.6kg

Reduced impeller weight by 2.6kg

Titanium impeller

Manufactured a titanium impeller

Key Results

After the impeller reversal and redesign, EthosEnergy started the manufacturing process of the titanium impeller. Furthermore, the customer can now run the compressor in a stable mode with less water wash cycles.

2.6 kg

EthosEnergy was able to reduce the impeller weight by 2.6 kg by reducing the vane width, added balancing holes, & a redesign of the impeller lock nut by carving out the back side of the impeller hub.