Drew Robb

Emerson is a global technology and software company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It provides solutions across multiple markets and process industries, including power, oil and gas, and downstream hydrocarbons, among others. This includes technologies to manage, control, and optimize turbomachinery asset operation.

“Our portfolio includes automation & control software for turbomachinery operating in the power generation and process industries,” said Jim Nyenhuis, Manager of Performance Consulting for the Power Industry at Emerson. “More specifically, we provide turbomachinery control systems, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), condition monitoring, and safety systems complemented by operations management software for asset and operations performance, data management and digital twin simulation.”

In addition, the company offers digital solutions for predictive AI-driven maintenance, remote monitoring, automated operational decision-making, and cybersecurity services designed to identify vulnerabilities, close protection gaps, and secure process control systems before an attack threatens to impact operations. For functional safety (SIL), it offers SIL3-capable safety systems together with an in-house expert team for SIL implementation on turbomachinery applications. The SIL safety system is integrated with the Emerson control system.

Fleetwide, plantwide, and remote controls are available with the Emerson Ovation platform.

Nyenhuis noted several evolving trends associated with the transformation of the broader energy landscape to net zero and aggressive decarbonization. Reliance on renewables, for example, brings new challenges when working with intermittent power sources: That, in turn, requires greater asset flexibility and the necessity to closely monitor assets that operate differently than originally intended.

Workforce transitions, too, are exerting a significant impact on the industry: The accelerating loss of skilled technical workers due to Baby Boomer retirements, the mass resignation phenomenon coming out of the pandemic, and the influx of a digital native workforce generation. Combined, these factors bring to the forefront the need to address how organizations can operate and maintain equipment and facilities when faced with reduced staffing equipped with varying levels of hands-on experience.

Additionally, there is increasing interest in leveraging digitalization and data analytics taking root in an environment where many plants continue to operate with controls and automation systems of varying vintages from varying suppliers. This can impact both reliability and efficiency. It can be difficult to locate spare parts and personnel with the expertise to conduct the needed services for multiple outdated systems.

“We help customers implement digital strategies by taking small data-driven steps,” said Jim Nyenhuis, Emerson. “We do this by providing control applications, wireless solutions, condition monitoring, digital twin simulation and data analytics.”

The modern plant environment calls for several elements: Quickly recognizing and responding to changing operational conditions for improved plant performance and flexibility; improving load flexibility by increasing ramp rates; better unit cycling performance and consistency; more robust and stable minimum load operation; and a decrease in the number of forced outages by reducing equipment stress.

New tools are emerging to help personnel make sense of the massive amounts of data they now collect. These tools and algorithms monitor equipment as well as process efficiency and health. When paired with various machine learning techniques and AI-based diagnostic solutions, the resulting intelligence can be used to predict and better manage potential failure situations.


Accordingly, Emerson offers a unified automation and software platform known as Ovation that helps to eliminate complexity and risk by capturing and contextualizing process and operational data.

“Ovation automation technology enables secure, reliable power plant, and equipment operation,” said Nyenhuis. “Emerson’s five decades of power generation expertise is embedded within Ovation software and technologies to form a digital platform that optimizes plant and equipment performance while reducing operations and maintenance costs.”

A single platform provides full power plant control, optimization, digital twin simulation, and analysis of all generating assets including major equipment, individual units, or multi-plant fleets. The software is also designed to incorporate renewable and distributed energy sources into the energy mix. It extends beyond the bounds of traditional distributed control and data acquisition systems to include integrated vibration monitoring, generator excitation control, safety instrumented systems, scalable footprints for small or distributed applications, virtualization, and embedded simulation.

Specific to the turbomachinery sector, Ovation Machinery Health Monitor integrates machinery protection and condition monitoring into an Ovation control system. The module snaps into the existing I/O base to provide continuous online monitoring of vibration and other machinery health parameters with orbit, waveform, and spectrum analysis display capabilities. Instead of alarms being generated after damage has occurred, Ovation HMIs display alerts based on sensor peak and phase values as well as Emerson PeakVue readings for rolling element bearings. Connecting the module to Emerson’s AMS Machine Works application provides condition monitoring capabilities outside of the Ovation network. A defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity is built into the platform.

The Ovation platform monitors vibration and other machinery health parameters.

“The stress placed on rotating equipment can introduce premature component wear and other thermal and mechanical-related issues,” said Nyenhuis. “Failure events can develop slowly and quickly escalate to failure with little to no warning, putting the safety of plant operations and staff at risk. Vibration and asset monitoring solutions identify developing faults well in advance of breakdowns.”

Such technology is also being implemented in fields such as hydrogen generation, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and energy storage. For example, Mitsubishi Power America’s Advanced Clean Energy Storage Hub uses renewable electricity to power electrolyzers to produce green hydrogen. The hydrogen is then stored in salt caverns and dispatched when required to the Intermountain Power Project (IPP Renewed) to generate electricity from hydrogen-fueled turbines. Emerson is providing an integrated Ovation control and safety platform to optimize the hub’s production efficiency and help ensure safe operations.


Remote, real-time access to operations is more critical than ever, especially with the increase of geographically dispersed and often unmanned assets. Emerson has made progress in the establishment of remote operations centers. Control software detects the onset of an abnormal condition and alerts the operator to take action to avert potential problems. Plant data can also be sent to a centralized monitoring and diagnostics (M&D) center for longer-term, strategic analysis across the entire fleet.

“Remote and mobile capabilities enable secure and efficient access to data from anywhere at any time,” said Nyenhuis. “This enables faster and more precise responses to critical issues, as well as the ability to proactively address maintenance issues, minimizing costs and improving safety.”

For compressor drive units, for example, progress has been made integrating the compressor and prime mover controls for easier operation and maintenance and to streamline cybersecurity protection. Such gains are enabled by many factors, including advancements in the speed and bandwidth of networking technologies.


Digital transformation is being embraced across the industry as organizations seek to boost operating efficiency, decrease downtime, and reduce costs. Advances in Internet of Things (IoT) and automation technologies are opening the door to greater levels of digitalization.

However, Nyenhuis cautions those engaged in digital transformation that while a game-changer, it can also be a disruptor. It is not only about technology.

“Organizations are increasingly factoring in not only process and technology, but also their culture—seeking buy-in from the people who will be interacting most with the technology,” he said. “This last element, commonly overlooked in the past, is essential for successful digital transformation.” 

Articles

OVATION AUTOMATION & CONTROL SOFTWARE FOR TURBOMACHINERY 

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT: EMERSON

Components made at the Innovation Center.

Siemens Energy has expanded its Innovation Center in Orlando, Florida. As the company’s first global hub for innovation, it is dedicated to accelerating the development of products and solutions to drive the energy transition through collaboration, rapid prototyping, and testing.

Siemens Energy Innovation Center CTO Cliff Hatcher showcases new 3D printing techniques being applied to blades.

The company has spent more than $30 million over the last few years in building its research & development operations in Florida. Another $7 million during 2022 added an extra wing as well as equipment for the machine shop, further additive manufacturing (AM) machines, and more robotics to inspect and repair components for equipment like turbines capable of running on hydrogen. The expansion increases the space from 17,000 sq. ft. to 30,000 sq. ft.

“We operate with a start-up mentality, where ideas that used to take six months to test now take six weeks,” said Rich Voorberg, President, North America for Siemens Energy.


Turbomachinery International visited the center during its grand opening in October 2019. On our return in September of 2022, it was immediately clear that things had changed considerably. The company has substantially increased its manufacturing capability, increasing the volume of work in terms of man hours by around three times. A tour highlighted the fact that further space reorganization was ongoing to make room for yet more equipment.

“We have skills in-house that span mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, AI, welding, and a multitude of other disciplines,” said Voorberg. “We need all kinds of machinery to hand so we can develop prototypes rapidly and efficiently.”

Cliff Hatcher, CTO of the Innovation Center, led the tour. He said that the center was originally an experiment to see the effect of putting experts from multiple disciplines under one roof. Based on its success over the past three years, similar centers are being established in Berlin, Abu Dhabi, and China. In addition to new product and process developments, they will function as showrooms for what Siemens Energy is doing in the field of transformative technology.

“We wanted to be agile and have a footprint that could change as market needs changed,” said Hatcher. “We can work on one topic this week, and pivot immediately to another as required.”

AM represents a recent pivot. The center is working more extensively with AM to streamline the supply chain for 3D printed parts. It will help determine which parts should be made where based on quantity and complexity, as well as prototyping new parts to be printed and developing new techniques and processes. The company is also involved in the White House’s AM Forward initiative to help small businesses learn and adopt AM. This is just one facet of a shift from being a purely internal operation to using the center to engender creativity with customers and across the supply chain.

A customer site in South America, for example, had a legacy guide vane that was damaged during the disassembly process. The manufacturing plant no longer had the capability to make the part on an expedited schedule. After an exhaustive search for an existing part the service team ran out of options to meet the outage time schedule. They turned to Innovation Center Orlando to manufacture a new part that would meet the outage schedule of 15 days. The Innovation Center team 3D printed a replacement and shipped to their manufacturing facility in Charlotte to finish machining. In parallel, the center also machined a part from a block of steel on its 5-axis CNC machine. The parts arrived on time, costly damages were avoided, and the customer met its outage schedule.


During the tour, we previewed work being done to make the 3D printing of blades feasible. Previously, 3D printing was only really viable for smaller parts due to the process involved: a layer of metallic powder of about 40 microns is laid down and laser sintered then another layer and another. For larger parts subject to high stress and temperatures such as blades, the center is using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). It lays down 20 mm layers of molten metal at a time. The process is being refined and requires a lot more finishing than traditional 3D printing.

Rich Voorberg said customers are keen to co-fund and co-create projects such as blade advances as well as in carbon capture, hydrogen, and other areas of the energy transition.

“Some customers are working with us to push turbine development to be able to run on 100% hydrogen,” he said. “The challenge is not so much in burning hydrogen but in establishing the entire hydrogen supply chain.”

Easier said than done. Hydrogen supply is extremely limited. Siemens Energy has developed electrolyzers and is working to scale up green hydrogen production. The recent infrastructure package enacted into law provides a $3 per kilo green hydrogen incentive, which will help ease funding stress on this technology. Nevertheless, we are looking at a long runway before hydrogen or some other fuel will replace natural gas.

“The amount of hydrogen you need to burn in large gas turbines is incredible,” said Voorberg. “We see the most viable market for hydrogen power being in areas such as buses, trains, and forklift trucks. But we will gradually see more hydrogen being blended with natural gas where it is available and economical to do so.” ■

FOCUS ON ADDDITIVE MANUFACTURING, PROTOTYPING NEW TECHNOLOGIES, AND DECARBONIZATION

SIEMENS ENERGY INNOVATION CENTER

Turbomachinery International recently toured Mitsubishi Power’s Orlando Service Center. Established in 2001 and expanded in 2008, the facility serves as a repair, service, and manufacturing center. The tour began in the Tomoni Hub which monitors more than 100 gas turbines throughout the Americas.


The Tomoni Hub leverages remote monitoring, digital control systems, predictive analytics, and AI to optimize power plants. It is the hub that provides support beyond monitoring. Operations specialists provide technical and operational assistance to customers 24/7. The Tomoni Hub also acts as a channel to O&M support for on-site personnel by providing real time operational support for the monitored fleet.

Prasanth Thupili, Senior Vice President of Power Generation Services at Mitsubishi Power Americas, said that the Tomoni Hub used to almost exclusively monitor gas turbines. But it now offers total plant monitoring including steam turbines and generators.


“We can do remote tuning and troubleshooting using augmented reality (AR) technology,” he said.


The Tomoni Hub receives a constant stream of data and metrics from its fleet. If something unusual is observed, combustor dynamics can be monitored and perform tuning remotely.


On the repair side, multiple in-house processes are offered. These include STEM machining (an acid electrolytic drilling technique), electrical discharge machining (EDM), milling, welding, brazing, thermal coating spray, coating removal, heat treatment, and various kinds of non-destructive examination (NDE).

Air plasma spray at Mitsubishi Power in Orlando


The extent of the facilities was a big surprise. The entire center comprises a manufacturing and repair facility totaling about 190,000 ft2. The Mitsubishi Power Orlando Service Center manufactures vanes, blades, and compressor blades totaling approximately 15,000 parts per year.


“We manufacture turbine Row 1 and 2 blades in Orlando as these are the hot-test parts,” said Thupili. “The other rows are manufactured in Japan.”
He oversees an operation that includes gas turbine, steam turbine, and generator parts, fields service, specialty repairs, and an exchange program. He noted that the steam turbine service and repair business has picked up recently. This is due in part to delayed outages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have seen a surge in the scope of our steam turbine services to include a lot more onsite inspections and more unplanned work that needs to be done on blades and other components,” said Thupili.

Electrical discharge machining (EDM) at Mitsubishi Power in Orlando


The business has also taken on the role of servicing electrolyzers, including 40 massive Mitsubishi Power hydrogen electrolyzers that are being installed in the ACES project in Utah. That will involve onsite inspections when the facility commences operation in 2024. He doesn’t anticipate the need for shop inspections of these machines until around 2030.

Laser ablation at Mitsubishi Power in Orlando


“Customers want us to do more auxiliary work beyond the normal scope of gas turbine, steam turbine, and generator repair,” said Thupili. “They prefer a single entity to do everything rather than dealing with multiple parties.”
He noted that flexibility has become just as important to customers as reliability. Some want to reduce the load on their units, sometimes as low as 35%.

Fuel nozzle inspection and repair at Mitsubishi Power in Orlando


With the labor market being so tight these days, the company is investing in more robotics and tools so that its workforce can become more productive. Examples include a robot that can remove ceramic coating from parts and small robotic tools to check the health of generators during field inspections. These inspections are done in between the rotor and the stator.


“With this tool, we no longer need to take out the rotor,” said Thupili. “Instead of ten people needed for an on-site inspection and repair, it only needs a couple.” ■


ORLANDO SERVICE CENTER PROVIDES BLADE/VANE MANUFACTURING AS WELL AS REPAIR AND REMOTE MONITORING SERVICES

MITSUBISHI POWER

Methane from flaring, leakage, and other fugitive emissions is now public enemy number one on the environmental front. Courtesy of Shutterstock

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory bodies around the world are turning their attention to the policing of fugitive emissions from sources such as fuel leakage, unburned methane, and other greenhouse gases (GHG) sources besides those related directly to the combustion process. A big reason for the surge of interest in methane is that it is said to be anywhere from 20 to 90 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a GHG (depending on the time frame considered). Thus, it has been labelled as environmental danger number one.

The Inflation Reduction Act, for example, reduced the amount of allowable methane leakage to 1% and placed a fee of up to $1,500.00 per ton for excess methane. Canada, too, has passed methane emissions reduction rules for upstream oil and natural gas facilities. These encompass extraction, primary processing, transport, storage, leakage from compressors, and fracked gas wells.


Natural gas producers, transporters, plant operators, and the industry in general, therefore, can expect the pressure to ramp up on the monitoring, measurement, and capture of fugitive methane emissions. Previous efforts centered around the minimization of methane flaring. The latest rules, standards, and net zero commitments take things to a whole new level.


The vendor community is responding. Solutions are coming to market that measure the amount of methane that spills out from oil & gas sites, detect various sources of fugitive emissions, capture any leaked methane and reuse it in combustion and other processes, and provide better sealing technology for pipelines and compressors. It is becoming important, too, to be able to report how much methane comes into a facility and compare it to how much is burned and recaptured.


“Natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane, has been regarded as a pollutant as well as a commodity since 2016 based on standards targeting oil & gas operations,” said Brian Kromer, Managing Director and Principal, Step2Compliance. “Controls must now be able to accurately calculate GHG emissions as well as the conventional pollutants. Facilities must learn to track the amount of methane leakage and find ways to recapture it and put it to use.”


Some are even flying airborne infrared spectrometers over oil & gas production basins in attempt to quantify methane point sources. They measure wavelengths in light to estimate the amount of methane. Some say their estimates are questionable. But inflated or not, they will be used to condemn production facilities. The best response is to do everything possible to prevent leakage.


Here are some of the things the vendor community has evolved to address this issue:


EagleBurgmann has developed RoTechBooster technology to reduce methane emissions. If compressors are stopped frequently, dry gas seals may become contaminated. This can be avoided by depressurizing the compressor housing. However during this process, large amounts of methane can escape. To avoid this and maintain pressure in the compressor housing during downtime, a rotating seal gas booster can be used such as RoTechBooster. It is an electrically driven seal gas booster that keeps dry gas seals clean during standby conditions, and at any time insufficient seal gas flow occurs. Its rotating design allows the compressor to be placed in a pressurized hold for nearly unlimited time. No venting or flaring is required.


The company has also released the CobaDGS zero emission compressor seal. In higher pressure applications such as natural gas compressors, conventional tandem dry gas seals are typically used to minimize leakage of natural gas/methane. Due to their tandem design, they meet safety requirements, and reduce emissions by up to 90% compared with oil-lubricated compressor shaft seals. In addition, less friction occurs, and the service life is longer. Nevertheless, tandem dry gas seals still leak some methane into the atmosphere during operation. Another possibility to eliminate seal leakage is to use dry gas seals in double arrangement supplied with nitrogen (N2). However, this seal configuration is less safe and only approved for low pressures. Besides, if the N2 supply is interrupted, the double seals can get damaged.


“For the CobaDGS dry gas seal, EagleBurgmann adapted the coaxial design of its CobaSeal for use at higher pressures,” said Benjamin Hellmig of EagleBurgmann. “The Cobaseal is a separation seal is a coaxial design that is also supplied with N2 but is resilient to gas supply interruptions. It can remain pressurized with N2 during operation and shutdown without contamination.”


Matthias Grapow, Vice President Business Intelligence and Business Development, MAN Energy Solutions, believes that producing biogas from organic waste will grow rapidly in the coming years. The company’s HOFIM-based Factory LNG technology is used at organic waste collection sites where biomethane (aka renewable natural gas) can be liquefied from biogas. Biogas or biomethane can be used for combined heat and power (CHP) operations or turned into electricity. This approach can also be used for small-scale LNG to enable natural gas to be supplied to places not directly tied to a mainline natural gas pipeline.

HOFIM high-speed oil-free integrated motor-compressor by MAN Energy Solutions


“Through a fleet of cryogenic transport tanks, the produced LNG can be transported over long distances by truck or trains to enable the provision of energy to isolated regions,” said Grapow.


The hermetically sealed and electrically driven compression HOFIM consists of a single rotating element, two radial and one axial bearing, no couplings, no gearbox, no lube oil and no shaft seals to atmosphere. These zero emission compressors are suitable for use in midstream gas transport, gas storage, small-scale LNG, upstream subsea, and topside compression.


“Instead of flaring production-related gas losses, the gases can be reused within the process for power or heat generation, or can be converted into transportation fuel or LNG,” said Grapow.


Tom Harper, Vice President, Emissions Management and Commercial Development Leader, Climate Technology Solutions at Baker Hughes, believes that the global oil and gas industry can eliminate 40% of its methane emissions at no net cost. It has developed various tools to meet this challenge.


The company’s Lumen Terrain and Lumen Sky technologies, for example, use analytics to detect, localize, and quantify methane leaks. This information can be used to prioritize recommendations for abatement, as well as supporting the verification of emissions reductions.

The emissions profile of gas turbines, particularly methane emissions is much better than reciprocating engines. Courtesy of Siemens Energy.


Another abatement solution is flare.IQ. It enables higher-efficiency flare combustion and reduced methane slip emissions. The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is deploying it in the refining sector in Egypt.


“This will lower flaring emissions from oil and gas operations by digitalizing emissions management infrastructure and pulling information about flare systems, substantially reducing emissions by ensuring a higher-efficiency flare combustion rate,” said Harper.


Siemens Energy’s flagship methane offering is the Spontaneous Leak Detection Service (powered by ProFlex) for gases, liquids and multi-phase fluids transported through pipelines. It utilizes signal processing on edge computing devices, Internet of Things (IoT) software, and data processing algorithms to identify leaks in near real-time.


“Our technology can detect leaks as small as ½ inch to 2 inches within seconds and provide accurate localization to as little as +/- 20 feet, while minimizing false positives,” said Anand Sengupta, Vice-President, Head of Global Sales,
Siemens Energy Compression.

The company has also developed predictive analytics technologies and digital twins that are used in Predictive Emissions Monitoring Software (PEMS) across the Siemens Energy small gas turbines portfolio. It helps operators predict regulated emissions accurately.


“Although methane slip or unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) in the exhaust of gas turbines is orders of magnitude lower compared to other engines, we’ve received many queries from customers, and are planning to incorporate the prediction of UHC into PEMS for small gas turbines,” said Sengupta


ABB has released of HoverGuard, an addition to its ABB Ability Mobile Gas Leak Detection System. HoverGuard is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based system that detects, quantifies and maps leaks up to 300 ft from natural gas distribution and transmission pipelines, gathering lines, storage facilities, and other potential sources. It automatically generates digital reports that summarize results and can be shared in minutes after a survey.


The cloud-connected, multi-gas solution quantifies the three most important greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor) continuously while flying. Cavity-enhanced laser absorption spectroscopy detects methane with a sensitivity more than 1,000 times higher than conventional leak detection tools. It can detect leaks while flying at altitudes of 130 ft or higher, and at speeds greater than 55 mph.

Enclosed Vapor Combustors (EVCs) are available from several vendors. They are being used, for example, in some Canadian gas facilities to address leakage at compressor and meter stations. Burners convert methane into water vapor and CO2. Testing has shown this technology to be 99.6% efficient in converting methane.


Klaus Brun, Director, Research and Development, Elliott Group, said his company is using technologies from others to improve methane emissions along its product line.


“We can utilize leak-free dry-gas seals or seal vent gas capture and recovery when a client requests it,” said Brun. “Our new 140 TCH pipeline compressor has a single dry gas seal instead of two seals to reduce dry gas seal leakage by 50%.”


He noted, though, that the biggest reduction in GHG emissions from compressors can be achieved by improving compressor efficiency or by converting the driver from an engine/gas turbine to an electric motor drive. Another way to lower methane spillage is to avoid shutdowns for blowdowns. That entails improving reliability and availability and eliminating false alarms.


Solar Turbines, too, is doing a number of things to reduce methane emissions. The company uses a system that gathers the leakage from dry gas seals and recompresses it back either to fuel gas pressure or compressor suction pressure.


ExxonMobil has reduced U.S. unconventional methane emissions by approximately 40% as of year-end 2021 when compared to 2016 by conducting tens of thousands of leak surveys and eliminating all its high bleed pneumatic devices. The company has developed ground-based continuous sensors, as well as aerial, airplane and satellites technologies to help with methane reduction.


“By 2030, we’re planning a 20% to 30% reduction in corporate greenhouse gas intensity, a 70% to 80% reduction in corporate methane intensity, and a 60% to 70% reduction in corporate-wide flaring intensity,” said Matt Kolesar, Chief Environmental Scientist at ExxonMobil.


BP has targeted zero routine flaring emissions by 2025 in its U.S. onshore operations and globally by 2030. It is deploying a variety of detection and monitoring technologies and is phasing out remaining pneumatic controllers.


Teledyne Flir’s FLIR GF320 detects hydrocarbon and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from natural gas production and use. With this optical gas imaging camera, inspectors can check components and see potential gas leaks in real-time. The GF320 is lightweight, offers both a viewfinder and LCD monitor, and has direct access to controls. Embedded GPS data helps in identifying the precise location of faults and leaks.

The ABB drone can detect leaks and measure gases


Vortex Services of Canada offers the Vortex Emissions Target Solution. It packages a elements that address methane measurement such as a fuel measurement, fuel valves, a display panel, sensors (O2 and NOx) a catalyst monitor, and several venturi elements to improve the fuel/air mix.


Continental Controls Corp. (CCC) offers a range of fuel control, fuel measurement, and emissions monitoring tools to accurately measure GHGs. Its Catalyst Monitor continuously measures pressure across the catalyst as well as pre- and post-catalyst temperature and notifies the user if minimum or maximum temperatures are exceeded. When combined with the CCC Air Fuel Ratio Controls (AFRC), it can make corrections to set points to maintain low emissions levels and extend the useful life of catalysts. This arrangement can be used to provide evidence of engine compliance and fuel consumption over an extended period of time.


“CCC continuously measures the true rate of methane compliance,” said Kromer. “Its tools can help monitor methane related to the exhaust as well as fugitive emissions.”

The Continental Controls Catalyst Monitor continuously measures pressure across the catalyst as well as pre- and post-catalyst temperature


Utilities, owners, operators, and plant personnel are grooved in to measuring emissions in the exhaust, but not methane.


“Methane is not easy to eliminate and doesn’t go away when you use a three-way catalyst,” said Rick Fisher, Vice President at Continental Controls Corp. “Every compressor station and any plant running a gas turbine or gas engine is going to suffer methane leakage. Even something as simple as a shutting off a valve in a compressor station often leads to some venting of methane.”


Traditional monitors and controls are not set up to accurately measure methane. But owners and operators can expect stricter methane reporting such as on the amount of fuel that comes into a facility, how much was combusted, and how much methane leakage has been collected for reuse. ■


HOW THE INDUSTRY IS DEALING WITH NEW METHANE REQUIREMENTS

METHANE CAPTURE

Courtesy of Texas A&M’s Turbomachinery Laboratory

Texas A&M hosted the 51st Turbomachinery and Pump Symposia in Houston during September. Attendance returned to pre-pandemic levels. The show featured a lively exhibit and a large collection of sessions, discussion groups, and case studies.


Michael Welch, Industry Marketing Manager, Siemens Energy, kicked off an early session on how to integrate turbomachinery into CO2 capture plants aimed at smaller, open cycle gas turbine applications. He reviewed one carbon capture approach based on the traditional amine capture system and another using pressurized hot potassium carbonate (HPC) concept.

Traditional systems are largely solvent based on absorption towers. The drawbacks include the need for power and heat, as well as a lot of space. They currently capture about 90% of the carbon, although this could be pushed up above 95% through additional investment. Additionally, the solvent must be regularly topped up. Electrical and heat consumption are a significant proportion of plant output. The small scale makes amine tower system costs relatively high.


“Advances such as rotating packed beds (RPB) can be used to reduce energy and space requirements,” said Welch. “The size of the absorption system is reduced by 7 to 10 times.”


However, low flue gas temperatures are still required. There is currently a limit as to how large they can be scaled up. As a result, the price tag comes down for small CO2 capture plants, with forecasts that $50/tonne could be achievable.


HPC, meanwhile, scales well and generates its own power and steam. But this approach has a high space requirement (about the same as amine towers). On the plus side, HPC can accept high temperature flue gas from gas turbines without the need to reduce the flue gas temperature. This pressurized high temperature system can generate sufficient electricity for its own use, even producing surplus for export in some cases. It can be configured to recover waste heat, too, for various purposes.
But the big barrier to broad adoption of carbon capture is cost. Amine towers have CO2 capture costs that work out around $80 to $150 tonne for a small capture plant. RPB and HPC could achieve around $50 to $80 tonne in the right circumstances. Mixing hydrogen with natural gas can bring costs down further.


“If you add 30% hydrogen into the mix, you can achieve an 11% reduction in carbon emissions, so there is less CO2 to capture,” said Welch.
Another way to reduce costs is to consider boosting the CO2 concentration in the flue gas by using exhaust gas recirculation. This reduces the amount of solvent required in the process and hence the size of the reaction vessels
Waste heat recovery is an additional strategy being used to improve project economics. There are various ways to recover heat from the CO2 compression process and integrate it back into the amine system. Recovering and integrating CO2 heat of compression, for example, can reduce the parasitic burden of carbon capture and lower compressor cooling requirements. This approach could be used with either single-shaft or integrally geared compressors. The latter was found to offer more flexibility in optimizing compressor pressure ratio splits.


The carbon capture theme continued with a presentation by Klaus Brun, Director of R&D at Elliott Group and long-term Myth Buster for Turbomachinery International. He outlined the new for new approaches to compression of carbon dioxide for separation, pipeline, transportation, and storage injection. For every kg of blue hydrogen that is produced through steam reforming or partial oxidation gasification, for example, about 10 kg of CO2 is also produced. This CO2 needs to be compressed from near-atmospheric conditions for pipeline transportation and then to geological formation storage pressures for long-term sequestration.


One promising technology for large-scale carbon storage compression applications is a hybrid combination of a centrifugal compressor to compress the gas to slightly above its critical point in series with a dense phase pump to reach the desired process discharge pressure. This combination of turbomachinery can be packaged with a driver with a single gearbox for the compressor and direct drive for the pump.


“We have about 250 years of storage capacity for CO2 in the U.S. in old mines and geological formations,” said Brun. Putting it in the ground requires about 1800 psi compression per mile of depth. Pipelines are needed to transport the CO2 as well. That means the carbon dioxide needs to be cleaned and dried and a boost compressor is needed after capture to maintain pipeline pressure. CO2 transportation requires very high pressure ratio compressors with intercooling.


“Centrifugal compressors are preferred as recips have issues with pulsation control, lube oil contamination, leakage, and reliability,” said Brun.

Tim Allison, Director of the Machinery Department at Southwest Research Institute provided a rundown of the different mechanical approaches to long-term storage of energy. Batteries are good for short-term storage. But the longest duration approaches are machinery-based, such as compressed air energy storage (CAES) and pumped hydro systems (PHS).

The suitability of various energy storage technologies based on the amount of storage they provide and their capacity capabilities. Courtesy of Southwest Research Institute.

“As we seek to decarbonize electricity, there is a variable demand mismatch coming from wind and solar resources,” said Allison. “Studies show that storage on the order of current daily energy production or more may be needed.”
He gave the example of metropolitan Phoenix. 10 hours of energy storage for the city would amount to 125 GWh. Five of the world’s largest PHS units would be needed to supply that amount of storage. To match the energy capacity of the U.S. natural gas storage system, 57,000 PHS systems would need to be installed.


Allison noted that the figures used to support the low cost of solar and wind tend not to take into account capacity factor and storage costs. Solar has a 25% capacity factor, and wind has about 35%.


“When you add in storage costs, capacity factor, and round-trip efficiency, gas turbines remain much cheaper,” said Allison. “Machinery based solutions offer long-duration storage at the lowest cost.

Medhat Zaghloul of Compressor Control Corporation delivered a session on compressor refrigeration in oil & gas. The pressure ratio requirement of refrigeration compression depends on seasonal ambient conditions, rather than on process cooling demand variations. Machines in the summer typically require more horsepower to drive them. Overdesign in controls is a common problem.


If a control element is placed between the economizer and high-power suction drum, there is a chance for upstream pressure to raise in a partially closed valve scenario. Having a control system in this configuration negates economizer benefits. Single mixed refrigeration (SMR) compressors in small LNG plants are straightforward. The setup involves a two-section SMR, with a variable speed gas turbine driver. The mixed vapor from the cryogenic heat exchanger (CHE) is compressed in the low-pressure section. It produces a mixed phase stream, with the liquid portion used for process cooling and the vapor portion further compressed in the high-pressure section, and then condensed for process cooling.


Jim Sorokes, an independent centrifugal compressor consultant, examined advances made during the last seventy years in design, analysis, and manufacturing methods.


Compressors were driven by cost and ability. Machining limitations pushed design philosophy. The industry relied on cast internals for manufacturing, and performance wasn’t as important. Rising energy costs forced consideration of performance. There became a desire to consume less fuel, have a smaller footprint, fewer stages, and a wider flow range.


One of the most significant changes was dimensional design considerations. 2D blade performance is what led to 3D blade production. Achievable in 3D is high Mach, matching inlet flow angles, better control of area distribution through the bladed passage, uniform exit velocity, and diffuser performance.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a modern discovery. Creating parts with AM methods increases freedom in blade shape. Size limitations and surface finish treatments can alleviate issues from printing, such as webbing.


Mark Sandberg, independent consultant, covered compressor configuration, sizing, selection, and arrangement. Configurations were initially straight-through versions – a single collection of stages with a common inlet and discharge. Beam style rotor designs limit the number of stages to ten, although high flow coefficient stages can limit this further.


Compound configurations comprise two or more sections in a single casing. Since controlled leakage seals replace one stage in this design, stage number is limited to nine or less. Space for multiple inlet and discharge nozzles also caps possible sections. Other types are back-to-back, double suction, and sideload.
Important considerations for sizing and selection are flow rate, suction pressure, temperature, discharge pressure, gas composition or specific gravity, unique side stream flows or pressure requirements, and any rotational speed requirements. Common selection parameters are volumetric flow rate, polytropic head, polytropic efficiency, and gas power.


Compressor arrangement is the external structure and organization of compression hardware. Series arrangement considers that as head requirements increase, multiple casings are needed to achieve desired compression ratios. There is a separate driver for each casing. Tandem arrangement means one driver handles multiple casings. Required flow rate and driver type can influence selection between series and tandem arrangements. Casing selection must be optimized based on specific operating parameters. Compressors laid out in series arrangement are less reliable due to additional drivers.


Sandberg said, “Proper setup allows centrifugal compressors to run roughly seven years without maintenance.” ■

Refrigeration Compression, Turbine Performance, Compressor Advances, Carbon Capture, and Energy Storage

TURBOMACHINERY SYMPOSIUM 2022

Yaskawa Electric Corp. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers in the fields of drive technology, industrial automation, and robotics. Founded in 1915 and based in Kitakyushu, Japan, Yaskawa strives to optimize the productivity and efficiency of machines and industrial systems via innovation. Today, Yaskawa has 14,500 employees worldwide and a business volume of EUR 3.7 billion.


In 2014, Yaskawa became the sole owner of The Switch. Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch focuses on electrical drive train products, capabilities, and solutions. Included within its portfolio are electrical machines and high-power converters to original equipment manufacturers and system integrators for selected wind, marine and turbo (high-speed) applications.

"Although we are not the first AMB provider in the industry, our goal is to bring this technology as a cost-competitive option to a wider scope of applications rather than being an option only for high-end oil & gas applications,” said Markus Silventoinen.


Its solid-rotor technology integrates with high-speed machinery, and is designed to improve the efficiency, simplicity, and robustness of turbomachinery. A solid rotor is built of a single piece of steel that is not sensitive to thermal cycling. This offers stable and effective bending stiffness combined with an ability to retain its same balancing class. As a comparison, in case the rotor would be made of a plate stack shrink-fitted to a shaft, its stiffness would rely on the axial compression of such a stack. Therefore, it can change over time or when operating in fluctuating temperatures.

“We are known as a provider of robust high-speed electrical machines using solid-rotor technology,” said Markus Silventoinen, Mechanical Engineering Manager at Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch.

 The company also supplies complete high-speed machines for integrated turbomachinery, such as impellers directly on its machine shaft, as well as standalone machines that connect to adjacent machinery via a flexible coupling. Additionally, it delivers active part components for electric machines that can be integrated with turbomachinery.


The standard solution is to equip the rotor with a copper squirrel cage for improved efficiency and power factor. Efficiencies up to 97% can be reached, depending on the rating of the machine. The cage is made only from solid materials. Further, the company can provide feasibility studies of direct drive electrical machine solutions along with commissioning and service for its equipment.


“Our simplified electrical drive technology and products help optimize the performance of turbomachinery,” said Silventoinen. “The high-speed machine can be coupled directly to the system without other mechanical parts, like gear-boxes, even as a hermetic compressor motor or turbine generator unit. The variable frequency drive (VFD) supports operational optimization via energy savings.”


Some of the key turbomachinery use cases for this technology include:

•	New designs for compressors, turbines,
or pumps
•	Test benches with wide speed ranges
•	Replacing old steam or gas turbine prime movers with standalone machines

Making heat or converting it to electrical energy is a hot topic today, added Silventoinen. New technologies for industrial-size (> 1 MWe) heat pumps are needed to increase efficiency in processes that generate heat for district heating.


“Whether you’re looking for efficient heat pumps or high-speed generators in Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) applications, solid-rotor technology is a good fit,” he said. “Both solutions typically use radial turbomachinery in >1 MWe powers and need high rotational speeds of 10,000 rpm.”

Solid-rotor technology can also raise the robustness and simplicity of integrated high-speed motors in heat pump applications and high-speed generators in ORC applications.

Standalone motor for blower from Yaskawa Environmental Energy / The Switch


The organization is currently looking into opportunities for its high-speed technology to be implemented in hydrogen-related applications. And its low-speed permanent magnet machines are being used with generators for offshore wind and with direct-drive shaft generators and propulsion motors for marine applications, both of which can be a part of the future hydrogen economy.


Its latest technology is in-house active magnetic bearings (AMB), which are currently being tested by a pilot customer. Contact-free bearing technology can simplify machines, maximize robustness, and minimize losses for better system efficiency. 

For more information, visit: www.theswitch.com

Solid-Rotor Technology for Turbomachinery Applications

YASKAWA ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY / THE SWITCH

The keynote address at the 2022 Turbo Expo in Rotterdam.

The Turbomachinery Expo took place again in 2022 for the first time since 2019. Rotterdam in the Netherlands hosted the event. About 2000 people attended around 1000 technical presentations as well as 16 panels, 38 tutorials, three special lectures, two plenary sessions, an exhibit hall, and a keynote – a lot to pack into one week.


Vendors such as Southwest Research Institute, Shell, Uniper, ETN Global, Air France KLM Group, Deltalinqs, Siemens Energy, and Rolls Royce covered a wide range of topics. Supercritical CO₂, hydrogen, and decarbonization were in the forefront. But they were balanced out by plenty of briefings on coatings, maintenance, gas turbine and compressor advances, liquefied natural gas (LNG), research on turbomachinery innovation, and more.


The week began with a keynote on the future of propulsion and power. A range of speakers offered their views on the energy transition and how it will impact aviation, power generation, and oil & gas.

"We can only accommodate the rapid rise of sustainable energy if we can rely on power plants with fast-starting gas turbines that can deliver the reliability and continuity that households and industry demand,” said Victor van der Chijs, Deltalinqs.

Victor van der Chijs, Chairman of Deltalinqs, representing the logistics, port, and industrial companies in the port of Rotterdam, welcomed everyone to the city. He noted that The Netherlands obtains 55% of its energy demand from renewable sources and is actively engaged in building hydrogen infrastructure. Yet he emphasized the need to balance renewables with gas-fired generation.

“Wind and solar are not dispatchable and can’t provide electricity on demand,” said Christer Björkqvist, ETN Global.

Christer Björkqvist, Managing Director and founder of ETN Global, followed to present the overall theme of the keynote as the “Energy Trilemma.” This, he said, is all about balancing three things:

•	Access and affordability
•	Security of supply
•	Environmental Sustainability.
He invited several speakers on stage to elaborate on this theme.

“LNG demand will almost double between now and 2040,” said Priscilla Chandrasekaran, Shell.

Priscilla Chandrasekaran, Global LNG Technology Innovation Manager at Shell Global Solutions International, covered the various synergies between LNG and hydrogen as well as what the decarbonization of LNG means in the real world. It requires the acceleration of the production of hydrogen-ready GTs. Options need to be available to retrofit such machines into existing plants as well as offering models for new facilities.


She noted the growing supply/demand gap. Current production levels need to double over the next two decades in order to keep pace with demand projections.


“We need to make the decarbonization of LNG simple and affordable,” she said. “Retrofits need to be accomplished without months of downtime or the need for complex fuel gas management systems.”

“Compressed gas offers enormous energy density for transportation as well as storage capacity,” said Thomas Thiemann, Siemens Energy.

Dr. Thomas Thiemann, Senior Vice President, Siemens Energy, added that although countries such as Germany had achieved rates of around 50% renewable generation on the grid, the fact remains that there are long periods without wind and sun in Europe. He championed batteries and pumped storage as ways to increase the value of renewables by storing energy. Batteries were characterized as providing short-term power for the minutes and the hours when wind or solar are offline. But they are not a viable solution when the energy shortfall lasts for days. That is where LNG and gas-power generation come into their own. But these systems also need to become hydrogen ready.


Pedro Lopez Estebaranz, COO, Uniper and Michael Grootenboer, Senior Vice President Engine Products for the Air France KLM Group, continued the theme of the energy trilemma, wrapping up the opening morning.

Attendance was down on previous years, though that is to be expected after a break of a couple of years due to travel and event restrictions


As the foremost technical and research-oriented show in the world of turbomachinery, the Turbo Expo always serves up a wide variety of sessions. Here are just a few of the highlights:


Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) delivered a tutorial as an introduction to supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂). There has been much interest on sCO₂ for the past decade. Ten years ago, it was the talk of the show, but progress since that time has been slow. The session provided a good grounding of specific areas related to sCO₂ power cycles, demonstration test facilities, heat exchangers, turbomachinery, materials, and the various fluid properties of CO₂ and CO₂ mixtures.


Presenters mentioned sCO₂’s role in the decarbonization of the power generation sector, transportation, and industrialization processes. But there are practical challenges to overcome. Current research is addressing these challenges to bring the technology to commercial fruition.

A later panel addressed the digitalization journey of the propulsion and power industries. It will require large investments as well as cultural changes to realize the promise of digitalization: improvements in workforce efficiency, increased pace in design, manufacture and test, and greater interconnectivity driven by more compute power, modern IT hardware, and faster digital networks. These gains, in turn, require an understanding of the data needs of the digital age. A vast amount of data already exists in organizations. It needs to be better managed and utilized to support data-driven decisions and to create a data-centric culture. Challenges abound in areas such as data gathering, storing, handling, and interpretation of data.


Another tutorial by a speaker from NASA Glenn Research Center delved into environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) for gas turbine applications. The implementation of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) in the hot section of gas turbines, for example, can lead to increased thermal and propulsive efficiency as a result of their high temperature capability, high strength-to-weight ratio, and toughness. However, problems need to be overcome.


The SiO₂ scale responsible for oxidation resistance at high temperature for SiC-based CMCs, for example, is subject to rapid volatilization by water vapor generated as a byproduct during the combustion process. Subsequently, enhanced oxidation and rapid surface recession occurs resulting in decreased structural integrity and reduced lifetime. To combat the volatilization and surface recession due to water vapor, EBCs have been developed to protect CMC components. EBCs are considered an enabling technology for SiC-based CMCs as they are critical for durability, and longer life. The tutorial encompassed an understanding of the environmental degradation mechanisms of SiC-based ceramics, a history of EBC development, an introduction to EBC failure modes (such as oxidation, recession, thermomechanical fatigue, degradation by calcium-magnesium-aluminosilicate deposits, solid particle erosion, and foreign object damage), an introducion to environmental durability test methods and characterization of EBCs, and future directions and challenges.


Hydrogen, of course, came in for attention at the show. One of the top hydrogen-related sessions considered what would be needed to develop and deploy hydrogen technologies for the generation electricity and the powering of aviation. Panelists noted the present state-of-the-art for hydrogen generation and transport, energy storage, and how hydrogen can best be deployed for power and propulsion. Additionally, they delved into the challenges in converting current and installing new infrastructure for handling, transporting, and storing hydrogen.


Sarah Hopkin, Hydrogen Researcher at Shell Oil, emphasized that for hydrogen to succeed, pipelines were needed that could contain hydrogen safely, as well as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). There are already around 5000 km of hydrogen pipelines in the world, mostly in the US and Europe. While the industry has been piping hydrogen for a long time, there is little experience in repurposing existing pipelines for hydrogen. Part of the problem is that the presence of hydrogen affects the fatigue properties of steel.


On the same pane, Tim Allison, Machinery Department Director, Southwest Research Institute, focused on the machinery needed for evolving energy storage applications. He began by stating that California managed to power its entire grid by renewables for a brief period recently. But during the late afternoon and evening, non-renewable sources must be available to meet any supply shortfall. Further, the existing turbomachinery supply chain is ideally suited to take on the challenges of energy storage. Turbomachinery, he said, decouples power from duration. Machinery-based systems can be utilized in pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage (CAES), liquid air energy storage, and other applications to lower the cost of long-duration energy storage. 

The ASME Turbo Expo Conference 2023 will take place in Boston, USA in June 2023.

SPEAKERS STRESSED HYDROGEN, DECARBONIZATION, SUPERCRITICAL CO2, AND LNG

2022 TURBO EXPO

Let’s begin with a home-appliance analogy. Modern refrigerators come with a long list of features including sophisticated temperature settings, voice control, alerts when certain supplies are low or the milk goes bad, and more. On the downside, their motherboards sometimes struggle to cope with cold temperatures. Hence, you sometimes hear people longing for the old days when an old-school freezer could last for decades. However, those old freezers were also energy hogs and would be unlikely to receive an acceptable Energy Star rating. In any case, their manufacturing costs would probably be difficult to justify today.


Similarly, I’ve been to trade shows and heard veterans lament the demise of old turbomachinery control systems. They complain that the new versions come with all kinds of digital bells and whistles, yet they sometimes lack reliability and can be difficult (or expensive) to fix. There can be some truth to their assertions. Yet, modern controls can do so much more than legacy systems.


Gone are the black box controls, replaced by open standards. Integration with other systems is far easier. Plant-wide, fleet-wide, and grid-wide controls become feasible as everything is running on the same set of protocols and standards. A maintenance person no longer must walk a mile to take a reading from a dial. That same function can be carried out at remotely via centralized controls.


Meanwhile, the turbomachinery controls vendor community continues to innovate. Companies such as Elliott Group, EthosEnergy, Continental Controls Corp., Siemens Energy, Honeywell, Solar Turbines, Mitsubishi Power, Emerson, and Rockwell Automation are steadily introducing more technologies and features into their tools. Let’s hear what they have to say about the latest trends and products.


Philipp Lange, Solution Manager for Controls Modernization at Siemens Energy has noticed several trends impacting the controls space. This includes a greater focus on functional safety in all areas of turbomachinery control, as well as digitalization, which brings about virtualized applications, data-driven maintenance approaches, and paperless documentation. He also noted the slow emergence of “low-manned” operation of certain assets.

“It is always a challenge to ensure security without compromising the comfort of system handling,” said Philipp Lange, Siemens Energy.

“The pandemic highlighted the usefulness of remote capabilities, but also showed there is room for improvement to realize their full potential,” said Lange.


Accordingly, Siemens Energy has added a variety of remote monitoring, digitalization, cybersecurity, safety, and compliance enhancements to its controls. In addition, the company is looking into technologies such as 5G networks and rugged smart mobile devices that could help address the skills shortage due to workforce retirements and limited accessibility.

The Siemens Energy SPPA-T3000, for example, has been upgraded to address cybersecurity challenges such as online patching, user management, improved hardening, and digital signatures. This has enabled these controls to earn IEC and ISO certifications for security. Further advances include the use of object-oriented project databases, augmented reality for guided commissioning and operation, as well as cloud-based infrastructures to provide engineering and testing environments independently from location and available hardware.


SPPA-T3000 will also be enhanced with SCADA functionalities to control multiple distributed remote assets. New simulation capabilities built into SPPA-T3000 aid users in working on digital twins of their own assets to create test scenarios for any adaptions without impacting the real system.

Continental Controls Corp. offers a range of fuel control products for gas turbines and gas engines. For example, its pressure control valve handles a variety of gases that are typically delivered at a low pressure with a lower capacity than primary fuel control valves. This valve is also used to control what would have been flare gas by admitting the gas into an enclosed combustor.

“Many customers are looking for valves that can control some percentage of hydrogen,” said Rick Fisher, Continental Controls.


Rick Fisher, Vice President at Continental Controls, noted several trends including: the desire to blend various gases to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs); instead of recording fuel consumption for two or more units, a requirement is evolving to include unit specific flow consumption; and due to regulations about venting of excess gas, users are exploring the options to eliminate gas flaring and minimize fugitive emissions.


“Controls vendors will need to know how to mix and change the mixture as needed to maintain efficient operation and emissions reduction,” said Fisher. “Valve manufacturers will need to have secondary control valves to control the proportion of gases in the mix as well as gas mixers to provide a homogeneous mix.”


Continental Controls provides variable pressure control valves and venturi mixers to allow for precise blending of fuels. It is currently engaged in qualifying all its gas turbine products for up to 25% hydrogen.

EthosEnergy EcoMax is a Dry Low Emissions (DLE) and Dry Low NOx (DLN) automated tuning technology that continuously optimizes output, emissions and combustion dynamics. This eliminates the need for manual gas tuning approaches that can lead to untapped capacity and efficiency.

“AI-supported programs open a new and wider window for users,” said Hande Puhaloglu, EthosEnergy

Remote Monitoring, Digitalization, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, Hydrogen Blending, Auto-Tuning, Big Data, and Digital Twins.