Operational Experience With the World's First Offshore Turboexpanders With Magnetic Bearings

Harald Underbakke
1996 Volume 5: Manufacturing Materials and Metallurgy; Ceramics; Structures and Dynamics; Controls, Diagnostics and Instrumentation; Education; General   unpublished
The first offshore turboexpanders with magnetic bearings have now been in operation on the Sleipner A platform in the North Sea since October 1993. Four machines are installed, each at 3.3 MW, running at 16,500 RPM for natural gas dew point control. During the commissioning phase and the first year of operation a number of problems were discovered, mainly due to the application of magnetic bearings in a new environment, and some unexpected bearing I process interaction phenomenon. To solve the
more » ... roblems it was necessary to do modifications to electrical systems, mechanical parts, operational procedures and buffer gas systems. After a 1.5 year period of modifications,all 4 machines are now running with 99 % availability .
doi:10.1115/96-gt-218 fatcat:fbtf5tejsfcrvm7iwsvnqoekvq