Compressors suction configurations

Piping circuits will usually contain a small quantity of dirt, scale and swarf, no matter what care is taken to keep these out. A strainer is fitted in the compressor suction to trap such particles before they can enter the machine. Such strainers are of metal mesh and will be located where they can be removed for cleaning. In some configurations two strainers may be fitted. 

The suction drums for compressors 1 and 2 are located along the equipment line just to the west of the operating platform. Often, the outlet line of the suction drum to the compressor suction nozzle requires a flow meter with straight run lengths upstream and downstream. This arrangement permits the natural configuration of the line to satisfy the meter flow requirements. 

In some applications (usually high pressure compressors using oil film seals) alternative pump schemes should be considered. It may be that the desired seal pressure is not achievable by one set of pumps or the quantity required by the seal is small relative to the main pump capacity. There are (imes when booster pumps are needed however, if the reason is energy, it would be worth reviewing the economics very carefully, because reliability tends to suffer with the booster. The booster pumps are paired into a main and standby and are configured to take suction fro lower pressure system. Sufficient interlocks have to be supplied drivers so that if the main pumps shutdown, the boosters come ... 

Figure E13.4d compares the optimal gas transmission network with the original network. From a nonfeasible starting configuration with 10-mile-long pipeline segments, the nonlinear optimization algorithm reduced the objective function from the first feasible state of 1.399 X 107 dollars/year to 7.289 X 106 dollars/year, a savings of close to 7 million. Of the ten possible compressor stations, only four remained in the final optimal network. Table E13.4a lists the final state of the network. Note that because the suction and discharge pressures for the pipeline segments in branch 2 are identical, compressors 4, 5, 6, and 7 do not exist in the optimal configuration, nor do 9 and 10 in branch 3.

The two-stage compressor shown in Figure 25-10 is restricted, due to its mechanical configuration, to adjustment of the head-end (i.e., suction) cylinder only. Therefore, if it is necessary to unload a compressor by disabling one stage, it is best to disable the crank end. If the head end is removed... 

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