Advanced Compressor Projects to Save $1.5m Over 10 Years

Phil Black - PII Editor 07/05/2015

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Advanced Compressor performance savings of minimum 5% above similar current offerings
Compression energy could account for as high as 60% of a plant operation costs
Roots Compressor was developed and tested at GE’s facility in Indiana for global deployment

Oil & Gas today announced the development of the next-generation RootsTM advanced efficiency centrifugal compressor to significantly boost the energy efficiency of industrial air/gas and wastewater applications. Building on more than 90 years of Roots compressor technology, this compressor will help operators reduce plant energy consumption.

Compression energy accounts for up to 60% of entire plant operation costs because of its intensive energy use, making it an obvious target for efficiency savings.

The design is more efficient than turbo blowers and fans. It improves energy efficiency in comparison to current comparable offerings by at least 5 percent and can translate into savings of $1.5MM* over 10 years of operation for a medium-size compressor/impeller. The next generation compressor is designed to integrate with existing plant lines without the need for reconfiguration.

“The advanced Roots compressor is a major step in the evolution of our centrifugal compressor technology,” said Daniela Sozanski, Roots global product line manager, GE Oil & Gas. “GE has made significant investment to combine efficiency with robustness and longevity at a challenging time when efficiency is more important than ever.”

The RootsTM Advanced Compressor deploys a proven design by incorporating the compressor and gas turbine technology expertise of GE Oil & Gas and GE Power & Water. The compressor efficiency gain was achieved by advancing the design of the compressor impeller, volute, variable diffuser vanes, inlet guide vanes and controls. Extensive computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis were performed to determine optimum configurations. The advanced technology is now available in the robust Roots centrifugal product lines for applications such as, air separation, sulfur recovery, and waste water aeration.