Surface Production Operations ENPE 505 Lecture Notes #8 Pumps and Compressors

Hassan Hassanzadeh EN B204M hhassanz@ucalgary.ca

Pumps and Compressors

Learning Objectives choose appropriate pump and compressor for transportation of crude oil and natural gas streams

Pumps
Reciprocating

Flow rate Centrifugal Pressure

Rotary

Pumps and compressors

Crude oil and natural gas are transmitted over short and long distances mainly through pipelines. Pumps and compressors are used for providing pressures required for the transportation.

Pumps
Reciprocating piston pumps are widely used for transporting crude oil through pipelines. There are two types of piston strokes: the single-action piston stroke and the doubleaction piston stroke.

Double-action stroke in a duplex pump

Single-action stroke in a triplex pump

The double-action stroke is used for duplex (two pistons) pumps. The single-action stroke is used for pumps with three or more pistons (e.g., triplex pump). Normally, duplex pumps 4 can handle higher flow rate and triplex pumps can provide higher pressure.

Triplex Pumps
The work per stroke for a single piston is expressed as The work per one rotation of crank is where P = pressure, lb/ft2 L = stroke length, ft D = piston diameter, ft. Thus, for a triplex pump, the theoretical power is where N is pumping speed in strokes per minute. The theoretical horsepower is 1Hp=550 ft.lbf/sec The input horsepower needed from the prime mover is where em is the mechanical efficiency of the mechanical system transferring power from the prime mover to the fluid 5 in the pump. Usually em is taken to be about 0.85. or

Triplex Pumps (cont.)

The theoretical volume output from a triplex pump per revolution is The theoretical output in bbl/day is thus If we use inches (i.e., d [in.] and l [in.]), for D and L, then The real output of the pump is dependent on how efficiently the pump can fill the chambers of the pistons. Using the volumetric efficiency ev gives: or where ev is usually taken to be 0.880.98. As the above volumetric equation can be written in d and l, then the horsepower equation can be written in d, l, and p (psi).

Duplex Pumps
The work per stroke cycle is expressed as The work per one rotation of crank is Thus, for a duplex pump, the theoretical power is Power = 2x The theoretical horsepower is

The input horsepower needed from the prime mover is

Duplex Pumps (cont.)

The theoretical volume output from the double-acting duplex pump per revolution is

The theoretical output in gals/min is thus

If we use inches (i.e., d [in.] and l [in.]), for D and L, then

The real output of the pump is or that is,

As in the volumetric output, the horsepower equation can also be reduced to a form with p, d1, d2, and l
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Duplex Pumps (cont.)

we have

and

The usual form of this equation is in p (psi) and q (gal/min): That is:

The other form of this equation is in p (psi) and qo (bbl/day) for oil transportation:

Compressors
When natural gas does not have sufficient energy to flow, a compressor station is needed. Five types of compressor stations are generally used in the natural gas production industry: 1. Field gas-gathering stations to gather gas from wells in which pressure is insufficient to produce at a desired rate of flow into a transmission or distribution system. These stations generally handle suction pressures from below atmospheric pressure to 750 psig and volumes from a few thousand to many million cubic feet per day. 2. Relay or main-line stations to boost pressure in transmission lines compress generally large volumes of gas at a pressure range between 200 and 1,300 psig. 3. Re-pressuring or recycling stations to provide gas pressures as high as 6,000 psig for processing or secondary oil recovery projects. 4. Storage field stations to compress trunk line gas for injection into storage wells at pressures up to 4,000 psig. 5. Distribution plant stations to pump gas from holder supply to medium- or highpressure distribution lines at about 20100 psig, or pump gas into bottle storage up to 2,500 psig.
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Types of Compressors
The compressors used in todays natural gas production industry fall into two distinct types: Reciprocating (most commonly used) 1. They are built for practically all pressures and volumetric capacities 2. Reciprocating compressors have more moving parts and, therefore, lower mechanical efficiencies than rotary compressors. 3. A typical reciprocating compressor can deliver a volumetric gas flow rate up to 30,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) at a discharge pressure up to 10,000 psig. Rotary compressors Centrifugal compressor 1. Centrifugal compressors have few moving parts because only the impeller and shaft rotate. Thus, its efficiency is high and lubrication oil consumption and maintenance costs are low. 2. high-capacity, low-pressure ratio machines that adapt easily to series arrangements within a station. 3. Typically, the volume is more than 100,000 cfm and discharge pressure is up to 100 psig. 11

Types of Compressors (cont.)

Rotary compressors Rotary blower primarily used in distribution systems where the pressure differential between suction and discharge is less than 15 psi. They are also used for psi refrigeration and closed regeneration of adsorption plants. The rotary blower has several advantages: large quantities of low-pressure gas can be handled at comparatively low horsepower, it has small initial cost and low maintenance cost, it is simple to install and easy to operate, it requires minimum floor space for the quantity of gas removed, and it has almost pulsation-less flow. As its disadvantages, Rotary blower cannot withstand high pressures, it has noisy operation because of gear noise and clattering impellers, it improperly seals the clearance between the impellers and the casing, and it overheats if operated above safe pressures. Typically, rotary blowers deliver a volumetric gas flow rate of up to 17,000 cfm and have a maximum intake pressure of 10 psig and a differential 12 pressure of 10 psi.

Approximate ranges of application for compressors.

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Reciprocating Compressors
Horsepower for a single stage compression k=cp/cv, T is oR, p in psi

The compression ratio in each stage should be less than six to increase compression efficiency. The equation to calculate stage-compression ratio is where Pdis, Pin, and ns are final discharge pressure, inlet pressure, and number of stages, respectively. For a two-stage compression, the compression ratio for each stage should be

For greater number of stages

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Reciprocating Compressors
in practice, although this equation results in minimum power, the net work or energy required varies only by a fraction of a percent for relatively large variations in the compression ratio. This is an important fact, often used for flexibility in design for economic and technical reasons. Example: A gas is being compressed from 100 psia and 150 oF to 2500 psia. Determine the compression ration with and without cooling: without cooling
p ro = d p s
1/ ns

for ns = 1, r = 25 too high and not acceptable

1 / ns

2500 = 100

= 251/ ns
for ns = 2, r = 5 < 6 acceptable

with cooling
p 1 ro = d p 0.97 s
1 / ns

2500 1 = 100 0.97

1/ ns

= 25.7731/ ns

for ns = 2, r = 5.077 < 6 acceptable

Reciprocating Compressors (cont.)

Reciprocating compressors have a clearance at the end of the piston. This clearance produces a volumetric efficiency ev. The relation is given by

where is the clearance ratio defined as the clearance volume at the end of the piston stroke divided by the entire volume of the chamber (volume contacted by the gas in the cylinder). In addition, there is a mechanical efficiency em of the compressor and its prime mover. The required minimum input prime mover motor to practically operate the compressor (either reciprocating or rotary) is where ev = 0,80 - 0.99 and em = 0.80 to 0.95 for reciprocating compressors, and ev = 1.0 and em = 0.70 to 0.75 for rotary compressors.
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Fuel consumption of prime movers versus load

The usable prime mover power ratio is

Fuel consumption of prime movers using three types of fuel.

Fuel consumption of prime movers using natural gas as fuel.

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Effect of elevation on prime mover power

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Centrifugal Compressors
The procedure of preliminary calculations for selection of centrifugal compressors is summarized as follows: 1. Calculate compression ratio based on the inlet and discharge pressures:

2. Based on the required gas flow rate under standard condition (q), estimate the gas capacity at inlet condition (q1) by ideal gas law:

3. Find a value for the polytropic efficiency Ep from the manufacturers where q1 is the gas capacity manual based on q1 or at the inlet condition, cfm. 4. Calculate polytropic ratio (n-1)/n using

5. Calculate discharge temperature by

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Centrifugal Compressors (cont.)

6. Estimate gas compressibility factor values at inlet and discharge conditions. 7. Calculate gas capacity at the inlet condition (q1) by real gas law: 8. Repeat Steps 27 until the value of q1 converges within an acceptable deviation. 9. Calculate gas horsepower by Some manufacturers present compressor specifications using polytropic head in lbf ft/lbm defined where R is the gas constant given by 1544/MWa in psia-ft3/lbm-R. The polytropic head relates to the gas horsepower by where mt is mass flow rate in lbm/min. 10. Calculate gas horsepower by: where Hpm = 50, is mechanical power losses, which is usually taken as 20 horsepower for bearing and 30 horsepower for seals.

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