FLORENCE, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2004--GE Energy has completed its testing program for three large refrigerating compressor trains to be installed in Europe's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, located on Melkoya 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 CO2 emissions.
In addition to the compressors, GE Energy is supplying five GE LM6000PD aero-derivative gas turbines rated 43 megawatts each at ISO conditions that will provide the power for the plant. All five of the units will be barge-mounted and will produce the 200+ megawatts of power needed for the refrigeration process. Two of those units were used for the testing arrangement.
This project is a major milestone for the LNG production industry, and we are proud that our compressor technology is contributing to the success of this project, said Claudi Santiago, President of GE Energy's oil and gas operations. We are dedicating an increasingly large part of our technology and resources to serving the rapidly growing LNG sector of the oil and gas industry. GE Energy's oil and gas operations are based in Florence, Italy.
About GE Energy
GE Energy (www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2003 revenues of nearly $18.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, transmission and distribution, distributed power and energy rental industries.
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