HOUSTON, TEXAS (September 21, 2004) --- In August, GE Energy completed its testing program for three large refrigerating compressor trains to be installed in Europe's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, located on Melkøya Island in the Arctic Ocean north of Hammerfest, Norway.
For the first time in this type of LNG application, the refrigerating compressors are driven by variable speed electric motors instead of being coupled to a gas turbine. GE is supplying a pre-cooling line comprised of a 3MCL 1404 horizontally split compressor with one side stream; a liquefaction train featuring an MCL 1406 horizontally split compressor; and a sub-cooling line which includes one MCL 1406 compressor and one BCL 1007 barrel type compressor. Two of the trains have a rated power of 65 megawatts and the third, 32 megawatts.
The units were performance and full-load tested at GE's oil and gas facilities in Massa, Italy, where a power generation plant was built to provide the necessary energy for the compressor drivers. Most of the actual project equipment, including power generation units and auxiliaries, drivers and speed control systems, was used in the testing process.
This unique test arrangement was designed to reproduce the actual project operating conditions. The success of the test will help to assure a safe, trouble-free commissioning and start-up, as well as a perfect matching with process requirements and reliable operation needs, which are vital for these type of applications. Extra time and cost for such a comprehensive testing program, when successful, is largely recovered.
During testing, in order to meet the very stringent operating tolerances GE decided, with the customer's concurrence, to tune the compressors' performances by trimming some impellers. The tests confirmed that for the three units, all operating requirements were fully satisfied with no restrictions, and efficiency higher than expected was measured. This will allow saving of approximately 10 megawatts of operating power when compressors are operated at peak load, while significantly reducing environmental impact at the site through lower CO
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GE Energy:
Howard Masto
Masto Public Relations
[email protected]
1-518-786-6488
Ken Darling
Masto Public Relations
[email protected]
1-518-786-6488