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Performance study on a single-screw compressor for a portable natural gas

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Article  in  Energy · February 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.02.003

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Received: 11 November 2018 Revised: 31 December 2018 Accepted: 2 January 2019
DOI: 10.1002/er.4406

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The energy performance of a single‐screw compressor for

natural gas liquefaction process: Effects of the lubricating
oil flow rate

Yong Li1 | Yuanwei Lu2 | Yuting Wu2 | Bengt Sunden3 | Gongnan Xie4,5

1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China
2
MOE Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation; Beijing Key Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion, College
of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
3
Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
4
School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China
5
Research & Development Institute of Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

Correspondence
Yuanwei Lu, MOE Key Laboratory of
Summary
Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy An experimental test system including the oil circulation system and the gas
Conservation; Beijing Key Laboratory of circuit system has been designed and built to explore the effects of the lubricat-
Heat Transfer and Energy Conversion,
College of Environmental and Energy ing oil flow rate on the performance of a single‐screw compressor, used in a
Engineering, Beijing University of portable natural gas liquefaction process. Outlet pressure, outlet volumetric
Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
flow rate, volumetric efficiency, and specific power rate are the parameters
Email: luyuanwei@bjut.edu.cn
for evaluation of the energy performance of the single‐screw compressor. The
Gongnan Xie, School of Marine Science experimental results indicate that the outlet pressure and outlet volumetric
and Technology, Northwestern
flow rate can be effectively increased by increasing the flow rate of the lubricat-
Polytechnical University, Box 24, Xi'an
710072, Shaanxi, China. ing oil at different rotational frequencies and that a certain amount of lubricant
Email: xgn@nwpu.edu.cn oil is helpful to improve the volumetric efficiency. In terms of the specific
power rate, the optimum oil‐gas ratios are 0.7%, 0.93%, and 1.79%, and the cor-
Funding information
National 111 Project, Grant/Award Num- responding outlet pressures are 0.45, 0.45, and 0.48 MPa at the conditions of 50,
ber: B18041; Fundamental Research Fund 40, and 30 Hz, respectively.
of Shenzhen City of China, Grant/Award
Number: JCYJ20170306155153048;
KEYWORDS
National Key Research and Development
flow rate, lubricating oil, single‐screw compressor, specific power rate, volumetric efficiency
Program of China, Grant/Award Number:
2017YFB0903603

1 | INTRODUCTION
The technical recoverable resource of unconventional
natural gas in China is 3.4 × 1012 m3.1 The total yielding
capacity of natural gas will reach to 2500 × 108 to 3000 ×
108 m3 including tight gas of 400 × 108 to 600 × 108 m3,
coal‐bed methane of 300 × 108 to 400 × 108 m3, and shale
gas of 400 × 108 to 500 × 108 m3, respectively, in 2030.2
An urgent problem is how to exploit unconventional nat-
ural gas. Ways of liquefying natural gas have attracted
increased attention in practical applications due to the
advantages of portable natural gas liquefaction devices

Nomenclature: n, rotational speed of compressor (r min−1); P, power (kW); q, volume flow rate (m3 min−1, Nm3 min−1); T, temperature (K); V0,
primitive volume of one groove (m3); Z, groove number of the screw
Greek symbol: ε, specific power rate (kg m−1 s−2 or Pa); η, efficiency; ω, oil‐gas ratio
Subscripts: a, actual; el, electricity; in, inlet; oil, lubricating oil; st, standard; th, theoretical; V, volume

Int J Energy Res. 2019;1–11. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/er © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1
2 LI
such as low investment cost, simple, and compact pro-
cesses.3 However, a portable natural gas liquefaction
device always consumes a large amount of energy. In this
sense, a critical issue is how to reduce the energy con-
sumption and initial investment costs of portable natural
gas liquefaction devices.4 Among all the equipment for a
natural gas liquefaction process, compressors are a high‐
energy demanding equipment and their performances
affect the efficiency of the process.5 Consequently, inves-
tigations on the effects of related factors of compressors
need to be conducted in details.
Roskosch et al6 introduced a differential compressor
model for reciprocating compressors, and this model
can predict volumetric and isentropic efficiencies quickly.
Silva and Deschamps7 described a model to predict gas
leakage of the reed‐type valves of small reciprocating
compressors at the condition of incomplete sealing, and
they found that the leakage significantly reduced the
compressor efficiency even for very small valve clear-
ances. Posch et al8 conducted a comprehensive numerical
investigation of the thermal losses of a hermetic compres-
sor for refrigeration application, and they found that the
cooling capacity of the compressor can be increased by
2.63% but the compressor coefficient of performance
(COP) is only increased by 1.57%. Kerpicci et al9 investi-
gated the effects of the oil viscosity on the performance
of a reciprocating compressor, and they found that the
low viscosity values affected the mass flow rates in partic-
ular. Kugimoto et al adopted a one‐dimensional analyti-
cal model to predict the performance of a novel heat
pump system that used a multistage Knudsen compres-
sor, and they found that a heat pump system with a
30‐stage Knudsen compressor can yield an output power
of 1.27 kW.10 Torregrosa et al11 observed the velocity field
and identified the reversed flow in a turbocharger com-
pressor by using particle image velocimetry (PIV), and
they pointed out that the results agreed well with existing
numerical predictions. Gancedo et al12 described the com-
pressor stability and surge line of a turbocharger centrifu-
gal compressor, and they emphasized that the surge limit
criterion definition is significant for the actual surge mar-
gin improvement. Xu and Amano13 studied the effects of
the asymmetrical radial clearance of an impeller on the
performance of a centrifugal compressor and concluded
that there was a significant impact at the design pressure
ratio. Kim et al14 suggested a scroll expander and scroll
compressor for a 10‐kW class Ericsson engine utilizing
solar energy as heat source, and it can yield 10.87 kW for
the engine output. Hirano et al15 adopted two injection
nozzles to suppress the surge phenomenon in a centrifugal
compressor and found that there is an effective circumfer-
ential position to reduce the flow rate occurring surge phe-
nomenon. Wang et al16 investigated the effects of vapor
ET AL.
quality and oil concentration on the performance of a
swash plate compressor for automotive air conditioning
systems experimentally, and they found that refrigerant/
oil mixture never reached steady state.
Though a large amount of research works focused on
the performance of reciprocating compressors and
centrifugal compressors, only few studies related to
single‐screw compressors can be found in the open litera-
ture. Due to the advantages such as simple structure,
good force balance, high compression ratio, and high vol-
umetric efficiency,17,18 single‐screw compressors have
received increasing attention and popularity. The perfor-
mances of various single‐screw compressors have been
studied for many years as well as the designs and
manufacturing.19-24 For example, Yang et al25,26 used a
mathematical model and developed a computer program
to design a pp‐type single‐screw compressor, and this
method can be used in the actual design process. Wang
et al27 proposed a multicolumn envelope meshing pair
(MEMP) and found that the shaft power and volumetric
efficiency were improved by 5.06% and 3.7%, respectively,
and later, they used three leakage influencing factors to
optimize the MEMP.28
Although the operational processes of the single‐screw
compressors are opposite to those in the single‐screw
expanders, the procedure to evaluate the performance of
rotating machinery is similar and the research methods
are similar as well. Thus, it is also significant to study the
performance of single‐screw expanders. Ziviani et al29
established a nonsymmetric modeling approach to design
a single‐screw expander, and the performance was
improved significantly. Ziviani et al30 and Zhang et al31
adopted a single‐screw expander to build an organic Ran-
kine cycle (ORC) system to recover low‐grade waste heat,
and the maximum power outputs of these systems are
11 kW and 10.38 kW, respectively. Wang et al32 explored
the gap sizes between the gate rotor and shell and between
the screw and shell. They recommended the gap sizes to be
0.04 and 0.05 mm, respectively. Some studies on the single‐
screw compressors and expanders have been carried out;
however, the actual performance of single‐screw compres-
sors combined with lubricating oil has been studied rarely.
In our previous work,33 an expansion natural gas liq-
uefaction process was presented and a low‐pressure com-
pressor was designed and manufactured. The cooling
efficiency and sealing effect (volumetric efficiency) of
the lubricating oil were studied, respectively, and the
types of lubricating oil had a great influence on the per-
formance of the low‐pressure single‐screw compressor.
Afterwards, the flow rate of the lubricating oil has a sim-
ilar influence, but no experiments were carried out due to
the limited conditions of high pressure at that time. In
this paper, another single‐screw compressor (it is called
LI ET AL.
high‐pressure compressor in the previous study33) is
designed and manufactured. In order to provide the
appropriate amount of the lubricating oil for the low‐
pressure compressor, a measuring system of the lubricat-
ing oil was especially considered in the new experimental
test system. The effect of the flow rate of the lubricating
oil on the performance of the single‐screw compressor,
at the relatively low outlet pressure (0.29~0.9 MPa) com-
pared with the particular high pressure, is explored. It
should be noted that the notation single‐screw compres-
sor is used without any special declaration in this paper
instead of high‐pressure compressor because the high‐
pressure compressor is used to perform the low‐pressure
tests. Herein, the performance of the single‐screw com-
pressor is investigated as a function of the reduction of
the flow rate of lubricating oil at different initial outlet
pressure and different rotational frequency, respectively.
Similarly, the parameters of volumetric efficiency and
specific power rate are also considered to evaluate the
performance of the single‐screw compressor indirectly.
2 | DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTAL
SYSTEM
2.1 | The portable natural gas liquefaction
process
The expansion natural gas liquefaction process as pre-
sented in the previous study33 is adopted to build the por-
table natural gas (NG) liquefaction system. This process
can be simulated by the software Aspen HYSYS. The dif-
ference of the natural gas liquefaction process between
the simulation and Figure 2 in the previous study33 lies
in the oil circulation system of the single‐screw compres-
sors and expanders. The operating instructions of the
expansion natural gas liquefaction process can be found
FIGURE 1 Sketch of a single‐screw compressor: A, 3D prototype and B, key components [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
3
in the previous study.33 The oil circulation system will
be discussed in Section 2.3.
2.2 | Single‐screw compressor prototype
The single‐screw compressor (2‐6) as shown in Figure 2
in the previous study33 is designed, and an experimental
system is set up to obtain the effect of the lubricating oil
on the performance of the single‐screw compressor.
Figure 1A shows a single‐screw compressor prototype,
and it mainly consists of the main case, air inlet, air out-
let, spindle, screw, and star wheel. It belongs to a positive
displacement compressor similar to reciprocating com-
pressors, and the air can be compressed by changing the
space size of the chamber. In a single‐screw compressor,
the key components are one screw and two star wheels
as shown in Figure 1B, and these complete the compres-
sion process with the shell. The design and manufactur-
ing of the screws and star wheels have been undertaken
by Beijing University of Technology. The star wheel is
driven by the screw that is assisted by the motor based
on the right‐hand screw rule.
Herein, the basis of the selection of parameters is
described. According to the experimental results in the
previous study,33 the actual volumetric flow rate is
6.08 Nm3 minute−1 (design volumetric flow rate is
6.5 Nm3 min−1) at the outlet pressure of 0.54 MPa for
the low‐pressure single‐screw compressor. In order to sat-
isfy the requirement of the air flow rate (6.5 Nm3 min−1)
and the total compression pressure (3 MPa) as accurate as
possible, the outlet pressure and actual outlet volume
flow rate of the low‐pressure compressor are changed to
0.5 MPa and 6.31 Nm3 minute−1, respectively. Accord-
ingly, the pressure ratio of the high‐pressure compressor
is set to 6 which is different from the design value of 5.4
as stated in the previous study.33 Then, the inlet pressure
4 LI ET AL.

and temperature of the high‐pressure compressor are
0.5 MPa and 293 K, respectively. The volume flow rate
and primitive volume of one groove in the high‐pressure
single‐screw compressor are 1.3 m3 minute−1 and
4.1 × 10−5 m3, respectively. The diameters of the screw
and star wheel are designed as 117 mm based on the
above calculation. In general, groove numbers of the
screw and teeth numbers of the star wheel are set as 6
and 11, respectively. Table 1 lists the parameters of the
single‐screw compressor prototype.
It is well recognized that the lubricating oil plays an
important role in the compression process particularly
for cooling and sealing. Herein, a 46# Apureda synthetic
lubricating oil (UH311) provided by Apureda Interna-
tional Co., Ltd is used in this experimental process. The
kinematic viscosity, density, flash point, and pour point
of the lubricating oil are 7.5 × 10−6 m2 second−1, 843 kg
m−3, 523 K, and 225 K, respectively. The main aim of this
study is to reveal the effects of the lubricating oil on practi-
cal engineering applications for the low‐pressure compres-
sor and not to obtain higher pressure. Thus, the initial
outlet pressure of the single‐screw compressor is set in
the range of 0.5 to 0.9 MPa in the experimental process.
2.3 | Experimental system description
An experimental system is built as depicted in Figure 2,
and a picture of the experimental system and components
is given in Figure 3. The detailed test process is described
in the previous study.33 In order to ensure the accuracy
of the experiment and further obtain reasonable results,
the instruments used in the experimental system are
described.
Because of the similarity between the experimental
system in this study and that in the previous study,33
some measuring equipment and data acquisition equip-
ment are used reciprocally. Consequently, only the dif-
ferent measuring equipment used in this study is
introduced. The pressure of the mixture (the compressed
air and the lubricating oil) flowing from the prototype is
measured by a pressure transmitter of CYB13T, and its
measurement range and accuracy are 0~6 MPa and
±0.5%, respectively. The temperature of the cooled lubri-
cating oil is measured by a temperature transmitter of
WZP021, and its measurement range and accuracy are
223~423 K and ±0.5%, respectively. They are both pro-
vided and adjusted by Xinmin Instruments Co., Ltd.
(Xi'an, China). The flow rate of the cooled lubricating
oil is measured by the intelligent turbine flow meter of
LWGY‐15C05SSEH that is manufactured by Bubei
Noncon Autocontrol Equipment Co., Ltd. (Wuhan,
China). Its measurement range and accuracy are
0.6~4.2 m3 hour−1 and ±0.5%, respectively. The flow
rate of the lubricating oil measured by this flow meter
is the value at standard condition (293 K, 101 325 Pa).
Table 2 provides the details of all the measurement
instruments.

TABLE 1 Parameters of the single‐screw compressor prototype

Diameter of the Diameter of the Groove Number Tooth Number of Volume Flow Compression
Parameter Screw, mm Star Wheel, mm of the Screw the Star Wheel Rate, m3 min−1 Ratio

Values 117 117 6 11 1.3 6

FIGURE 2 A schematic diagram of the experimental system [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
LI ET AL. 5

FIGURE 3 A picture of the experimental system (including the oil circulation system and the gas circuit system) [Colour figure can be
viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

TABLE 2 The details of the measurement instruments

Temperature Pressure Temperature

Transmitter Transmitter Transmitter
Speed Meter Power Meter (for Mixture) (for Mixture) (for Oil)

Type DT6234B PF9830C WAP021 CYB13T WZP021

−1
Measurement ranges 2.5~99 999 r min 0~12 kW 223~423 K 0~6 MPa 223~423 K
Accuracy ±1 r min−1 ±0.4% ±0.5% ±0.5% ±0.5%
Turbine flow meter Temperature Pressure transmitter Flow meter
(for oil) transmitter (for air) (for air) (for air)

Type LWGY‐15C05SSEH SBWZP231 CYB13 LZ series

−1
Measurement ranges 3
0.6~4.2 m h 248~353 K 0~1.6 MPa 50~500 Nm3 h−1
Accuracy ±0.5% ±0.5% ±0.3% ±1.5%

3 | D E F I N IT I O N O F TH E volumetric efficiency is always less than 100%, and it is

EVALUATION I NDEX calculated as

qV;a
As described in Section 1, the lubricating oil has a great ηV ¼ (1)
influence on the performance of the single‐screw com- qV;th
pressor. In this paper, the effect of the lubricating oil is
studied in details, and the way to define the parameters T in
has a great relationship with the performance evaluation qV;a ¼ ⋅q (2)
T st V;st
of the lubricating oil. In this paper, the volumetric effi-
ciency and specific power rate are defined to study the
effect of the lubricating oil on the performance of the qV;th ¼ 2⋅n⋅Z⋅V 0 (3)
single‐screw compressor.
Volumetric efficiency: The volumetric efficiency, ηV, where T in is the inlet temperature, K, and Tst is the stan-
is the ratio of the actual volumetric flow rate, qV, a, to dard temperature, K. qV, a can be obtained by the ideal
the theoretical volumetric flow, qV, th. Due to the leakage gas law as in Equation 2. qV, st can be measured by the
between the screw, the star wheel, and the main case, the flow meter directly. The groove number Z of the screw
6 LI
is 6. The primitive volume V0 of one groove is
4.1 × 10−5 m3.
Specific power rate: The specific power rate, ε, is the
ratio of the active power, Pel (for the motor), to the stan-
dard outlet volume flow rate, qV, st. A small specific
power rate reflects a good performance of the single‐
screw compressor, and the specific power rate is deter-
mined as
Pel
ε¼
qV;st
Oil‐gas ratio: More power might be consumed to over-
come the shear stress when additional lubricating oil is
injected into the screw groove. Severe leakage may appear
when less lubricating oil is injected into the screw groove.
Thus, there is an optimum flow rate of the lubricating oil
to balance the relationship between the power consump-
tion and the leakage. An oil‐gas ratio, ω, is defined to
describe this relationship and is given by Equation 5.
q lubricating oil on outlet pressure
ω ¼ oil
qV;a
where qoil is the standard flow rate of the lubricating oil,
Nm3 minute−1, and qV, a is the actual inlet volume flow
rate through the compressor, m3 minute−1.
FIGURE 4 The change of outlet pressure with the flow rate of lubricating oil at different rotational frequencies: A, 50 Hz, B, 40 Hz, and C,
30 Hz [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
ET AL.
4 | R ESULTS A ND DISCUSSIONS
In the experimental process, the air is applied as a refrig-
erant, and it can be called as the air compressor, which is
very popular in industrial production. The outlet pressure
and outlet volume flow rate are key parameters, and
these can be used to evaluate the performance of the air
compressor obviously. Thus, the outlet pressure and out-
let volume flow rate are regarded as indicators to study
the effect of the lubricating oil. In the experimental tests,
(4)
the rotational frequencies and initial outlet pressures are
changed from 30 to 50 Hz and from 0.5 to 0.9 MPa,
respectively. The outlet pressure is controlled at a fixed
value (0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, or 0.9 MPa), and then, the flow
rate of the lubricating oil is regulated by a control valve.
Accordingly, there is a great change for the outlet pres-
sure and outlet volume flow rate of the air.
4.1 | The effect of the flow rate of the
(5)
Herein, it is necessary to state the details how to control
the initial conditions and adjust the flow rate of the lubri-
cating oil. In the beginning, the rotational frequency is set
to a constant value (ie, 30, 40, or 50 Hz) before adjusting
LI ET AL.
the valves and the opening degree of the valve used to
control the flow rate of the lubricating oil is maximum.
The valve used to regulate the outlet pressure is adjusted
to maintain a constant pressure (0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, or
0.9 MPa), and this valve does not operate until the next
initial outlet pressure is applied. Then, the valve used to
control the flow rate of the lubricating oil is slowly regu-
lated (from large to small). The data of the outlet pressure
and outlet volume flow rate are recorded by the data log-
ger. For example, the rotational frequency of the single‐
screw compressor is fixed as 50 Hz, and the valve used
to adjust the outlet pressure is set to an initial value at
0.5 MPa. Then, the valve used to adjust the flow rate of
the lubricating oil is only regulated (starting with maxi-
mum openness). The flow rates of the lubricating oil
and the outlet volume flow rates are recorded when the
outlet pressures are 0.5, 0.49, 0.48, 0.47, 0.45, 0.43, 0.41,
and 0.38 MPa, respectively.
Figure 4 shows the change of outlet pressure with the
flow rate of the lubricating oil at different rotational fre-
quencies. It can be seen from Figure 4 that there is an
obvious phenomenon. The outlet pressure becomes
smaller with a decrease of the flow rate of the lubricating
oil. This illustrates that the lubricating oil affects the per-
formance of the single‐screw compressor directly. This is
mostly because less lubricating oil cannot seal well for
the compression chamber that is composed of the main
FIGURE 5 The change of outlet volume flow rate with the flow rate of lubricating oil at different rotational frequencies: A, 50 Hz, B,
40 Hz, and C, 30 Hz [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
7
case, screw, and star wheel. Furthermore, there is a
deeper understanding provided. It can be seen clearly
from Figure 4A that there is a linear relationship between
the outlet pressure and the flow rate of the lubricating oil
at all working conditions. In Figure 4B, for the working
conditions of 0.5 to 0.35, 0.6 to 0.45, and 0.7 to
0.45 MPa, the reduction ratio of the outlet pressure is
small in the beginning and then increases with a decrease
of the flow rate of the lubricating oil. However, for the
working conditions of 0.8 to 0.56 and 0.9 to 0.65 MPa, a
linear relationship between the outlet pressure and the
flow rate of the lubricating oil is still presented in general.
In Figure 4C, the reduction ratio of the outlet pressure is
small in the beginning and then increases with a decrease
of the flow rate of the lubricating oil for all the working
conditions. The reasons for the above phenomenon are
explained as follows.
For a small rotational frequency and a small initial
outlet pressure, there is a small effect on the practical
application if the flow rate of the lubricating oil is
reduced within a certain range. However, for a large rota-
tional frequency and a large initial outlet pressure, the
outlet pressure can be decreased a lot even though the
leakage of the lubricating oil is small, and such results
cause the compressor to not be used normally. This is
because the flow rate of the lubricating oil will not
change when the outlet pressure is consistent at different
8 LI
rotational frequencies, but the outlet volume flow rate is
smaller at a lower rotational frequency. This leads to a
higher ratio between the lubricating oil and air (ie, there
is plenty of lubricating oil to seal the compression cham-
ber, but it is possible to increase the power consumption
as a penalty). It can be understood in another way. There
is an optimum range for the flow rate of the lubricating
oil at different outlet pressure (ie, there is no more
advantages to use additional lubricating oil). For the con-
ditions of small rotational frequencies and small initial
outlet pressures, the optimum range of the flow rate of
the lubricating oil is larger than that at the conditions
of large rotational frequencies and large initial outlet
pressures.
It is worthwhile to mention that the experimental
error of the outlet pressure is so small (the maximum
error is 0.27%) that it can be neglected. Thus, the error
is not further discussed in the following study.
4.2 | The effect of flow rate of the
lubricating oil on outlet volume flow rate
In Section 4.1, the effect of the flow rate of the lubricating
oil on the outlet pressure at different initial outlet pres-
sure was discussed. In this section, the importance of
the lubricating oil on the outlet volume flow rate at differ-
ent rotational frequencies is investigated.
FIGURE 6 The relationship between the flow rate of lubricating oil and volumetric efficiency (and other parameters such as the outlet
pressure and outlet volume flow rate) at the condition of 0.5 MPa: A, 50 Hz, B, 40 Hz, and C, 30 Hz [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
ET AL.
Figure 5A to 5C illustrates the change of the outlet vol-
ume flow rate with the flow rate of the lubricating oil at
different rotational frequencies (ie, 50, 40, 30 Hz). It can
be seen clearly that the outlet volume flow rate decreases
by reducing the flow rate of the lubricating oil. This is
mostly because there is not enough lubricating oil to seal
the gap, and this causes part of the gas to flow back rather
than to flow from the outlet. In Figure 5A, there is a linear
relationship between the outlet volume flow rate and the
flow rate of the lubricating oil except at the condition of
0.5 to 0.38 MPa. Furthermore, the reduction ratios are
small for the conditions of 0.6 to 0.48, 0.7 to 0.55, 0.8 to
0.62, and 0.9 to 0.72 MPa, but for the condition of 0.5 to
0.38 MPa, the reduction ratio of the outlet volume flow
rate is small at the beginning but then increases with
decreasing flow rate of the lubricating oil. This is because
the sealing by a small amount of lubricating oil has a small
effect on the outlet volume flow rate at a high outlet pres-
sure, and the change of the outlet volume flow rate is not
obvious even though the flow rate of the lubricating oil
decreases. However, the damage of the oil film is weak at
lower pressure, and the change of the outlet volume flow
rate is obvious with a tiny change particularly for the later
stage of the reduction of the flow rate of the lubricating oil.
In Figure 5B, the outlet volume flow rate is greatly affected
at the conditions of 0.5 to 0.35 and 0.6 to 0.45 MPa (ie, the
pressure range is widened). In Figure 5C, the outlet vol-
ume flow rate is greatly affected by the flow rate of the
LI ET AL.
lubricating oil at the conditions of 0.5 to 0.29, 0.6 to 0.36,
0.7 to 0.5, and 0.8 to 0.5 MPa. It is found that the outlet vol-
ume flow rate at higher outlet pressure is significantly
affected by the flow rate of the lubricating oil with decreas-
ing rotational frequency. This is because a higher ratio
between lubricating oil and air can be obtained.
It is noted that the maximum error of the outlet vol-
ume flow rate is 1.4% in all the figures. Thus, the error
is not further discussed in the following study.
4.3 | The evaluation to the volumetric
efficiency and specific power rate
As presented in Sections 4.1 and 4.2, the outlet pressure
and outlet volume flow rate are paid more attention. In
this section, the volumetric efficiency and specific power
rate are applied to further evaluate the effect of the
lubricating oil on the performance of the single‐screw
compressor.
4.3.1 | The evaluation of the volumetric
efficiency
In this section, the condition of 0.5 MPa (initial outlet
pressure) is chosen to study the effect of the lubricating
oil on the volumetric efficiency at different rotational
FIGURE 7 The relationship between the flow rate of lubricating oil and specific power rate (and other parameters such as the outlet
pressure and outlet volume flow rate) at the condition of 0.5 MPa: A, 50 Hz, B, 40 Hz, and C, 30 Hz [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
9
frequencies. Figure 6 shows the relationship between
the flow rate of the lubricating oil and volumetric effi-
ciency. In order to further illustrate these characteristics,
the parameters of the outlet pressure and outlet volume
flow rate are also plotted in Figure 6. Herein, the anal-
ysis based on the experimental order (the flow rate of
lubricating oil decreases gradually) in Sections 4.1 and
4.2 is not adopted here. In contrast, the increscent flow
rate of the lubricating oil, which is not similar to the
experimental order, is put forward. It can be seen from
Figure 6 that the volumetric efficiency increases with
the increase of the flow rate of the lubricating oil at dif-
ferent rotational frequencies (ie, 50, 40, 30 Hz) and the
maximum error is 1.5%. The higher pressure has suffi-
cient ability to destroy the oil film formed by the lubri-
cating oil. However, a higher outlet pressure can be
maintained at the condition of a larger flow rate of the
lubricating oil. Furthermore, the volumetric efficiency
can also be increased at different rotational frequencies.
There is another obvious pattern. The volumetric effi-
ciency increases greatly in the beginning and then it
decreases. This means that there is a great effect of the
lubricating oil on the performance of the single‐screw
compressor. It is a very effective way to increase the vol-
umetric efficiency by using lubricating oil. However,
more lubricating oil is not useful to increase the volu-
metric efficiency.
10
4.3.2 | The evaluation of the specific
power rate
This is similar to the assumption in Section 4.3.1. The
condition of 0.5 MPa (initial outlet pressure) at different
rotational frequencies (ie, 50, 40, 30 Hz) is chosen to
study the relationship between the flow rate of the lubri-
cating oil and specific power rate as shown in Figure 7.
The maximum error of the experimental data is 1.5%.
The analytical method is also conducted as described in
Section 4.3.1. Obviously, there is a common characteristic
in Figure 7A to 7C. The outlet pressure and outlet volume
flow rate can be increased, and the specific power rate
can be decreased by increasing flow rate of the lubricat-
ing oil, respectively. However, the downtrend of the spe-
cific power rate becomes smaller with an increase of the
flow rate of the lubricating oil. This means that the spe-
cific power rate can be decreased by the lubricating oil
effectively in the beginning. However, it does not work
when the flow rate of the lubricating oil reaches a certain
value. Herein, the oil‐gas ratio is applied to illustrate the
optimum flow rate of the lubricating oil. The optimum
oil‐gas ratios are 0.7%, 0.93%, and 1.79%, and the outlet
pressures are 0.45, 0.45, and 0.48 MPa at the conditions
of 50, 40, and 30 Hz, respectively. In addition, the opti-
mum oil‐gas ratio increases with the decrease of the rota-
tional frequency. Furthermore, the growth rate of the oil‐
gas ratio is 32.8% as the rotational frequency changes
from 50 to 40 Hz. For the condition of the rotational fre-
quency changing from 40 to 30 Hz, the growth rate of the
oil‐gas ratio is 92.5%. This means that the lower the rota-
tional frequency is, the larger the growth rate is.
5 | CONCLUSIONS
In this article, a single‐screw compressor prototype used
in portable natural gas liquefaction devices was designed
and manufactured. In order to obtain the operating
mechanisms of how a single‐screw compressor is affected
by the lubricating oil, an experimental system to test the
performance of the compressor was set up. Based on the
experimental results, a variety of parameters was used
to evaluate the performance directly or indirectly. The
main findings of this study are summarized as follows:
1. The outlet pressure and outlet volume flow rate
become smaller with the decrease of the flow rate of
the lubricating oil, and this is mostly because less
lubricating oil cannot seal the compression chamber
well.
2. Within a certain range of the flow rate of the lubricat-
ing oil, less influence comes from the flow rate of the
LI ET AL.
lubricating oil on the outlet pressure at lower rota-
tional frequency, and there is an optimum range for
the flow rate of the lubricating oil at different outlet
pressure. Furthermore, the outlet volume flow rate
at higher outlet pressure is significantly affected by
the flow rate of the lubricating oil for decreasing rota-
tional frequency.
3. A very effective way to increase the volumetric effi-
ciency is to use lubricating oil; however, more lubri-
cating oil is not useful to increase the volumetric
efficiency.
4. The specific power rate can be decreased by the lubri-
cating oil effectively in the beginning. However, the
downtrend of specific power rate becomes smaller
with the increase of the flow rate of the lubricating
oil. The optimum oil‐gas ratios are 0.7%, 0.93%, and
1.79% at different rotational frequencies of 50, 40,
and 30 Hz, respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was sponsored by the National Key Research
and Development Program of China (grant
2017YFB0903603), the Fundamental Research Fund of
Shenzhen City of China (JCYJ20170306155153048), and
the National 111 Project under grant B18041. The first
author wishes to thank Beijing University of Technology
for all support in the experiments.
ORCID
Bengt Sunden https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6068-0891
Gongnan Xie https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1047-4990
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How to cite this article: Li Y, Lu Y, Wu Y,
Sunden B, Xie G. The energy performance of a
single‐screw compressor for natural gas
liquefaction process: Effects of the lubricating oil
flow rate. Int J Energy Res. 2019;1–11. https://doi.
org/10.1002/er.4406