In one of the 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 spectacular outcomes.
We are surrounded by gas. From water bottles to the insulation in our properties, natural fuel is a key ingredient in nearly each product we use daily. According to the most recent 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 trend are manifold, but the IGU determines three major components. First, the fee competitiveness of fuel in contrast to other power sources. Secondly, higher safety of supply with regard to infrastructure, delivery, and versatile use. Thirdly, gas represents a sustainable form of vitality that can mitigate local weather change and lower localized air pollution. It has 50% fewer CO2 emissions in comparison with coal, for instance.
In order to satisfy this rising demand and use, the eco-friendly potential fuel will have to be extracted utilizing a sustainable process. One of the largest methods is the Åsgard oil and fuel subject on the Haltenbanken, 200 km off the coast of Norway. It incorporates 52 wells mixed in 16 gas fields and connected by 300 km of oil pipelines. As of December 2018, the sector has estimated sources of 9.9 million commonplace cubic meters of oil equivalent of oil and 51.1 million normal cubic meters of oil equal of fuel.
The system used comprises three essential areas: Åsgard A, B, and C. Åsgard A is a floating oil production vessel that has been anchored there completely since extraction began in 1999. Åsgard B is a floating, semi-submersible fuel 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 gas pipeline to the Karsto processing complicated to the north of Stavanger, Norway.
First on the earth Aker Solutions ASA has been supporting the Åsgard gasoline field with numerous fuel subject products, systems, and providers since 2010. In time, the pressure in the storage facility in gas-producing fields drops. Compressors are wanted to sustain the output. Aker delivered the first-ever underwater compressor system worldwide to Åsgard to have the ability to increase the output to 306 million barrels. These are usually put in on platforms above sea level.
However, Åsgard is based on an underwater system. By utilizing compressors on the seabed the recovery charges are improved and the funding and operating prices are decreased. In addition, underwater compression leaves a smaller ecological footprint and is extra reliable than a platform. The Åsgard system consists of modules for two equivalent sets of compressors, pumps, scrubbers, and coolers. The motors wanted 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 manufacturing of submersible motors. Due to the renewable winding, ANDRITZ submersible motors are appropriate for driving deep properly pumps, bottom consumption pumps, suction pumps, seawater pumps, and underwater equipment.
Depending on the world of utility, the motors can be made of forged iron, bronze or totally different type of stainless-steel and put in both 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 particular cooling technology. In designs with inside permanent magnet motor technology, or IPM for short, these maintenance-free motors can achieve impressive outputs, efficiencies and, consequently, value savings.
The effective and measurable motor cooling system keeps the inside temp- erature as little as possible. Drinking water is used as a cooling liquid, which is why the motors can function in media of as much as 75° C. An impeller with optimized suction and delivery is mounted at the lower shaft end of the rotor. One of its two major tasks is cooling and lubricating the close by thrust bearing. By doing so, the impeller ensures there’s a constant circulate of cooling liquid in the best path.
This liquid strikes via the inside of the motor from the bottom to the top. The specifically developed cooling channels define the precise path over all warmth sources to discharge the heat effectively and systematically. At diaphragm seal , the warmth from the liquid is then discharged by way of the motor’s outer wall. Here, it is transferred via the floor of the motor to the medium to be pumped.
The ANDRITZ submersible motors are only a tiny part of the underwater compressor system, but they are also an extremely necessary half. The complete underwater station can not operate with out 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 forms the condensate unit together with the pump and conveys those liquids that are removed by the separator upstream of the gas compressors.
In 2017, due to a failure in part of the system which was not supplied by ANDRITZ, the motor was despatched in for repairs, throughout which an intensive examine was carried out. Thermal distribution in the cooling move and the hot spots have been analyzed in more detail. The results also led to the design of a model new plate crosssection for the rotor plates.
Because of this, the motor to be repaired was also utterly overhauled and fitted with a new winding and a new rotor. This research and the implementation of its findings not only profit the current buyer and future prospects in this case, but also strengthen confidence in the ANDRITZ submersible motor technology.
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