The recent drop in oil prices has had a negative impact on the Oil, Gas & Petrochemical industry and has emphasized the need for modernization and debottlenecking to reach ever higher levels of plant utilization and economies of scale. With that said, Turbomachinery manufacturers have been focusing on the application of state-of-theart technologies to bring higher efficiency and reliability to the equipment market. Traditionally, there are two options for compressor and/or turbine modification for plant revamps: one is re-rotoring of compressor and/or turbine; and the other is footprint replacement of the existing equipment. In the footprint replacement approach, the existing compressor / turbine can be replaced entirely to offer a more flexible and suitable design to maximize the plant capacity. The challenge for footprint replacements of equipment is matching the nozzle arrangement and physical footprint of the existing machine to avoid additional site work (modification of existing foundation, etc), extension of expected turnaround duration, and higher investment cost. This paper presents MCO (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor Corp)’s latest footprint replacement technology to minimize facility modification by utilizing the same footprint and without extending the outage duration. Actual footprint replacement experiences are also referenced as a case study.
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