New Pipeline Compressor was Introduced by GE Oil & Gas

Expanding its innovative Integrated Compressor Line (ICL), GE Oil & Gas has introduced its first single-stage ICL, designed for low pressure ratio applications such as pipeline compression. Featuring 20% more operating range flexibility and greater efficiency, the new product was recently unveiled at the GE Oil & Gas 2013 Annual Meeting in Florence, Italy.

The single-stage ICL has a simple design with only two magnetic bearings and no split parts and offers full access to critical components. With its very simple and robust architecture, the product costs about the same as a conventional BCL/PCL compressor, but has lower operating costs.

While the previously introduced ICL products are primarily designed for gas storage applications and feature multi-stages and multi-impellers, the new product is the first with only one impeller in the industry. This design enables high performance in applications where the requested design pressure ratio is very low (1.1:1.4), such as gas compression stations.

The impeller used in the single-stage ICL is from GE’s proven impeller family.

Because of its customised shape, the impeller transfers the power from the motor to the gas by quikening it. Then the static part at the outlet of the impeller transforms the speed of the gas into pressure. For a pressure ratio below 1.4, the optimised design of the single stage ICL enables very high efficiency and reduces the electrical power consumption compared to a multi-stage ICL or conventional centrifugal compressor.

The single-stage ICL offers a power range of 2 – 15 MW, design inlet pressure of 20 - 80 bar, discharge pressure up to 120 bar and maximum speed of 18 000 rpm. The new product is available globally, with the first commercial applications expected in the 2014 - 2015 time frame. Today, 16 ICL units are running and have accumulated more than 33 000 running hours and 1000 starts and stops for gas storage and pipeline operation in Europe.