Problems with compressors in ethylene plants
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What typically drives the ethylene compressor and the propylene compressor in an ethylene plant? Motor or turbine? Is it on the same axis?
It’s usually a steam turbine, but our ethylene compressors were previously driven by motors; it was only during the capacity expansion upgrades that they were switched to steam turbines!
There are many advantages to using steam turbines, one of which is that it is easy to adjust the speed to match different loads.
As ethylene plants become larger, the power of the three machines also increases, making the use of steam turbines for drive a common practice. Generally, it is also one shafting system.
Steam turbines are generally used, as compressors have too high a power output. Electricity can’t be carried; it’s all about an axis.
It’s not that electricity can’t drive it; it’s that steam turbines have lower operating costs
The vast majority are turbines, taking into account the overall steam balance.
Most of them are driven by steam turbines. On the one hand, current compressors have a high processing capacity; using electric drives requires very high voltages, which makes starting them extremely difficult, and it is also inconvenient to adjust the speed； On the other hand, steam has relatively high stability and lower operating costs. The drive device and the compressor are connected coaxially
An axis system does not mean placing the three machines on a single axis. It’s one machine with one shaft!
The \"low-pressure cylinder of the pyrolysis gas compressor + medium-pressure cylinder of the pyrolysis gas compressor + high-pressure cylinder of the pyrolysis gas compressor\" you mentioned are all part of the same compressor – the pyrolysis gas compressor. The three ethylene turbines are the pyrolysis gas compressor, the propylene refrigerant compressor, and the ethylene refrigerant compressor.
The three machines refer to the three compressors in the ethylene plant: the pyrolysis gas compressor, the ethylene compressor, and the propylene compressor. Each compressor is equipped with its own turbine, and the turbine of each compressor is on the same axis as its process medium