1 8 _ S P O T L I G H T
Scaling up for Tomorrow’s Demand
Driven by surging global demand and economies of scale, plants in the processing industries continue to grow in both size and complexity, whilst new paradigms and solutions are
being developed to cope with future requirements. In Duisburg, Germany, Siemens are
about to build a unique assembly and test facility for large-scale compressor trains.
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE
Air separation or air compression units are
the single most important parts of many
of these megaplants, notably of processes
involving syngas production as an intermediate step. To a great extent the economies of such plants are determined by the
performance and power requirements of
the turbomachinery employed. The
increase in compressor size and performance, however, necessitates massive complementary investments. One such investment is the facility for testing equipment
prior to delivery. Such giant machine
strings—comprising main and booster air
compressors and driver—will require complete string-testing before being shipped
and installed at customers’ sites. Unforeseen problems impacting on the project
schedule would be a risk no one would
willingly take.
EXPANDING NEXT DOOR
Representing an investment of 90 million
euros, an assembly and test center unique
for its size and versatility is currently being
built in Duisburg, Germany, next to the
Siemens Power Generation Industrial
Applications headquarters and compressor
manufacturing unit. The facility covers an
area of 62,000 square meters, the equivalent of more than eight football pitches.
Groundwork is under way, preparing for an
estimated 20,000 cbm of concrete and
5,000 tons of steel to be deployed.
Once completed, the test center will allow
string-testing of mega-scale compression
solutions for processes including GTL, LNG
and electric LNG, as well as a range of applications in the chemical industry. Simultaneous assembly and testing is possible for
up to eight compressor strings. Dedicated
utilities allow testing with all relevant drive
types, including variable and fixed-speed
electric drives of up to 100 megawatt (MW),
steam turbine powered strings at up to
100 bar, and gas turbine driven strings of
up to 100 MW. The facility also allows gas
turbine tests for the purpose of research
and development. Test design will be in
accordance with ASME PTC 10.
Says Dr. Peter Langer, head of the compressor business in Duisburg: “Clearly, the new
test and assembly facility will put Siemens
in the vanguard of future mega-scale solutions. This investment represents a "megaboost" in our potential for delivering what
the customer requires.” The assembly and
test center will be completed in June 2007
and operational as of August 2007.
CAD rendition of the assembly and test center for
mega-scale compression solutions.
Illustrations, left: Siemens; Photo, right: Florian Sander
These days, few developments in engineering can be found that do not contain the
emphasizer ‘mega’. As schemes for tomorrow’s GTL, CTL, LNG, IGCC, PTA, ethylene,
methanol and olefin plants reveal, ‘megascale’ is what companies in the oil & gas
and chemical industries are currently
preparing for. And, naturally, so are developers and equipment suppliers.
The test center location has been chosen
not only for its vicinity to existing Siemens
facilities. It also provides direct access to
the river Rhine. As a result, shipping compressor strings for mega-scale applications
no longer requires a first leg of transportation via public roads, with all its intrinsic
hassle. Instead, the machines will be loaded
directly on board a barge at Siemens’ own
jetty, and float downstream to the Rotterdam
Europoort to sail the seas. The vast majority of these big new machines is expected to
be deployed at upstream locations around
the world—in countries which attract the
vast share of today’s investments in the
process industry to build new GTL and LNG
plants.