GAS COMPRESSION

Gas compression is required to increase the pressure of natural gas. In the oil industry, the
petroleum engineer is involved in several applications where the need for compressors will
require assessment.

A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
 Use of Compressor in Oil & Gas Industry

• Transportation:
In transporting gas from the well to a gathering station, or from one
gathering station to another gathering station, the gas may not have enough
pressure to overcome the pressure drop across the pipeline.

Booster compressors are needed to compress the gas before it is

transmitted through the pipeline.

These types of compressors are typically characterized by high capacity

with relatively low compression ratios of 2 to 5.
Upstream
 Gas gathering application can typically utilize screw, rotary vane, reciprocating, and
centrifugal compressors to collect gas at producing wellheads and move the gas to a central
location for processing and/or transport through a series of various pipelines.

 Export compression increases the pressure of processed gas to be suitable for exporting
from a processing facility to a pipeline for use by downstream consumers.
Typical compressors used are centrifugal and reciprocating.

 Gas lift is a process where high-pressure gas is reinjected into the well riser to mix with the
fluid, thus helping with lifting oil from a well by making the weight of the fluid column
lighter in weight.
This helps to maintain or enhance production from a well.
Both centrifugal and reciprocating can be utilized in this process.
 Gas reinjection can utilize centrifugal and reciprocating compressors to maintain or
enhance production in an oil reservoir that contains both oil and gas.

In this process the gas is injected into the reservoir to maintain pressure and thus oil
production rate.

 Vapor recovery units—in vapor recovery, gas that separates from oil in a storage system
(tank or vessel) is recovered by removing the gas that collects on the top of a vessel thus
reducing the pressure within a storage tank and capturing the gas for use elsewhere.

Reciprocating, rotary screw, rotary vane, or centrifugal compressors are typically

employed as the compression equipment for this application process.
 Subsea compression equipment located in a subsea environment is used to maintain
reservoir production by reinjection into a well formation.

 Centrifugal compressors with direct coupled high-speed motors are typically used for this
application.

 Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) can include gas injection, water flood, and chemical or
steam injection.

 EOR is used to maintain reservoir pressure by injection of gas either recycled from the
reservoir itself or from an alternate source using a different fluid like carbon dioxide
(CO2), nitrogen, or other gas streams can be injected.

 Typical compression equipment used can be reciprocating and centrifugal compression.

Injection:
Gas injection is required in several applications.
These include
 injection of gas in tubing in a gas-lift process;
 injection of gas in a reservoir as a secondary recovery mechanism;
 injection of gas in a condensate reservoir to maintain the pressure above dew-
point, and
 injection of gas to store natural gas in underground storages.
These applications require large compression ratios in the range of 5 to 20.
The throughput rate will vary between medium and high.
Vapor Recovery:
 When an oil well is produced through the use of submersible pumps and rod
pumps, the formation gas is required to be separated downhole and has to be
flowed through the annulus.

 The casing gas needs to be compressed before discharging it into the pipeline.

 These compressors are characterized by low suction (0 to 25 psig) and low

discharge pressures (50 to 300 psig) with low throughput rates.
Production Enhancement:
 Many gas wells can be subjected to increased production by reducing the
wellhead pressure.
 By installing a compressor at the wellhead, the wellhead pressure can be
reduced to increase the gas production.
 These types of compressors are characterized by low to medium throughputs
with low to medium compression ratios.
Flash Gas:
 In many oil and gas fields, the produced oil or gas is subjected to surface
separation.
 Oil and gas are separated; oil is separated, and gas is liberated.
 For wet gas or condensate wells, the gas released in second and third stage
separation is low-pressure gas.
 This low-pressure gas is called flash gas. The gas needs to be compressed
before it can be transported.
 The compression is characterized by low throughput rates with compression
ratios in the range of 5 to 20.
 Application of different types of Compressor

Although different types of compressors can be used depending on a specific application, the
most commonly used compressors can be divided into two groups: positive displacement and
dynamic.

Positive displacement compressors

 In positive displacement compressors, the compression is accomplished by
movement of a displacing element.
 By physically reducing the volume of the gas, pressure is increased.
 The two main types of positive displacement compressors are the reciprocating
compressor and rotary compressor.
Reciprocating compressors
 The reciprocating compressor is likely the most well known and the most widely used of all
compressors.
 In the reciprocating compressor, the compressing and displacing element is a piston moving
linearly within a cylinder.
 A reciprocating compressor has many moving parts and therefore, lower efficiency.
 Each cylinder assembly includes piston, cylinders, cylinder heads, suction and discharge
valves, and the parts necessary to convert rotary motions to reciprocating motion.
Rotary compressors
 In rotating compressors, the positive displacement is accomplished by the positive
action of rotating elements.

 These compressors perform compression in an intermittent mode and do not use inlet
and discharge valves.

 In this type, the positive action of rotating elements is used for compression and
displacement.

 Rotary compressors usually offer low pressure differentials.

 Can handle large quantities of low-pressure gas at comparatively low horsepower.

 They are easy to install, operate and maintain, and are used primarily in distribution
systems where the pressure differential between suction and discharge is quite small.
 SLIDING-VANE COMPRESSOR
 The sliding-vane compressor consists of axial vanes that slide radially in a rotor mounted
eccentrically in a cylindrical chamber.
 It is identical in operation to the reciprocating compressor, except that it has no valves.
 The inlet and discharge conditions are determined by the location of the vanes that move over
the inlet and discharge ports.
 The compression cycle begins when the leading vane of each pocket uncovers the intake port.
 As the rotor turns, the pocket volume decreases and gas is compressed, until
the discharge port is uncovered by the leading vane of each pocket.

 Because this discharge point is prefixed in the design, the rotary sliding-vane
compressor always compresses gas to the design pressure, regardless of the
pressure in the receiver into which it is discharging.

 Sliding-vane compressors can typically handle 3,000 cfm (cubic feet per
minute) of gas, with a maximum discharge pressure of 50 psig per
compression stage.
They are primarily used as air compressors, boosters, and vacuum pumps.
 Two-Impeller straight lobe Compressors
 Also known as rotary blower, the rotary two-impeller straight-lobe compressor consists of two
identical rotors (or impellers) mounted symmetrically in a casing.
 The rotors usually have a cross section similar to the numeral eight. The two rotors intermesh, and
rotate in opposite directions.
 One of the rotors is driven directly, while the other is driven and kept in phase by means of
phasing/timing gears.
 The rotors do not directly compress the gas or reduce its volume and there is no internal
compression; they merely transmit the gas from the inlet to the discharge.
 Compression occurs by backflow into the casing from the discharge line at the time the
discharge port is uncovered.
 It is a simple device. with no contact between the rotors or between rotors and casing.
 Rotary blowers can typically handle gas at 15,000 cfm, with a maximum discharge
pressure of 20 psig or less per compression stage.
Liquid- Piston Compressors
 Liquid-piston compressors use water or another liquid as the piston to compress
and displace the gas.
 They are not used much in the natural gas industry.

Helical lobe or spiral lobe compressors

 Helical-lobe compressors use two helical-type intermeshing rotors, giving a
discharge pressure typically up to 150 psig per compression stage for gas
flowing at 3.000 cfm.
 They are primarily used for vacuum and specialty applications at moderate
pressures but have not found significant application in the natural gas industry.
DYNAMIC COMPRESSORS
 Dynamic compressors operate by transferring energy from a rotating set of
blades to the gas.
 The rotor effects this energy transfer by changing the pressure and momentum
of the gas.
 The momentum also is subsequently converted into pressure by reducing the
gas velocity in stationary blades or diffusers.
Centrifugal compressors
 In centrifugal compressors, the rotating impellers impart a velocity head to the fluid
which is converted to pressure head by expansion.

 These compressors have few moving parts since only the impeller and shaft rotate.

 Centrifugal compressors provide continuous delivery without cyclic variations.

 These compressors also have low maintenance and oil consumption costs.

 They normally operate with large capacity and relatively low-pressure ratios
 Typically, the volume is 150,000 cfm [4,250 m3 /min] with a discharge pressure of up
to 100 psig [690 kPag].

 However, the pressure in centrifugal compressors can be as high as 10,000 psig

[69,000 kPag].

 The main advantages of centrifugal compressors are: high capacity, virtually oil-free
operations, high pressure capability, and relatively low maintenance.

 The disadvantages are: they are relatively expensive compared to reciprocating and
screw compressors, inflexible in change in pressure ratios and capacities, and
extremely sensitive to vibrations.
 In axial-flow compressors, gas flow is parallel to the compressor shaft (axial),
because unlike centrifugal compressors, there is no vortex action.

 Energy is transferred by means of a number of stages of blades.

 Each stage consists of two rows of blades-one row (mounted on the rotor)
rotating, and the next row (mounted on the casing or stator) stationary.

 Both the rotor and stator contribute almost equally to the pressure rise generated
by the axial flow compressor.

 It is a high-speed. large-capacity machine with characteristics quite different

from the centrifugal type of compressor.
MIXED- FLOW COMPRESSOR
 These have gas flow that is in between axial and centrifugal, and combine
some characteristics of both the centrifugal and axial types.
 Because of the long length required for each stage, mixed-flow compressors
are generally not used as multistage units.