Vinai Misra, Woodward, USA, outlines
of dynamic variables to keep the compressor operating at its
the important role that compressor
controllers play in the successful
operation of ethylene plants.
E
thylene plants rely on cracked-gas compressors (CGCs),
along with refrigeration compressors, for their
complete process to work properly. Damage caused to
a compressor, particularly from a surge event, costs
owners millions of dollars in both equipment and lost
production. Compressor operation must be fine-tuned to
maximise performance and reduce spurious trips that result in
downtime and unnecessary maintenance.
Thwarting an unplanned shutdown is in many ways like a
juggling act between compressor controls whose functions
are different yet must all be maintained at the same time.
Compressor control incudes monitoring and controlling a set
optimum performance. The critical factors of flow,
temperature, and pressure of the discharge gas must be
considered when determining the compressor’s optimum
operating point. Maintaining the desired levels of these factors
is the job of multiple control functions that must all work well
together. These individual control tasks must be handled
differently while keeping all of them in motion and operating
correctly.
In addition to managing multiple controllers, ethylene
plants must contend with challenges that are unique to CGCs.
Cracked-gas compressors
CGCs, sometimes called process-gas or charged-gas
compressors, are high-power compressors that draw gas from
the cracking furnaces through various quench coolers and
separation sections of the plant that pressurise the gas for
further separation. CGCs provide large volume, high mass
flowrates at low pressures and usually need multiple
compressor sections to meet the required discharge pressure.
They typically have three to five sections across two or three
compressor bodies of varying configurations (Figure 1).
CGCs are the single most critical piece of equipment in
an ethylene plant. This asset can cost as much as
US$50 million and must operate 24/7 under demanding
conditions. Because the compressor has no backup, ethylene
plant operators know that if it trips – whether the trip is
caused by excess vibration, a surge, an instrument
malfunction, or other problems – their entire process may be
brought to a halt for up to a week. If a trip occurs, operators
have a 10 to 30-minute window during which they must
assess the trip’s cause and determine whether it is safe to
restart the machine. After that, the rest of the plant will
move too far from its normal operating conditions and the
process will be saturated. A compressor shutdown has a
domino effect on the rest of the plant that can necessitate
product flaring and even a full plant shutdown.
Special needs of cracked gas
compressors
A double-flow configuration is more suitable for the first stage
process of a cracked-gas compressor because of two
requirements: (1) the large volume and (2) the need to reduce
the head pressure at each stage due to fouling caused by
residue build-up on the compressor blades. A double-flow
compressor basically arranges two smaller compressors back to
back with a common discharge. This configuration enables a
Figure 1. Typical CGC configuration.
Figure 2. Illustration of fouled compressor
degradation.
Reprinted from August 2019 HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
much higher volume flow within a smaller and less-expensive
compressor.
Blade fouling
The cracked gas contains trace amounts of compounds that
can polymerise within the gas stream and stick to the flow
path in the compressor. This fouling degrades the performance
of the compressor and often the actual surge line of the
compressor tends to shift towards the right side of the
performance curve with residue build-up (Figure 2).
The compressor control should compensate for the fouling
that occurs over time and provide a safety ‘barrier’ for
subsequent surges. The control will automatically shift the
surge control line as fouling occurs, keeping the machine
operating properly in a possible surge event.
Furthermore, the formation of fouling increases the gas
temperature. To reduce gas temperature, atomised water is
injected into the gas stream through a nozzle located in the
return channel. A quench controller built inside the compressor
control will maintain the gas temperature by modulating the
feed rate of the atomised water.
Decoupling control loops
Due to the multistage operations of CGCs, it is critical to
decouple interactions between stages. The flow at each stage
is affected by the previous stage and subsequent stages of the
operation. Therefore, an efficient compressor control must be
able to manage the interaction between each stage’s control
loops to decouple their responses. Decoupling the control
loops ensures that one stage’s control loop adjusts its response
in advance based on the movement of the other compressor
stages’ control loops – thereby minimising or eliminating the
interaction between the control loops.
Avoiding surge events
Spurious trips can be problematic, but a compressor surge
must be avoided at all costs. A surge happens when pressure
on the output of the compressor gets too high and it pushes
gas back through the compressor. To prevent this backward
flow, the re-circulation (or anti-surge) valve must be opened to
reduce the pressure on the output of the compressor.
Operators rely upon the reaction time of the
compressor’s anti-surge valve, which utilises a dedicated
control system to both optimise process operations and
react quickly and accurately to prevent compressor surge. In
the case of an emergency, the anti-surge valve may have to
travel up to 20 in. within 0.75 sec. Unless it is very tightly
controlled, such a large stroke in a short time could cause the
valve to overshoot. Precise process control is critical. A
controller, such as Woodward’s MicroNet, anticipates the
surge so plant operators can start taking evasive action
before it occurs. Controlling the anti-surge valve is only part
of the juggling act that the controller performs during
compressor operation.
Refrigeration compressors
Refrigeration compressors are multi-sectional or stage
machines with side loads or extractions depending on the
process design. Propylene refrigeration compressors are
commonly 4-stage or 3-stage. Impacting the overall efficiency
of these machines are mismatches of the head pressure
required for each section or stage and large swings in flowrates
(between design and off-design performance).
Refrigeration compressors differ from other process
compressors in that the head across the entire compressor
remains nearly constant at all flowrates. The discharge pressure
is set by the condensing temperature of the refrigerant
regardless of flow. The inlet pressure is directly related to the
required duty temperature of the evaporators. These
properties play an important role in dealing with centrifugal
compressors in refrigeration services in off-design cases.
As the duties change, the mass flowrate from the
evaporator(s) into the compressor changes, and thus the
operating point on the head vs volumetric flowrate
compressor curve also changes. The compressor designer
makes design decisions to best meet the customer’s
requirements. Early collaboration between compressor
designer, end user, and process designer allows for a better
understanding of the long-term operation of the equipment
and the design goals.
Challenges of refrigeration
compressors
The refrigeration process enhances its efficiency by
recuperation from the demethaniser reboilers and the ethylene
fractionator. These energy recovery processes can sometimes
reverse inter-stage flows in the refrigeration compressor,
causing a surge event in the refrigeration compressor. When
the re-cycle valve opens, the inlet gas temperature can get too
high because hot gas from the compressor discharge is sent
back to the compressor inlet. Compression of this hot gas
raises its temperature even more, causing the compressor to
shut down.
To prevent the discharge temperature from getting too
high and triggering a shutdown, a cool vapour stream must be
added. To address this challenge, hot compressed vapours
from refrigerant compressor discharge are used to vaporise
liquid refrigerant in a manner similar to how process stream is
used to vaporise refrigerant in the chillers. Ideally, if the
compressor anti-surge vapour flow and temperature control
valve on quench liquid are perfectly matched and there is no
time lag within the control system, the configuration will work
perfectly.
Unfortunately, if there is any mismatch, which in a
real-world situation always exists, either too much quench
liquid is added to the inlet stream (whereby there is high liquid
level in the suction drums) or not enough quench liquid is
added (whereby the discharge temperature keeps rising). In
either mismatch case, the refrigerant compressor will shut
down from high liquid level in the suction drum or from high
discharge temperature.
Gas impurities impose additional considerations for the
proper operation of refrigeration compressors. The purity of
the propylene refrigeration cooling has a significant impact on
the ability of the refrigeration system to work properly. If the
propylene refrigerant has a 2% impurity of ethylene, then the
compressor discharge pressure needs to be 13 psi (88 Kpa) or
higher. This would require a higher discharge pressure, higher
compressor speed, and hence higher horsepower. To handle a
2% – 4% variation of gas impurities, the compressor control
must be unaffected by a reasonable change in the molecular
weight of the gas.
Final control variable
The final control variable is the calculated surge process variable
that is a predetermined distance from surge line. This variable
should be independent of any factors related to gas properties
such as the gas’ molecular weight, the polytropic exponent.
Also, the compressor’s control should have a decoupling option
to remove possible unstable interactions between the stages of
a multistage compressor. Finally, the quench control function
should allow a variable set point based upon the dew point
curve of propane. This enhances the efficiency of propane
compressors by avoiding excess quenching and therefore lessens
the chances of compressor trips while allowing faster start-ups.
Control solutions
In addition to the specific control system recommendations
outlined, there are other fundamental control system
characteristics that enhance the operation and performance of
the plant’s ethylene compressor and help it to stay up and fully
operational. Some of these characteristics include:
nn Advanced control algorithms – including a ‘rate’ control
PID (proportional, integral, and derivative) that anticipates
impending surge events and takes evasive action to
prevent the occurrences.
nn Faster flow signal filtering, such as a 4-point filter which is
equivalent to a 20 millisecond sampling rate, to provide
more precise data for the control algorithm to use in its
calculations.
nn Control algorithms to ‘break’ surge cycles, such as a ‘surge
minimum position’ lock, so that frequent surges due to
upsets can be avoided.
nn Model-based simulation testing to verify system operation
and performance before installing on actual compressor.
nn Fast scan rate of signals with 40 millisecond scan rate,
coupled with fast response anti-surge valves to help avoid
surge events altogether.
nn Temperature control through quenching using dew-point
curve instead of simple temperature PID loop to mitigate
excess quenching.
Conclusion
It is no overstatement to say that how a compressor controller
monitors and manages the multiple process variables and
responds to ever changing process conditions contributes to
the successful operation of ethylene plant compressors. While
these compressors are the workhorses of the process, they are
also very challenging to control due to changing process
variations and loop times, coupled stage-to-stage interactions,
and long-term compressor stage fouling. Since any of these
process conditions can force the compressor towards its surge
line it is the challenge of the compressor controller to maintain
process flow, temperature, and pressures whilst protecting
each compressor stage from experiencing a minor or major
surge event. Designed to control and protect critical process
compressors, Woodward’s MicroNet compressor control uses
field proven algorithms to juggle all process control and
protection functions – ensuring stable operation in all the
process phases.
HYDROCARBON Reprinted from August 2019
ENGINEERING