Auxiliary System

Compressed Air System

Sterling and Wilson Co-Gen Solutions

Clean and green environment
AKK_27/02/2015 1
 Compressed air system

• Compressed air is used for a couple of things in a power plant:

– Staring the engines (10 to 30 bar)
– Control & instrumentation (7 bar)
• Gas regulating valves
• Electro-pneumatically operated thermostatic valves
• Air driven pumps
• Solenoid valves in separators
• Tools
• Blow guns etc.

• All engines are started with air. The normal maximum pressure is 10 to 30
bar, while the minimum starting air pressure is 8-18 bar. The starting air is
injected directly into the cylinders.

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 Compressed Air System

S T A R T IN G
A IR U N IT S T A R T IN G A IR
BO TTLE
HFO
S E P A R A T O R U N IT

L U B E O IL
S E P A R A T O R U N IT

B O O S T E R U N IT

CO NTRO L &
IN S T R U M E N T A T IO N A IR U N IT ETC.

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 Starting air system

• Starting air system consists of:

• Starting air compressors:
• Two cylinder, two stage, air cooled, piston
compressors
• Built for working at 30 bar pressure
• Two compressors in a unit (1 working & 1
standby)
• Electrically driven (or one diesel driven)
• Equipped with pressure reduction valve (7bar)
and connection to instrument air system
(backup for instrument air system, max 24h)
• Starting air bottle(s)
• To store a sufficient amount of compressed air
to ensure 3 start attempts/engine (<4 engines)*
• Equipped with drain valve
• Piping system

Starting air compressor specification :

• If the power plant has more than 4 engines the number of
start attempts/engine will be reduced because its very Design pressure 40 bar
unlikely that several engines will need 3 start attempts each. Operating pressure 30 bar
Minimum air temp 4°C
Maximum air temp 46°C (x-range, 50°C)
• Starts total = (11*n+30)/7 Capacity 24 -160 Nm3/h (30 bar) /compressor
• Noise limit 90 dBA at 1 m
E.g. for 5 engines it would be 12.1

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 Starting air system, dimensioning

Compressor capacity:
Starting air bottle volume: .
V  Vcalc  p
.
(V start  nstart ) .
V  Compressor air capacity [Nm3 /h]
Vbottle ( s ) 
p
Vcalc  Calculated air bottle volume [m 3 ]
.
V start  Air consumption for one start [Nm 3 ] p  bottle working range (15bar)
nstart  Number of starts • Compressors are generally designed to fill
p  5to15 [bar] the bottle from 15 to 30 bar within 60
minutes (this does not include backup compressor)
• Compressor capacities are given in
Nm3/h
• Nm3 Unit of free air flow rate. Normal
cubic meter per hour. The air in the
following conditions:1.013 bar(a) of
pressure; 0 ° C of temperature and
0% of relative humidity

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 Starting air system, dimensioning

Air bottle charging time:

60 V  ( p1  p0 )
T [min]
Q
Q  Compressor air capacity [m 3 /h]
V  Bottle volume [m3]
p1  Final absolute pressure inreciver [bar]
p 0  Initial absolute pressure inreciver [bar]
• Compressors can run at same time for fast filling, in
normal operation one is active to maintain system Starting air bottles specification
pressure while the other one is standby.
Operating pressure 30 bar
Design pressure 33 bar
Test pressure 49.5 bar
Design temperature on content 0°C to 75°C
Highest allowed pressure on load33 bar (S.P on safety valve)

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 Control air system

Control air specification

• Design pressure 10 bar
• Nominal pressure 7 bar
• Dew point temperature +3°C
• Maximum oil carry over 1 mg/m3
• Particle removal down to 3 µm
• Room max. ambient temperature:
– Standard +43°C
– High temp version +50°C
• Noise level max. 75 dB(A)

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 Control and instrument air system

Control and instrument air system consists of:

• Control air compressor unit (compressor, receiver &

dryer):
• Single stage, air cooled, screw compressor
• Built for max 10 bar, normal 7 bar pressure
• Electrically driven
• Max ambient temperature is 45 °C for typically
used instrument air units
• If higher ambient temperature a high ambient
version (HAV) of the unit has to be used (max
ambient 50 °C)

• External air receivers (if there are consumers with

temporary high consumption or if there is long pipeline)

• Safety filter close to critical components such as I/P

converters

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 Control & Instrument air system, dimensioning

• Instrument air Compressor capacity is calculated:

20  f  P  10
V
100  s
V  Instrument air bottle capacity need [Nm3 /min]
f  Engine type dependent factor For liquid fuel f=2.5 for gas fuel f=5
P  Plant tota l mechanical output [MW]
s  Engine cylinder number

– Minimum capacity installed is 1,1Nm3/min

– An exact Instrument air consumption difficult to calculate.
• Pneumatic component manufacturer usually gives peak consumption. Average
consumption?

• The consumption for a valve is known when it changes position. How often does it
change position?

• What tools will be connected and how many at the same time?

NOTE! SCR air system & working air for workshop is not included in above equation it should be calculated separately.
Jet-pulse filters also demand more compressor capacity.

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 Pipe size & Pressure drop calculations

• Recommended maximum velocity is 15 m/s for compressed air system

• Pressure drop from starting air bottle to engine should not be more than 1 bar
• Methodology remains same as we did for Gas system
• Calculating correct pipe size & pressure drop using following formulas:
pb Tact  w
2

.
4 V b   l
.
4  V act pact Tb
dp    d    el  
d   d  2
vact   vact   Where :
l  length of pipe
d  Inner diameter of pipe
In which:
  Density of media at tempera ture
d diameter [m]
p absolute pressure [bar(a)]  .

 V
w  Velocity of media in pipe  w  
T temperature [K]  A
 
v velocity of air [m/s]
 el  Component friction factor
V volumetric flow of air [m3/s]
 d  Pipe friction factor
 constant:  3.14159
act actual conditions 64
 d if laminar flow :
b base conditions (normal temperature and Re
2
pressure)  k 
2.51
 d if turbulent flow :  d   2 log  d  

 3.7 Re  d
  

AKK_27/02/2015  el : elbow  0.5, valve  0.5 10

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AKK 07/12/2011
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AKK 07/12/2011