How a ntural gas compressor is made/how it works.

[stephen4785]

Click the link. I cant figure out how to get the direct link. Vids are pretty neat. Some of you guys might like them. Click on "How it's made" and "How it Works"

http://www.arielcorp.com/support/video_library.aspx

[cobrajet69]

Very cool.

Wish they had a division down in Texas. I wouldn't mind working for them.


David

[Tx Redneck]

[Strychnine]

Oh man, I have 3" binders full of this stuff from Ariel. Sitting through one of their crash-course compressor classes can be humbling if you dont work with them everyday.

David, Ariel may not be based here but there are a ton of gas compression companies. NGSG (Natural Gas Services Group) in Midland owns CiP Compressors (Cylinder In Plane) and they design and mfg this recip style stuff.

Here's a shot of the guts of one:

[Darren M]

Matt, in the vid it shows suction and discharge. What does it discharge? Does it filter too?

<--- NG compressor ignorant.

[zora04]

Matt, in the vid it shows suction and discharge. What does it discharge? Does it filter too?

<--- NG compressor ignorant.

The discharge is whatever gas you are compressing. Each stage of a recip adds more compression to the gas.

There are filters. There are inline scrubbers as well that displace moisture to protect the units.

We have over 25 ariel recips at our facility. Very solid piece of machinery.

[Strychnine]

Matt, in the vid it shows suction and discharge. What does it discharge? Does it filter too?

<--- NG compressor ignorant.

These compressors are generally used for wellhead compression, meaning they sit on a wellsite. To transport NG from a well to a processing station it gets put into a transmission pipeline, but if the well does not have enough natural pressure to overcome the pipeline pressure (ie. 300psi well, 500psi pipeline) then you won't flow into the line.

Think of these as boosters. They pull NG into the suction side, compress it and the discharge it so it can move downstream in the process.

Generally you will do multistage compression w/ a unit like this. Gas will come onto a skid mounted compressor pkg via pipe from the wellhead, go through some scrubber bottles ("filtering" is more of a plant process, these just need it suitable to compress and keep moving), then into first stage compression. It will go into the suction side of the cylinder, get compressed, travel through the poppet valve and out the discharge side.

Now think back to chemistry... higher pressure = higher heat (hundreds of degrees). So then you send the compressed gas through a cooler core (NG to air, radiator style) and route it back through the second stage cylinder... this goes on until you run out of stages (limited by the number of crankshaft throws / cylinders on the compressor generally) and the gas is at sufficient pressure to enter the next pipeline.

The engine that powers the compressor is run off of NG from the same well. After the initial scrubbing, there's a take-off line that will supply an on-engine regulator to cut pressure and send the gas into the carb / mixing valve. Because NG has a lower heating value than diesel (and they are de-rated for reliability since they must have 98-99% up-time, running 24/7) the engines are much larger than you would expect. A non-turbo Cummins 5.9 on a compressor is only good for 49-99hp, depending on electronic control capability (up to 116hp w/ a turbo), and to get 850hp you will be in the 38 liter range.

Here are some pics of the compressor skids. You can see the tall scrubber bottles and the large cooler cores. Oh, and it's always fun to show people pics of diesel engines w/ sparkplugs

[Darren M]

Cool. I've seen many of those on the highway and always wondered WTH that huge radiator was for as I was sure it wasn't strictly for the engine.

Thanks!

[Cooter]

I keep spares in the truck just in case

I've got some Caterpillar plugs too

[cobrajet69]

. Oh, and it's always fun to show people pics of diesel engines w/ sparkplugs

I keep spares in the truck just in case

I've got some Caterpillar plugs too

lol
Even as obvious as it should be (NG in a deisel engine), I would have never thought about that.

Pretty cool.

David

[Broncojohnny]

I'm going to drill and tap the heads on my Cummins to put in some spark plugs, how much power do you think I will pick up?

[MTOOFAST]

That's awesome. That picture is from our Manufacturing shop here in Longview. Strychnine, who do you work for?

[Strychnine]

That's awesome. That picture is from our Manufacturing shop here in Longview. Strychnine, who do you work for?

Cummins (engineering mgr)

[MTOOFAST]

Cummins (engineering mgr)

That's cool, we package a few cummins engines, but mostly CAT and Waukesha.

[JimD]

Used to haul them alot in the late 90's b4 i quit trucking. vid is pretty cool.