Coal Seam Gas
Coal Seam Gas
(OP)
Australia is going through an LNG boom, large investments have been made in Coal Seam Gas on the East coast in particular Queensland. There will be a significant number of centrifugal compressors on the Upstream portion of these projects. Does anyone on this site know if this technology is successfully operating anywhere else in the world? To date I cannot find any applications outside Australia that use centrifugal compressors. I understand that reciprocating compressors may be used.
Look forward to any feedback.
Look forward to any feedback.





RE: Coal Seam Gas
RE: Coal Seam Gas
In locations where conditions change (like a wellsite) they are much less applicable. Where the controlling factor is energy density (e.g. on a offshore platform), then people accept the limited flexibility. On offshore applications, the compressors have throttling suction controllers to keep the suction pressure in a very narrow band (usually at the cost of having a significant dP across the suction controller and holding considerable back pressure on the wells--which leads to premature abandonment).
I like them in applications like the discharge of Amine plants, or pipeline booster stations. I don't recommend them for plant inlet, gathering system booster stations, or onshore wellsite use. I've seen a couple of sites with dynamic compressors (like centrifugals) installed in parallel with positive displacement compressors (like recips or flooded screws) and the result is never pretty.
In answer to your basic question, there are hundreds of thousands of centrifugal compressors in use around the world. This is a very mature technology with a pretty limited number of unknowns. The GPSA Field Data Book has a pretty good section on Centrifugal and Axial Compressors.
David