Process Dynamics of AntiSurge System
Process Dynamics of AntiSurge System
Process Dynamics of AntiSurge System
https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184201010
ASTECHNOVA 2016
Abstract. Gas Compression Package (GCP) is a vital system in the distribution of gas. Pertamina EP, in this
regard as a state-owned company managing oil and gas on the upstream, is in the project phase of purchasing
and installing compressor facilities. GCPs are used to increase gas pressure hence it can be transferred from gas
wells to industrial areas. Dynamic analysis becomes important to observe the performance of the compressor and
to ensure safety during operation, in order to avoid surge phenomenon. Surge is an undesirable phenomenon in
the form of a backward flow of gas. The surge may damage the internal components of a centrifugal compressor,
hence needs to be prevented from happening. The anti-surge controller manipulates anti-surge valve to give
actions in the recycle lines when a surge occurred. PID controller is used for controlling and stabilizing the
system. PID tuning is determined using Auto Tuning Variation method. This method is based on the process
frequency response from relay oscillations. After the dynamic model of the plant had been developed, some
simulations were carried out with various scenarios. The scenarios were based on a variety of issues that may
occur in a gas compression system. The applied scenarios were a decrease in flow rate on the input side, a
pressure drop in gas wells, and changes in gas composition. The control configuration of gas compression
system was designed and modified in order to compensate disturbances and avoid surge phenomenon.
Keywords—anti-surge, centrifugal compressor, dynamic simulation, PID controller.
1 Introduction
Natural gas is one of the natural resources that have a A centrifugal compressor is the main part that is very
broad range of utilization such as for cooking, for vital for transporting natural gas from well to industrial,
generating electricity in power plants, and as raw material commercial, and residential areas. During transportation,
for processing of fertilizer. South Sumatra, a province in the pressure of the natural gas will decrease because of
Indonesia, has very abundant natural resources, including the friction that happens along the wall of pipes, the
natural gas. According to the government of South pressure drop in unit operation, slug flow, etc. Another
Sumatra Province, natural gas reserves are found in Musi vital problem is called surge phenomenon because it
Banyuasin, Lahat, Musi Rawas, and Ogan Ogan Ilir, disrupts the transport of natural gas. Surging is an
which reach 7238 Billion Standard Cubic Feet per Day undesired event which occurs in the form of reverse flow
(BSCFD). The production during the last 4 years on from the discharge of compressor to the suction of
average was 2,247,124 Million Metric Standard Cubic compressor in centrifugal compressors and axial
Feet per Day (MMSCFD) [1]. PT. Pertamina EP is a compressors.
state-owned company which engaged in the upstream oil
Surging is undesirable because it can cause many
and gas. Currently, PT. Pertamina EP produced
approximately 120,000 Barrels of oil Oil per Day problems. If no action is taken, the surge will result in
damage to the internal components of the compressor. It
(BOPD) and around 1,003 MMSCFD of natural gas [2].
PT. Pertamina EP plans to increase its production is not desirable for the company as the internal
components have to be changed often while the costs of
capacity of 100 MMSCFD to 150 MMSFD by building a
new compressor facility in Assets 2 Field Pendopo. This internal compressor parts are very expensive. However,
appropriate precautions can be taken into account to
project is divided into 3 main section, i.e., gas separator
system, gas compression system, and fuel gas-seal gas prevent the surge. There are few symptoms of a surge,
i.e., there will be a low system flow, increases of
system. This paper focuses on the gas compression
system which consists of three trains. Each train consists discharge temperature, extreme changes in current motor,
as well as violent fluctuations in discharge pressure.
of unit operations such as medium pressure (MP)
scrubber, centrifugal compressor, air cooler, high Prevention of surging can be done by installing either
pressure (HP) scrubber, level control valve (LCV), and blowdown valve (BDV) or ASV in the recycle pipe.
anti-surge valve (ASV).
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 42, 01010 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184201010
ASTECHNOVA 2016
However, BDV causes too much energy loss, because gas for Anti-Surge Controller (ASC) tuning done by trial and
is discarded and accommodated in the tank. It is better to error with certain procedures. Similar to Ziegler-Nichols
use ASV in order to minimize the waste of energy. ASV method in PID tuning, ATV method employs and .
has a set point above the minimum flow which is is controller gain that Products the limit cycle, while
regulated by a controller namely anti-surge controller is the period taken from limit cycle. The following
(ASC). ASC controls the opening of ASV when some of calculations are to determine the ultimate period ,
the symptoms of surging are about to occur. The way to ultimate gain , controller gain , and integral time
find out when the occurrence of surging is it can be .
observed on the compressor curve which is plot based on
(1)
the flow versus head. In the compressor, the curve is
divided into several lines to observe surge those are surge
control line (SCL), backup line (BL), and surge line (SL). (2)
Surging can be observed when the flow falls to the set
point so that the compressor operating point on the curve The control parameters followed the formulas as in
crosses the SL. Table 1. It is recommended for use Tyreus-Luyben
formula for tuning that suitable for unit operation in
Chemical process [7].
2 Methodology
Table 1. Settings of PID controller based on the continuous
This research was conducted in several steps, i.e., cycle method [4]
developing dynamic models, analysis of the performance
of PID controllers, and performing simulation scenario. Ziegler-Nichols
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E3S Web of Conferences 42, 01010 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184201010
ASTECHNOVA 2016
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E3S Web of Conferences 42, 01010 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184201010
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control valve (PV) would be split into three train loads with
equal load with current openings steady at 8.5%.
2) Case 2: The flow rate of the working fluid was reduced
from 153.2 MMSCFD to be 65.71 MMSCFD, or
reduced by 57.108% and the valve on the discharge
failed.
Table 3 and Table 4 show the comparison between the
system which was equipped with control performance and
load sharing, and the system without them. Compressor
discharge pressure increased when the flow decreased, and
discharge valve failed. In Table 4, when the pressure rose
because of discharge valve failed, it can be overcome by
increasing the RPM of the compressor. In Table 4, pressure
rise cannot be anticipated, thus exceeding the design
pressure of the unit operation in the discharge. This will
certainly endanger the operating unit.
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E3S Web of Conferences 42, 01010 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184201010
ASTECHNOVA 2016
(7)
3
Where Fs (m /s) is the surge flow, hm (m) is the head, and A
(m), B (m/m3/s), C (m/m6/s2), and D (m/m9/s3) are surge
control parameters set by the user. Table 6 provides the
result of surge control parameter.
No Parameter Value
1 Parameter A (m) -28,134.9
2 Parameter B (m/m3/s) 113,450
6 2
3 Parameter C (m/m /s ) -57,205.7
Fig. 5. Compressor performance for the low suction pressure
4 Parameter D (m/m9/s3) 0
5 Control Line (%) 10
Table 7. Safety factor for The pressure of each train to control the
6 Backup Line (%) 8 performance and load sharing
7 Quick Opening (%) 40 10% Safety Factor for Temperature
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ASTECHNOVA 2016
1) Case 1: leaner Gas (15,92 kg/m3) and low molecular discharge pressure required more effort to depress the gas
weight (17,06 g/mol) (Fig. 7). Thus the pressure would exceed the demands of the
design. Therefore, the RPM of the compressor will be
Leaner gas contains very high methane about 95.496% and decreased by speed controller causes the flow rate become
slight water content as shown in Table 8. Fig. 6 shows the small so that the pressure generated in will reach the set
performance of the compressor when the composition is points.
changed to -2 g/mol. Gas with the lighter molecular weight
Table 9. Gas well composition with a molecular weight of 21.06
will be easier to push. Thus, it does not need much discharge
g/mol
pressure. It has implications for the design demands; the
pressure generated becomes less. Therefore, the RPM of the Mol Liquid
compressor will be increased by a speed controller, so fraction Gas phase phase (mol Water (mol
(mol %) (mol %) %) %)
greater flow rate occurs, then the pressure generated will
reach the set point. Methane 95.496% 95.496% 25.295% 0.000%
Ethane 1.883% 1.883% 2.207% 0.000%
Table 8. Gas well composition with a molecular weight of 17.06 Propane 0.830% 0.830% 2.979% 0.000%
g/mol
i-Butane 0.111% 0.111% 0.909% 0.000%
Mol Liquid n-Butane 0.132% 0.132% 1.441% 0.000%
Gas phase Water
fraction phase (mol
(mol %) (mol %) i-pentane 0.044% 0.044% 1.090% 0.000%
(mol %) %)
n-pentane 0.034% 0.034% 1.071% 0.000%
Methane 77.771% 78.067% 8.413% 0.000%
n-hexane 0.040% 0.040% 3.605% 0.000%
Ethane 9.291% 9.319% 4.498% 0.000%
n-Heptane 0.078% 0.078% 18.704% 0.000%
Propane 4.096% 4.100% 6.050% 0.000%
n-Octane 0.017% 0.017% 10.938% 0.000%
i-Butane 0.549% 0.548% 1.819% 0.000%
n-Nonane 0.010% 0.010% 16.970% 0.000%
n-Butane 0.649% 0.646% 2.899% 0.000%
n-Decane 0.003% 0.003% 14.288% 0.000%
i-pentane 0.216% 0.213% 2.143% 0.000%
n-C11 0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000%
n-pentane 0.167% 0.163% 2.103% 0.000%
H2S 0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000%
n-hexane 0.200% 0.187% 6.694% 0.000%
H2O 0.105% 0.105% 0.069% 99.985%
n-Heptane 0.383% 0.320% 30.689% 0.000%
Nitrogen 0.587% 0.587% 0.056% 0.000%
n-Octane 0.083% 0.054% 13.850% 0.000%
CO2 0.631% 0.631% 0.380% 0.014%
n-Nonane 0.050% 0.021% 13.749% 0.000%
n-Decane 0.017% 0.004% 6.131% 0.000%
n-C11 0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000%
H2S 0.000% 0.000% 0.000% 0.000%
H2O 0.516% 0.325% 0.089% 99.976%
Nitrogen 2.897% 2.909% 0.109% 0.001%
CO2 3.114% 3.125% 0.765% 0.023%
4 Conclusion
Simulation of gas compression systems in the dynamic
Fig. 6. Compressor Performance with a change in composition -2 state using a process simulator HYSYS has been
g/mol successfully created and has stabilized. Models were made
as detailed as possible in order to approach the actual
2) Case 2: Denser gas (15,92 kg/m3) and high condition of the plant. Some modifications were made such
molecular weight (21,06 g/mol) as the addition of control performance and load sharing. PID
Otherwise, the denser gas contains methane, which is control parameters obtained by using Auto Tuning Variation
smaller than normal around 77.771% and more water method, almost the entire process variables are controlled by
content than normal as shown in Table 9. When the gas the PI controller except for temperature control using PID
composition changed by increasing the molecular weight controllers. With scenarios such as a decrease in the input
becomes +2 g/mol, it will have implications for the flow rate, low suction pressure, and changes in the
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ASTECHNOVA 2016
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Mr. Dwi Yudha
Prasetyatama and Pusat Studi Ilmu Teknik Universitas
Gadjah Mada for providing data and consultations.
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