Compressor Instability Analysis

Type of service: Dynamic Simulation of Compression Systems

Inprocess client: Italian Oil&Gas Company 

Year: 2021

Country:  Italy

Description: An Oil&Gas facility needed to address the inefficiencies caused by frequent flaring events resulting from pressure fluctuations at the inlet separator, controlled by a flare valve.

Inprocess performed a dynamic simulation study to evaluate different operating scenarios and validate control strategy improvements. After discovering that the existing control valve was too large for low flowrates, the results from the study suggested the implementation of a smaller parallel control valve and an optimized split-range control strategy, significantly improving pressure stability. It was discovered that pressure control challenges were also influenced / interacting by instability in the compressor’s throttling valve and the compressor being at full capacity plus underperforming.

The result was stable operation without frequent flaring, while the identification of compressor underperformance also led to a compressor bundle replacement.