Compressing and Cooling - Chapter9

INTRODUCTION
Portable Compressor
-were first utilized in the late 1980’s in the
raining industry to drill in-mine pneumatic
percussions boreholes
Then:
In 1920’s, Deep petroleum and natural wells
were drilled utilizing portable air compressors.
Also:
Compressor may refer to:
Gas compressor, a device that pressurizes fluids
generally, it is a mechanical device that increases the
pressure of a gas by reducing its volume.
Also:
Compressor may refer to:
Gas compressor, a
device that pressurizes
fluids generally, it is a
mechanical device that
increases the pressure of
a gas by reducing its
volume.
And there are five types of compressor stations:
 Field gas-gathering stations to gather gas from wells in which
pressure in insufficient to produce at a desire rate flow into a
transmission or distributions system. These stations generally
handle suction pressures from below atmospheric pressure to 750
psig and volumes from a few to many million per cubic feet per
day.
 Relay or main line stations to boost pressure in transmission lines.
They compress generally large volumes of gas at a pressure range
between 200 and 1,300 psig.
 Re-pressuring or recycling stations to provide gas pressures as
high as 6,000 psig for processing or secondary oil recovery
projects.
 Storage field stations to compress trunk line gas for injection into
storage wells at pressures up to 4,000 psig.
 Distributions plant station to pump gas holder supply to medium
or high-pressure distribution lines at about 20 to 100 psig, or pump
into bottle storage up to 2,500 psig.
TYPES OF
COMPRESSORS
RECIPROCATING COMPRESSOR
ROTARY COMPRESSORS
(Centrifugal compressor and rotary

blower)
5
Reciprocating compressors are most
commonly used in the natural gas
industry. They are built for all
pressures and volumetric capacities. A
typical reciprocating compressor can
deliver a volumetric gas flow rate up
to 30,000 cubic feet per minute at
discharge pressure up to 10,000 psig.
6
Reciprocating air compressors
are positive displacement machines,
meaning that they increase the
pressure of the air by reducing its
volume. This means they are taking in
successive volumes of air which is
confined within a closed space and
elevating this air to a higher pressure.
The reciprocating air compressor
accomplishes this by a piston within a
cylinder as the compressing and
displacing element. 7
Centrifugal Compressor
Its efficiency is high and lubrication
oil consumption and maintenance
cost are low. Compression rates of
centrifugal compressor are lower
because of the absence of positive
displacement.
8
Centrifugal compressors use a rotating disk
or impeller in a shaped housing to force the gas to the
rim of the impeller, increasing the velocity of the gas.
A diffuser (divergent duct) section converts the
velocity energy to pressure energy. They are
primarily used for continuous, staetionary service in
industries such as oil refineries,
chemical and petrochemical plants and natural gas
processing plants. Their application can be from 100
horsepower (75 kW) to thousands of horsepower.
With multiple staging, they can achieve extremely
high output pressures greater than 10,000 psi
(69 MPa).
9
Rotary Blower
Rotary blower is built of a casing in which one or
more impellers rotate in opposite directions.
Rotary blowers are primarily used in distribution
systems where the pressure differential between
suction and discharge is less than 15 psi. They
are also used for refrigeration and closed
regeneration of adsorption plants.
10
11
Selection of Reciprocating
Compressor
Two basic approaches are used to calculate
to calculate the horsepower theoretically
required to compress natural gas.
1. Analytic Expression
2. Enthalpy-entropy / Mollier Diagram for
Real Gas
Even though in practice the cyclinder in
reciprocating compressors may be water
cooled, it is customary to consider the
compression process as fundamentally
adiabatic that is to idealized the compression
as one in which there is no cooling of the gas.
Furthermore, the process is usually
considered to be essentially a perfectly
reversible adiabatic, that is an isentropic
compressor.
General Law.
pV = a constant
k
K is an isentropic exponent given by the specific heat

ratio:
k = Cp / C v
Cp and Cv are specific heat at constant pressure and constant
volume, respectively.
When a real gas is compressed in a single stage
compression, the compression is polytropic
tending to approach adiabatic or constant-
entropy conditions.
Adiabatic compression calculations give
maximum theoretical work or horsepower
necessary to compress a gas between any two
pressure limits, whereas isothermal-
compression calculations give the minimum
theoretical work or horsepower necessary to
compress the gas.
Volume Efficiency
Represents the efficiency represents the
efficiency of a compressor cylinder to
compress gas. It may be defined as the
ratio of the volume of gas actually
delivered to the piston displacement,
corrected to suction temperature and
pressure.
Theoretical formula:
Ev = 1- (r – 1) Cl 1/k
Where
Ev volumetric efficiency, fraction
r cylinder compression ratio
Cl clearance, fraction
Ev = 0.97 – [( zs / zd ) r1/k – 1] Cl – ev
zs gas deviation factor at suction of the

cylinder
Zd gas deviation factor at discharge of the
cylinder
ev correction factor
Stage compression
the ratio of the discharge pressure is called
pressure ratio. The volumetric efficiency
become less and mechanical stress
limitation becomes more pronounced as
pressure ratio increases. Natural gas is
usually compressed in stages with the
pressure ratio per stage being less than 6.
r = ( Pd / Ps ) 1/Ns
Where
Pd final charge pressure, absolute
Ps suction pressure, absolute
Ns number of stages required
Isentropic Horsepower
The computation is based on the assumption
that the process is ideal isentropic or
perfectly reversible adiabatic. The total ideal
horsepower for a given compression is the
sum of the ideal work computed for each
stage of compression. The ideal isentropic
work can be determined for each stage of
compression in a number of ways. One
simple and rapid way to solve a compression
problem is by using the “Mollier Diagram”.
 Approach commonly used is to calculate the horsepower for each stage from the isentropic
work formula:
(9.7)
where:
When the deviation from ideal-gas behaviour is appreciable, Equation (9.7) is empirically modified.
One such modification is:
or, in terms of power,
Where:
The theoretical adiabatic horsepower obtained by the proceeding equations can be converted to brake
horsepower required at the end of prime mover of the compressor using an overall efficiency factor,
The brake horsepower is the horsepower input into the compressor.
The efficiency factor consist of two components:

•compression efficiency (compressor-valve losses)
•mechanical efficiency of the compressor.
The overall efficiency of a compressor depends on a number of factors, including design details of the
compressor, suction pressure, speed of the compressor, compressor ratio, loading, and general mechanical
condition of the unit.
The actual efficiency curves can be obtained from the manufacturer. Applying these factors to the
theoretical horsepower gives
Where q is the gas flow rate in MMscfd

The discharge temperature for real gases can be calculated by:
Calculation of the heat removed by intercoolers and aftercoolers can be accomplished using
constant pressure specific heat data:
where:
Selection of
Centrifugal
Compressors
Although the adiabatic compression
process can be assumed in centrifugal
compression, polytrophic compression process
is commonly considered as the basis for
comparing centrifugal compressor
performance. The process is express as:
where n denotes the polytrophic

exponent.
Surge Limit
- lower limit of gas flow rate which severe gas
surge occurs in the compressors
Stone-wall Limit
- the upper limit of the gas flow rate which is
controlled by compressor horsepower
The procedure of preliminary calculations for selection of
centrifugal compressors is summarized as follows:
1. Calculate the ratio based on the inlet and

discharge pressures:
2. Based on the required gas flow rate under

standard conditions, estimate the gas
capacity at inlet condition by ideal gas law:
3. Find a value for the polytrophic efficiency Ep:
4. Calculate the polytrophic ratio (n-1)/n :
5. Calculate discharge temperature by:

6. Estimate gas compressibility factors values at
inlet and discharge conditions.
7. Calculate gas capacity at the inlet condition

(q1) by real gas law:
8. Repeats step 2 to 7 until the value q1

converges within an acceptable deviation.
9. Calculate the gas horsepower by:
Some manufacturer’s present compressor

specifications using polytrophic head in
lbf-ft/lbm defined as:
The polytrophic head relates to the gas
horsepower by:
where m is mass flow rate in lbm/min

10. Calculate gas power horsepower by:
∆HPm is mechanical power losses, which

usually taken as 20horsepower for bearing,
and 30 horsepower for seals.
SELECTION OF
ROTARY BLOWER
ROTARY POSITIVE BLOWER
 Also called “positive displacement
blower”
 Employs two symmetrical impellers
rotating in a fixed relationship with each
other and In opposite directions within an
elongated cylinder.
 As each lobe of an impeller passes the
blower inlet, it traps quantity of air equal
exactly one-fourth the displacement of
the blower.
 Timing gears position the impellers
accurately in relation to each other,
maintaining minute clearances, which
allow the rotary positive blower to
operate at high volumetric efficiency
without internal seal or lubrication.
A kind of leakage is formed because of that
minute of clearance which is called slip. It is
constant for any given blower at a given
pressure. Rotary blowers are available in
capacities ranging from 5 to 30000 cfm
pressures of up to 12 psig in single stage. In
some sizes, two-stage machines are available for
pressures up to 20 psig.
Nt = qd /Vdis + Nsl
Where
Nt = total operating speed (rpm)

qd = desired gas capacity (cfm)
Vdis = displacement (ft3/revolution)
Nsl = slip speed (rpm)
hp = 0.005VdisNt∆p
Where
∆p = pressure differential (psi)

Most requirements can be met with a single
machine of the required capacity and are suitable
to produce the required pressure. The positive
displacement blower can be adapted to variable-
capacity requirement if provided with a variable-
speed transmission or driver. Capacity control
can also be provided by installing multiple units
of identical or different capacities.

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INTRODUCTION

(Centrifugal compressor and rotary

K is an isentropic exponent given by the specific heat

zs gas deviation factor at suction of the

or, in terms of power,

The efficiency factor consist of two components:

Where q is the gas flow rate in MMscfd

where n denotes the polytrophic

1. Calculate the ratio based on the inlet and

2. Based on the required gas flow rate under

4. Calculate the polytrophic ratio (n-1)/n :

5. Calculate discharge temperature by:

7. Calculate gas capacity at the inlet condition

8. Repeats step 2 to 7 until the value q1

Some manufacturer’s present compressor

where m is mass flow rate in lbm/min

∆HPm is mechanical power losses, which

Nt = total operating speed (rpm)

∆p = pressure differential (psi)

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