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What was Causing the Discharge Pressure to Keep Going High?

Finding the right equipment at the right time can be a challenge when you are busy optimizing your asset. Like most companies, we have our standard procurement procedures which work just fine most of the time, and fortunately our purchasing department was also quite reasonable whenever issues came up (which always seemed to be at 1am on Saturday nights, for some reason). The turnaround had gone pretty well, a little longer than scheduled, but nothing major had been found during the inspections. The plant had been all buttoned up and the project team was finished, and the production team was starting things up when the compressors tripped on high pressure.

Our Patience was Running Out Reset and same again. Reset and the same again. We traced the lines trying to figure out what was causing the discharge pressure to keep going high – everything was lined up as it should. Our patience was running out as the lead operator, and I walked the gas sales line back to the plant and I asked about the aerial coolers – no issues were found in them, and they had hydro-tested fine…as we opened the drain plug water poured out of the coolers!

There Was No Requirement for Pigging The hot, high-pressure gas from the compressors was going through the coolers to get to the correct temperature before going to the sales line – but the step of draining and drying the coolers prior to start-up had been missed (but that’s the subject of a different story), and now the combination of high-pressure gas and water had formed a huge hydrate in the dry gas sales line. Since it was a dry gas line there was no requirement for pigging, so there were flanges for launching and receiving, but the facilities were re-purposed for another location years before.

The coolers were dried, methanol and pumps were arranged, and we all tried to find suitable pigging facilities to get the hydrate moving. Nothing was Available Just as the option of opening up the pipework and taking our chances was being considered, the foreman had found the equipment online, and it was only an hour from our location! A few e-mails later we had a certified pig receiver ready to catch our hydrate. That’s when I learned that the internet can actually help me get things done in the industry – and the rest is history. Ballycatter.com is the site where you can access equipment and services from experienced vendors and service companies – save it to your favorites today because you might need it.

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