p27-30.
qxd 06/04/2004 17:56 Page 1
Successful monitoring strategy for LNG reciprocating compressors
The authors' companies have cooperated with the aim of helping to reduce maintenance costs and downtime of LNG
reciprocating compressors. The article describes the development and refinement of automatic monitoring
techniques that require minimal diagnosis expertise from the end-user, with examples of applications.
R
eciprocating compressors are wide-
ly used in the LNG industry, and
will continue to be used because of
the many processes that require their high
pressure and variable loading character-
istics. These machines, however, are much
more maintenance demanding than their
centrifugal and axial compressor counter-
parts, and yet are some of the least moni-
tored machines in the plant. This issue
becomes even more important as LNG
process technology improves and con-
sequently the time between plant shut-
downs is increased. This makes the recip-
rocating compressor increasingly the bot-
tleneck when optimising plant mainte-
nance and operation strategies.
Monitoring techniques
available
Experience shows that the cylinder com-
ponents such as the valves, piston rings,
rider rings (also called wear bands), pack-
ing case, piston, piston rods, and
crosshead pin, have been identified as the
major cause of both planned and
unplanned shutdowns. There are a num-
ber of performance, vibration, acoustic
emission and other measurement tech-
niques that can be used for both the on-
line and off-line monitoring of these com-
ponents. A few of the techniques are used
for safety monitoring, others are just for
diagnosis and some for automatic condi-
tion monitoring (also called predictive
monitoring, which includes early fault
detection, fault trending and performance
monitoring).
Some of the measurement techniques
used specifically for the cylinder portion
of the reciprocating compressor are listed
below. These particular measurement
techniques have proven to be accurate,
repeatable and reliable for detecting and
diagnosing reciprocating compressor
faults when properly set up and used.
Figure 1 shows the typical sensor configu-
ration for these measurements.
„ Rod drop - A fixed proximity probe
Distinguished Speakers Include:
The Hon. Eric A. Williams
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago
H.E. Luis Vierma
Vice Minister of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Energy and Mines,
Venezuela & Director, PDVSA
The Hon. Leslie Miller
Minister of Trade and Industry, Commonwealth of the Bahamas
Frank Look Kin
President, The National Gas Company of Trinidad and
Tobago Limited
Guy Caruso
Administrator, Energy Information Administration, U.S.
Department of Energy
Raul Monteforte
Commissioner, CRE – Energy Regulatory Commission,
Mexico
Luis Sánchez Castellón
Executive Secretary, Comisión Nacional de Energía,
CNE, Chile
Jaime Barrenechea
President, YPFB, Bolivia
Jim Sahagian
VP Commercial Development, Sempra LNG Corp.
Raymond W. Wright
CEO, PCJ Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica
Julian Nebreda
Vice President, Integrated Utilities Dominican Republic, AES
Corporation
Ernesto Cordova
General Manager, EcoElectrica, Puerto Rico
Eugênio Pierrobon Neto
COMGÁS, Brazil
LNGjournal
Mike Hastings, Brüel & Kjær Vibro, Denmark and Jos Schrijver, Thomassen Compression Systems, The Netherlands
automatically measures the distance order to come up with a solution for over- tenance costs and downtime. A major part
from the probe tip to the rod, which coming the lack of confidence in, and lim- of the focus was on reciprocating com-
gives an indication of the wear of the itations of, the various measurement tech- pressors used in the stabilizing process of
rider rings. niques so that end-users can reduce main- an LNG plant (in addition to compressors
„ Impact vibrations - An accelerometer
can be used for safety monitoring of
machine components that are loose
(e.g. worn pins), damaged (valves,
bearings, rings, rods, crossheads,
crankshaft, etc.), or unbalanced, or for
detecting the presence of liquids in the
gas stream.
„ Valve gas temperatures - This is one of
the most effective safety and condition
monitoring methods for detecting
incorrect valve condition or operation.
„ Stuffing box seal temperature - Auto-
matic condition monitoring for seal
leaks.
There are also a number of automatically
monitored calculated performance moni-
toring parameters for monitoring recipro-
cating compressors that require minimal
diagnosis, such as flow, rod load, dis-
charge temperature, volumetric efficiency
and power.
More monitoring has to
be done
Although much maintenance is needed for
reciprocating compressors, and there is a
wide range of measurement techniques
available for monitoring these machines,
condition monitoring is not done as wide-
ly as is done for other critical machines. In
fact, reciprocating compressors are some
of the least monitored critical machines in
many plants. What is most disturbing is
that most of the previously mentioned
measurement techniques, contrary to pop-
ular belief, can give effective results if
properly set up and used.
Industrial cooperation to
find a solution
An instrument supplier, Brüel & Kjær Figure 1 Typical measurement sensors for a reciprocating compressor. The minimum
Vibro (BKV) and a compressor manufac- recommended installation according to the findings from the TCS/BKV cooperation is
turer, Thomassen Compression Systems shown with the coloured symbols (boxes for vibration measurements, circles for process
(TCS), formed a long-term cooperation in measurements).
erica a
Am
Programme developed
in consultation with
CWC’s International
n
n For more information
d
Gas Steering Committee
ti
th
please contact:
La
LAC Gas
e
Shane Johnson
2004 Email:
sjohnson@thecwcgroup.com
it
Ca
28-30 June
m
or
ri
m
b
b
ea u
n Gas S
tel: +44 (0) 20 7089 4189
LNG as a driver for development Or visit our website
Hilton Trinidad, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
www.thecwcgroup.com
Conference: 29-30 June 2004
Workshops: Workshop A: Fundamentals of LNG
Workshop B: Fisher-Tropsch GTL Technology & Economics – 28 June 2004
LNG journal March/April 2004 page 27
p27-30.qxd 06/04/2004 17:56 Page 2

PLANT MAINTENANCE

used in other applications, such as natural
gas compressor stations). The solution that
came out of this cooperation was based on
evaluating the customer's needs, evaluat-
ing and modifying the existing monitoring
techniques, integrating these into the
monitoring system, and providing low-
cost yet effective services that ensure
proper installation, set-up, fine-tuning
and long-term operation. The monitoring
system selected for this purpose was Brüel
& Kjær Vibro's COMPASS system, a plant-
wide automatic monitoring and safety
system with integrated vibration, process
and performance monitoring capability.
After evaluating the customer require-
ments, the emphasis was to concentrate on
those measurement techniques that are
automatically monitored and do not
require extensive resources for diagnosis
from the end-user's side, yet still can give
accurate reliable results (Figure 2 shows
some of these recommended measure-
ment techniques).
Other measurement diagnosis tech-
niques such as PV-diagram analysis, which
can still be offered as a solution to cus-
tomers that require it, were not part of the
initial focus since these still require a lot of
diagnostic resources that many end-users
cannot provide, and it is difficult to auto-
matically monitor these to alarm limits.
The instrument supplier / machine
manufacturer reciprocating compressor
monitoring solution provides the follow-
ing benefits to the end-user:
„ Instrumentation on the machine is
matched to the monitoring system and
fine-tuned as a fast and efficient service
„ The machine manufacturer has com-
pressor test facilities for researching
new monitoring techniques and
analysing or refining existing ones
„ Sales and support network for the mon-
itoring solution for both organizations
is essentially "doubled"
„ The machine manufacturer can provide
machine dependent variables for calcu-
lated performance monitoring param-
eters such as power, volumetric effi-
ciency, rod load, flow and discharge
temperature
„ The cooperation is not a merger, so
both companies are unaligned - the
solutions can be used with all makes of
compressors
„ It is possible for both the machine man-
ufacturer and the instrument supplier to
have remote access to the monitoring
database, so site visits can be minimized.
Improved monitoring
solution
The rod drop measurement was one of the
measurement techniques that were ideal
to focus on. This is because the end-user's

Figure 2 COMPASS screen view showing recommended measurements for each cylinder
of a compressor in the stabilizing unit of an LNG plant. Figure 3 Typical COMPASS monitoring system configuration

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LNG journal March/April 2004 page 28

p27-30.qxd 06/04/2004 17:57 Page 3
supplier.
Some of the improvements in using the
rod drop measurement include:
„ Improved rod drop measurement tech-
nique - A proprietary dynamic measure-
ment technique based on multiple meas-
urements was optimised by TCS and
extensively tested by both TCS and BKV.
It does not have all of the shortcomings of
the traditional measurement technique
(e.g. the traditional rod drop measurement
is a static measurement, which means it
could drift over time giving a false trend).
„ Measurement set-up and operation
service - Because TCS/BKV have remote
access to the end-user database, the rod
drop measurement can actually be set up
and fine-tuned remotely without a site
visit.
„ Smart alarming techniques - The
COMPASS System (Figure 3) has an
alarm strategy that allows groups of sim-
ilar sensors to be compared, and alarms
are generated on deviations, not on the
Figure 4 Upper plot: Actual temperature absolute levels. As seen in Figure 4, the
for each suction valve (20 ºC deviation suction valve temperatures for two cylin-
over time). Lower plot: Temperature ders vary over time by more than 20 ºC
deviation between the four valves due to changing process conditions (from
(1.5 ºC deviation). 44 to 65 ºC). The temperature deviation
from one suction valve to another, how-
confidence in the rod-drop measurement ever, varies only 1.5 ºC, which means the
was low, although there was consider- temperature deviation or spread meas-
able downtime associated with changing urement is much more sensitive in identi-
the rider rings too early or too late. Some fying a valve problem.
instrument suppliers even recommend to The reliability and accuracy of other
their customers not to use the rod drop reciprocating compressor measurement
monitoring technique at all, or suggest techniques were also addressed by the
they get advice from the OEM machine TCS/BKV cooperation but are not includ-
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LNGjournal
ed in this article. This includes for example of these case studies are focused on rod
the calculated performance parameters drop measurements for reciprocating
(power, volumetric efficiency, rod load, compressors in an LNG and natural gas
flow, discharge temperature), which can processing application, but other monitor-
also be automatically monitored to alarm ing techniques are also described.
limits. The implementation of these partic- Improved rod drop measurements:
ular measurement techniques are Rod drop monitoring can give effective
described in a previous paper [1]. results if properly set up and used. In
Table 1, statistical deviations for the rod
Case Studies drop wear and actual dimensions are giv-
The examples presented below are a direct en for six different machines for different
result of the TCS/BKV cooperation. Most applications at different locations (mostly
Figure 5 The 4-day average can establish a good long-term trend
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p27-30.qxd 06/04/2004 17:57 Page 4
PLANT MAINTENANCE
Wear Band
Measurement Deviations
Mean deviation
Average deviation
Minimum deviation
Maximum deviation
Standard deviation
Table 1 Statistical comparison of wear band wear for a number of different machines
as determined by monitoring rod drop just before replacement, and the physical
dimensions as measured during replacement.
in the LNG industry). The monitored rod
drop measurement just prior to wear band
replacement is compared to the actual
physical dimensions of the bands meas-
ured during disassembly. In all situations,
an optimized rod drop measurement tech-
nique was implemented within the
TCS/BKV cooperation. As seen in Table 1,
the average difference between the rod
drop wear measurement and the physical-
ly measured bands is less than 0.15 mm.
Another method of using rod drop
measurements to the maximum effective-
ness is the use of both averaged and non-
averaged rod drop measurements. The
averaged measurement makes it a little
easier to identify a trend so maintenance
can be planned ahead of time (Figure 5),
as the non-averaged measurement is
important for catching short-term faults
such as lubrication system failure and
sand in the cylinder caused by a faulty fil-
ter (both occurred in the stabilizing unit
Figure 6 Right: Impact monitoring of a broken piston ring using a constant percentage
band-width measurement (CPB) showing an increased 1k Hz signal. The green line
represents the reference for normal condition, the yellow line indicates an alert alarm
condition. Left: Spectrum made before the piston ring failed.
Distinguished Speakers Include:
Sally Kornfeld, Office of Fossil Energy, US DEPARTMENT
OF ENERGY
Dr Raul Monteforte, Commissioner, CRE – ENERGY
REGULATORY COMMISSION, MEXICO
Commissioner Charles Matthews, TEXAS RAILROAD
COMMISSION
Betsy Spomer, CEO/VP, BG LNG Services/Global LNG, BG
GROUP
Darcel Hulse, President, SEMPRA ENERGY LNG CORP.
Richard Grant, CEO, TRACTEBEL LNG NORTH AMERICA
Sveinung J. Støhle, Head-North America LNG, TOTAL
Keith Meyer, President, CHENIERE LNG
Donald F. Santa, Jr., President, INGAA, INTERSTATE
NATURAL GAS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Charles Reimer, President, FREEPORT LNG, L.P.
Hank Petranik, Vice President LNG, TRANSCANADA
PIPELINES LIMITED
Kathleen M. Eisbrenner, President,
EXCELERATE ENERGY LLC
Mark Morris, Director, LNG Services, PANHANDLE ENERGY
Ted Gehrig, COO, WEAVER’S COVE ENERGY
Bill Perkins, President, CRYSTAL ENERGY LLC
Difference
mm %
0.15 5.6
0.14 7.7
0 0
0.4 29.6
0.11 7.6
of an LNG plant).
Broken piston ring detected by impact
monitoring: Impact safety monitoring pro-
tects the compressor from rapid destruc-
tive faults such as broken components or
liquid ingestion. The measurement can
also be trended as a condition monitoring
measurement to keep track of increasing
clearances such as for worn sliders, rod
bearings, etc. Figure 6 shows a compressor
with a broken piston ring.
The constant percentage bandwidth
(CPB) spectrum measurement in the right-
hand plot of Figure 6 indicates a 1k Hz sig-
nal amplitude increase. In this case the 1k
Hz increase is not necessarily due to the
impact signals themselves, but is most
likely the result of structural resonances
being excited by the impacting pieces of
the broken piston ring.
The CPB measurement is a composite
spectrum consisting of a series of individ-
ually filtered measurement components,
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LNG North America Summit
“The Strategic LNG Industry Summit
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Pre Summit Workshops: 26 May 2004
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LNG journal March/April 2004 page 30
Figure 7 A suction valve temperature
increase due to a faulty valve
each of which has a bandwidth that is a
constant proportion of the centre frequen-
cy (6% in this example). It is much more
sensitive to non-sinusoidal impacts than a
FFT (fast fourier transform) spectrum
analysis and has much higher resolution
at lower frequencies.
Leaking suction valve: The overlay
plot in Figure 7 shows the suction valve
temperature for two different cylinders of
the same machine in an unmanned gas
compression station. As seen in the plot,
on Oct 20, one of the cylinders suddenly
increases 3 ºC warmer than the other. This
temperature spread is observed for 10
days up until repair, which was done Oct
30. The suction temperature spread
returns to normal after the valve repair.
References
[1] Lau G. M. Koop, "Performance mon-
itoring on reciprocating compressors - A
rational extension of condition monitor-
ing", paper presented at the 2nd EFRC
symposium, Amsterdam, May 18, 2001
Mike Hastings is a
senior application
engineer at Brüel &
Kjær Vibro in Den-
mark. He graduated
from Purdue Univer-
sity in 1980 as a
mechanical engineer
and has worked as an
offshore field engineer and product design
engineer in various oil and gas industries in
the USA, and as a project engineer in Africa.
He has been with Brüel & Kjær Vibro for the
past 13 years.
Event Sponsors
Conclusion
The TCS/BKV cooperation was aimed at
helping LNG reciprocating compressor
end-users to reduce maintenance costs
and downtime. There are several accurate
measurement techniques that can be used
for monitoring most of the reciprocating
compressor potential failure modes, but
these are not always being used. This is
partially due to the difficulty in setting up
these measurements and a lack of knowl-
edge and confidence in the diagnosis.
After evaluating customer needs, it was
determined that using reliable automatic
monitoring techniques that require mini-
mal diagnosis expertise from the end-user,
will give faster, more effective results.
Educating end-users in using diagnostic
and analysis tools such as PV-diagram
analysis will not give immediate results,
and thus is not the immediate goal of this
co-operation. Automatic monitoring tech-
niques were evaluated and refined from
both a technical and service point of view
to improve their effectiveness. As all the
compressors are remotely monitored,
diagnoses can be done without site visits.
This approach is proving itself successful
as demonstrated by the case studies. There
is, however, a "learning curve" in promot-
ing and refining this solution, so the
TCS/BKV cooperation is intended as a
long-term project. „
Acknowledgement
3rd EFRC Conference, March 27th /
28th, 2003, Vienna. "Reliability and
Economics of Compression Systems -
Recent Trends in the Market of Recipro-
cating Compressors"
Jos Schrijver got his
mechanical engineer-
ing degree from the
Hogere Technische
School Arnhem in the
Netherlands, and has
been working with
Thomassen Compres-
sion Systems since 1977. He worked seven
years as a test engineer for centrifugal com-
pressors, 15 years as a product engineer for
gas turbines (specialisation in dynamics) and
the last four years as product engineer for
reciprocating compressors.