【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Engineering Equipment】Domestic localization of the control system for China’s first RB211 gas-fired compression unit from 1980 to 2020
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Witnessing the decade-long rapid development of chemical processing equipment, I admire the prosperity and strength of modern China. Wishing everyone a happy New Year, and may their families enjoy peace and health. By contributing our ideas, we can create a more lively atmosphere for discussion; HaiChuan becomes even better with your participation. Everyone is welcome to join in the forum discussions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ On August 18, 2020, the RB211 combustion-driven compressor unit operated by Western Pipeline Company, equipped with a domestically developed control system, has been running safely and steadily for over 850 hours, marking the first instance in China of a combustion-driven compressor unit whose control system is of domestic origin. This compressor unit has passed a series of rigorous tests, including ignition tests, no-load tests, full-load tests, surge tests, load distribution tests, and safety protection tests, and has met the design specifications.
Gas turbines are known as the “jewel in the crown of industry,” and their control system is their core auxiliary system. On the West-East Gas Pipeline and the Sining-Ningxia-Lanzhou natural gas pipelines under the jurisdiction of Western Pipeline Company, there are 101 combustion-driven compressor units of 4 different brands, all equipped with control systems imported from the United States. Throughout the years, the maintenance and upgrading of the software and hardware in gas turbine control systems has relied on foreign manufacturers, resulting in high annual costs for such maintenance and upgrades. As an electronic product, the control system typically has a lifespan of around 15 years; beyond this period, the failure rate increases sharply, making it difficult to ensure the stable operation of the western energy transmission routes. It is estimated that between 2021 and 2023, Western Pipeline Company will have 33 gas-fired compression units entering the renewal cycle, with the cost of upgrading each unit ranging from 10 million to 13 million yuan.
The localization of the control system for RB211 gas-fired compression units not only reduced the cost of upgrading the control system for each unit by over 50%, but also led to significant simplification, optimization, and integration of the original control system’s software and hardware, resulting in a number of innovations. Firstly, the new system integrates the four original hardware systems – gas turbine control, sequence control, safe shutdown, and fire and gas protection – into one. Secondly, it achieved the domestic substitution of key equipment such as IGV complex control and overspeed protection. Further optimizations have been made to aspects of the original system such as sequence control, process control, and surge control. Finally, a more advanced fuel gas control algorithm was introduced. Fuel gas control is the core of gas turbine control; to verify its effectiveness, fuel control valves with different characteristic curves were replaced on-site, yielding very good results. This project has applied for 5 invention patents and 5 software copyrights, filling a gap in China.