Page 178 - Compression Machinery for Oil and Gas

Chapter 5

Reciprocating Compressors

†
‡,a
Justin Hollingsworth*, Greg Phillippi , Martin Hinchliff ,
Chris Kulhanek*, Aoron Rimpel* and Franzisko Maywald §
* †
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, United States, Ariel Corporation,
‡
Mount Vernon, OH, United States, Dresser-Rand, Painted Post, NY, United States,
§
Burckhardt Compression AG, Winterthur, Switzerland
Equipment Selection
Service Types and Operating Conditions

Reciprocating compressors have been widely used for over 200years ever since
gases needed to be compressed. In the last 50years however their dominance as
the compressor type of choice has been eroded as other compressor types have
been developed. Reciprocating compressors can be used in almost any compres-
sion application, but other compressor types are generally preferred for certain
applications. Centrifugal compressors tend to be preferred when the power is
above 2MW, the mole weight (MW) is greater than 10, and the discharge pres-
sure below 100MPa. Screw compressors are preferred when the power is in the
range 10–500kW and the discharge pressure is below 30bar. Roots blowers are
used for discharge pressures below 0.1MPa gage. Power levels below 100kW
tend to be the province of diaphragms, vanes, etc.
Common Reciprocating Compressor Types
Compressors Without a Crosshead
Inthese designs,the pistonisattacheddirectlytothe crankshaftusing a connecting
rod. The issue with these compressors is that the gas that leaks past the piston rings
travels directly into the crankcase. As such they are only used in two applications,
for air or nitrogen compressors where the small leakage to the atmosphere via the
crankcase is not an issue, and secondly on relatively low-pressure application
where the gas is compatible with the crankcase and the crankcase can be hermet-
ically sealed. These can be used at pressures up to around 0.7MPa. This compres-
sor type is not generally considered suitable for flammable and hazardous gas
compression and so will not be covered in this book.

a. Retired.

Compression Machinery for Oil and Gas. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814683-5.00005-5
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