Oil and gas skid or fuel gas conditioning system for turbines are used to purify or treat the combustion fuel for turbines. For the performance and the longevity of the of the gas turbines, the treatment of fuel that is used in the turbines is very necessary. Also, in many cases, using untreated fuel in turbines will void turbine warranty.
Need for Oil and Gas Skid
Therefore, a well-designed fuel treatment solution is necessary for every plant, refinery or industry. Every industry has its own setup and its own requirements. Therefore, oil and gas skid manufacturers may have to even implement custom oil and gas skid solutions. Sometimes, stock oil and gas skid systems can be purchased and installed while the industry is being set up.
There are various contaminants in untreated fuel. They can be broadly categorized as solid, liquid and gas contaminants. The solid contaminants include mill scale, sand and rust. They tend to deposit in the hotter sections of the turbines and inevitably causes erosion. Liquid contaminants include water, lubricant oils, compressed gases and heavy hydrocarbons. These are products that have not been removed during the manufacture of the fuel itself. They may deposit on the injector, cause smaller explosions or non-uniform combustion. Gases like hydrogen sulphide and siloxane cause erosion.
How It Works?
A basic oil and gas skid will first remove the solid and liquid contaminants using ultra efficient coalescing filter elements. After the solid and the liquid has been removed, the gas is super-heated using electric heaters and then at the correct pressure and temperature, it is made to pass through high efficiency filters.
For internal combustion engines too, gas conditioning skids are needed. They treat the gas or the fuel for piston engines and electric generators or any other reciprocating compressors. When the fuel gas is way too rich in the source, then heavier hydrocarbons are to be removed. This is done using gas conditioning skids. There are multiple technologies that are available to accomplish this.
A Joule Thomson Valve or a JT Valve condenses heavy hydrocarbons from the gas stream and effectively separates them. To condense, they use a cooling effect from the change is pressure of the gas. A membrane system is employed to filter out the heavy hydrocarbons without condensing them. A Refrigeration Chiller System is used to cool the gas below the dew point of the heavy hydrocarbon. Then using liquid filter, it is separated. A combination of these technologies may also be used.