INDUSTRY NEWS: CUSTOMIZATION AND GLOBAL SERVICE THE KEY TO ELLIOTT GROUP EXPANSION

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Turbomachinery International recently visited Elliott Group for a tour of its facilities. The big takeaways were the fact that the company does more business in service than it does in manufacturing (p. 36), and the degree of customization required in its products. This approach appears to be working as it has expanded from 1,700 workers in 2007 to 2,700 today. “We don’t tell people what they need to buy based on a pre-set product line,” said retiring Chief Operating Officer (COO) Art Titus. “We build what they need and in downstream oil and gas, that is typically very specific.”

He explained that the company’s singular purpose is the design, manufacture and service of turbomachinery. It accomplishes this via its Jeannette, PA campus as well as a sister site in Sodegaura, Japan with parallel manufacturing, machining and testing capabilities, and a network of service and sales centers around the globe. The company also manufactures its single-stage YR steam turbines (ST) in China in a joint venture with Ebara Great Pump, and has a lubrication and gas seal system manufacturing plant near Jeannette.

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Elliott’s core strength is its ability to design and build horizontally and vertically split centrifugal compressors (up to 100,000 HP). They are available in multiple frame sizes with plenty of overlap in between.

“For the downstream oil & gas market, we have to design a machine against very exacting process parameters such as pressure, temperature and flow rate so no two machines are ever exactly the same,” said John Rann, Vice President of Engineered Products. Side stream mixing is a particular area of expertise for Elliott’s compressor engineers. Refrigeration applications often require the addition of multiple large volume side streams to the primary flow. Optimal compressor performance requires accurate fluid dynamic design to merge the streams for minimum pressure loss and maximum efficiency.

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Key markets

This expertise serves Elliott well in key markets such as petrochemicals and LNG. The company estimates that about half the ethylene plants in the world use its turbomachinery. With the recent rise in “on purpose” propylene production, Elliott has also been successful in designing large, high flow compressors for propane dehydrogenation (PDH).

Elliott’s strength in LNG is highlighted by the following credentials: It developed the first ever baseload LNG plant and the first GT-driven plant; the first large-scale LNG plant; the first singlemixed refrigerant design; the first mixed refrigerant process LNG plant; the first large propane refrigeration strings; the first dual-shaft GT driven refrigeration strings; and the first dual-mixed refrigerant trains. Its compressors operate today in LNG plants producing in excess of 70 million tons per year (MTPA).

The company has formed an LNG partnership with The Linde Group. With revenues of 17 billion Euros, Linde has 65,500 employees around the globe. Elliott beat out competition from all major turbomachinery suppliers to gain the agreement with Linde's Engineering Division to cooperate in the small-to-midscale LNG business. The parties have developed a main refrigerant cycle compression technology for Linde’s StarLNG plants ranging from 0.2 MMTPA to 1.3 MMTPA. This enables Linde to increase speed to market.

“With cheap gas available, there is an economic case today for small-scale LNG,” said Titus.

Elliott also supplies compressors and steam turbines for refining applications, such as hydrotreating, alkylation, wet gas, and recycle gas compression. Its compressors are used in upstream applications such as gas lift and gas gathering, gas & oil separation, gas treatment and reinjection.

Many Elliott compressor strings are driven by the company’s steam turbines, which produce up to 135,000 HP. Its single- valve YR model STs provide up to 10,000 HP as mechanical drives. In 1963, Elliott developed the world’s first hot gas expander. Today, its power recovery expanders are used in refineries to produce up to 60,000 HP from the thermal energy in the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) process. Its machines account for about half the FCC power recovery expanders in the world.

Massive casings like these are cut, machined, welded and finished in the Elliott facility

Tri-Sen Systems

John Rann commented on the company’s partnership with Tri-Sen Systems on controls, which was launched in 2012 in a bid to standardize controls for Elliott products and reduce time consumed on controls engineering. Rann said the deal had achieved that goal.

“To use an analogy, in the past we were trying to install the plumbing after the house was built,” he said. “Now our controls conversations begin early, and this has resulted in smoother commissioning and more rapid project completions.”

One final area of the Elliott product portfolio deserves a mention. While other OEMs tend to turn lubrication and seal system work over to external suppliers, Elliott has maintained this function in-house. It offers lubrication, seal, and piping systems for rotating equipment from any OEM via an engineering and manufacturing facility near its Jeannette HQ.

Rann and Director of Operations, Engineered Products, Mike Storms, conducted a tour of a vast campus that encompasses 800,000 square feet under roof and 110 acres. It consists of new and old buildings — the company has operated on this site for over 100 years. There are also extensive on-site training facilities — the company realized that fewer skilled workers have been coming out of the school system. So it embarked upon a program to train its own workforce. This has resulted in about 13 machinists, 30 assemblers, 40 service reps and seven welders recruited and trained in the past two years.

The tour comprised visits to multiple buildings of different purposes. What was evident was heavy investment in technology such as the latest computerized numerical control (CNC) equipment, 5-axis machining and heavy duty cranes. A materials lab moved into a new facility last year, and construction of an R&D lab is underway.

Elliott Group’s Global Service (GS) organization recently demonstrated its capabilities during a turnaround at a Middle Eastern refinery and petrochemical complex. The turnaround involved nearly 200 personnel. Elliott’s scope of work included the overhaul and rerate of 23 machines, as well as associated lube oil systems, to expand production capacity.

The overhaul was planned years in advance, and the GS team spent two months on site prior to the shutdown to coordinate tools, parts, and logistics. A total of 5,638 parts were manufactured in Elliott facilities and shipped to the site for the mix of Elliott and non-Elliott equipment.

The overhaul included a recycle gas compressor, a wet gas compressor train with a steam turbine driver, a GE refrigeration compressor and refinery compressor, a cracked gas train with MCO turbine drivers and an ethylene heat pump compressor.

Changing of the guard

With Art Titus retiring this month as COO, he is being replaced by current Vice President of GS, Mike Lordi. Mike’s position is being taken by Ron Frye. His vacant position of Vice President of Industrial Products will be filled by Scott Wilshire. Long-term CEO Yasuyuki Uruma continues at the helm as CEO of Elliott Group.

MAN-powered plant

A gas-fired CHP plant in Shanghai, China is now operating at SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Company, which includes four sets of MGT 6200 GTs by MAN Diesel & Turbo. Waste heat is used to produce steam for use at the facility. According to the National Energy Administration, the gas supply in China is expected to reach 400 billion cubic metres in 2020, and natural gas will increase to represent 10% of primary energy consumption.

World Economic Forum report

Industry estimates show that non-OECD countries will have to double their investments in electricity by 2040 to keep pace with demand, according to a report from the World Economic Forum, where over 2,500 leaders from business, government, international organizations, civil society, academia, media and the arts met earlier this year.

The report cited an International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that meeting the electricity demands of consumers and businesses in non-OECD countries will require $13 trillion in investment by 2040. It will outspend OECD markets by a factor of 2-to-1.

“From 2000-2014, non-OECD countries invested on par with OECD countries, about $240 billion annually,” said Roberto Bocca, Head of the Energy Industries of the World Economic Forum. “But given the amount of electricity infrastructure that needs to be built to serve growing demand, fast-growing countries will have to double their investments, but also ensure that these funds are used to develop all parts of the value chain.”

The report analyzed best practices in improving investment attractiveness of the power sector in these regions and outlines recommendations:

• Develop long-term roadmaps to ensure the right balance between renewable and conventional, centralized and distributed power generation, while remaining as technology neutral as possible
• Integrate policies across the power value chain to ensure that the upstream fuel supply, generation assets, and transmission and distribution (T&D) develop in parallel
• Capitalize on the declining technology cost curve, and avoid promoting technologies that will likely remain at high cost due to a lack of scale
• Structure power markets in ways that recognize the full value and costs of technologies, including carbon pricing
• Make transparent regulations around public-private partners to ease investors’ concerns about committing long-term capital
• Put measures in place to reduce risk and decrease the cost of capital, allocating residual risks to the most appropriate market participants
• Foster the development of universities and research institutes that produce the talent that will innovate, develop and manage the power sector in the decades ahead.

“Fast-growing economies have a great opportunity to define the sustainable energy mix and power market structure they need,” said Ignacio Galán, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola and current chairman of the Forum’s Energy Utilities community. “This will play an essential part in driving the required scale of investment to clean generation, especially renewable, as well as efficient storage and networks, which is essential in the global energy sector.”

Dehydrogenation unit

Clariant has been awarded a contract by Hengli Petrochemical Refinery Co. for a propane and butane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the co-processing unit, which is to be built in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China.

The design will be based on CB&I’s Catofin catalytic dehydrogenation technology using Clariant’s Catofin catalyst and Heat Generating Material (HGM) to process feedstock containing 300,000m.t. of propane and 600,000 m.t. of isobutane annually for the joint production of propylene and isobutylene. When completed, it will be the largest singletrain co-processing dehydrogenation unit in the world.

The Catofin process operates at optimum reactor pressure and temperature to maximize conversion of propane and isobutene for a high yield. HGM is a metaloxide material designed to increase selectivity and yield of Catofin units. The material is loaded into the catalyst bed with the catalyst where it undergoes oxidation and reduction during the operating cycle, producing heat and driving the dehydrogenation reaction. This boosts yields, saves energy and cuts emissions.

EthosEnergy contracts

EthosEnergy has been awarded a contract by Indorama Ventures Olefins for overhaul and rerate services on ST and compressor units located at its ethylene cracker plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The contract is for engineering upgrades for the compressors, component manufacturing, field and shop services, project management, and warranty and risk mitigation.

In addition, Rockland Capital awarded EthosEnergy a contract to provide its combustion optimization ECOMAX system, at the company’s 225 MW Eagle Point Power Generation facility in Westville, New Jersey. The performance management and automated tuning technology system was successfully installed on two DLN-1 Frame 7EA gas turbines equipped with steam injection and wet compression systems. ECOMAX, working together with the other plant upgrades already in place, allowed Rockland Capital to increase the output of the facility by 20 MW, reduce heat rate, and improve emissions performance.

PSEG to spend $1.6 billion

Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) plans to spend $1.6 billion over five years to expand its natural gas and other power plants. Combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) are planned in its 2015-2019 budgets, with one in Maryland, another in New Jersey and possibly a third in Connecticut.

PSEG also has an agreement to shut its 383 MW coal plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2021, the only coal plant in the state. Before doing that, PSEG wants to gain approval to build a new gas plant at the site. The company intends to build the new CCPP with a capacity of around 500 MW in Bridgeport by the summer of 2019. Biomethane refineries WELTEC acquired two biomethane refineries last year. This year it purchased an existing biogas plant in Germany.

The Falkenhagen biogas plant is expected to resume operations near the end of 2016. The plant has five digesters, five post-digesters, five digestate storage units and six combined heat and power (CHP) units. It will generate 3.3 MW of electricity with power being fed into the grid. Exhaust heat is to be used for the digestate drying process.

Clarcor acquisition

Clarcor acquired the assets of TDC Filter from Midwesco Filter Resources Inc. (MFRI). TDC Filter is a manufacturer of GT filtration systems. It has a wide range of air filters for the power generation and other markets. Clarcor supplies high-performance filtration to boost GT performance through inlet filtration and monitoring. Brands including Altair, Clearcurrent and now TDC Filter.

Ansaldo deal

• Ansaldo Energia has acquired Alstom technology and assets from GE, including:
• All intellectual property (IP) rights held by Alstom for the latest ratings of the GT26 and GT36 heavy duty gas turbines, existing upgrades and pipeline technology for future upgrades
• Servicing agreements for 34 GT26 turbines already sold and installed by Alstom
• More than 400 Alstom employees in Baden, Switzerland
• Power System Manufacturing, (PSM), an F-class technology provider in the GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi aftermarket service business
• Manufacturing for the GT36 and the latest versions of the GT26, as well as access to the existing supply chain.

In addition, Ansaldo Energia will license assets to GE for aftermarket services, such as IP held by PSM relating to Siemens-Mitsubishi GTs, and Alstom IP for the portions of its GT business retained by GE.

Ansaldo Energia Switzerland has been awarded two contracts worth about 600 million euros for the supply of equipment for two IPP projects. The Ibri 1,510 MW CCPP and Sohar III 1,710 MW CCPP in Oman are expected to be commissioned in early 2019.

Ansaldo will also supply main power train components four high-efficiency GT26 GTs, four HRSGs, two STs and six turbogenerators to the Electric Power Construction Cooperative of China, SEPCOIII.

Ansaldo will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on a turnkey basis. It will also supply field services during the construction phase and long-term maintenance services after commissioning.

Waste heat recovery standard

The European Turbine Network’s Exhaust Systems Working Group is finalizing the Waste Heat Recovery Units (WHRU) standard to be submitted to the ISO/TC 192. The main objective is to create an ISO standard on exhaust system designs for gas turbines (GTs) used in oil & Gas applications. The next steps are the validation of the modeling method through a benchmark case on a unit and the review of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) API recommendation to amend it.

The project was initiated by Statoil, Shell and Total in 2009, as operators experienced problems with exhaust systems. The goal was to bring together operators facing similar problems, as well as exhaust system designers and external expertise and support, who could develop a common standard for the design of GT exhaust systems.

AAF, Aarding, Alstom, BIHL, Camfil, Dresser-Rand, GE Oil & Gas, Kanfa-Tec, Mjorud, TOTAL, RWTH, Shell, Statoil, TechPart and Frazer-Nash are working together to finalize the first version.

Combined cycle optimization

Emerson Process Management has completed a combined cycle optimization project that cut average fuel use at a power-generating unit in the U.S. The company combined its Ovation Advanced Power Applications to achieve a 67% reduction in average 2x1 hotstart fuel. Additionally, average transition fuel consumption — the fuel used to bring another combustion turbine HRSG train online and blend it with the running units — was reduced by 31%.

Staff of the new Rotating Machinery Services office

New RMS office

Rotating Machinery Services (RMS) has opened an office in Appleton, Wisconsin. It provides aftermarket turbomachinery services, with specialization in the ex-A-C Compressor line of centrifugal compressors. RMS engineers and technicians have extensive experience with the mechanical design, performance, aerodynamics and service of A-C Compressors.

Oklahoma chiller

TAS Energy has been awarded a contract to manufacture and deliver a Turbine Inlet Chilling solution for the new Grand River Energy Center Unit 3 project, a CCPP owned by the Grand River Dam Authority in Chouteau, Oklahoma.

The project is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2016. It will include a TAS F-70 chiller package, supplying approximately 7,500 tons, and one GT filter house coil package for a Mitsubishi Hitachi M501J GT. This will provide additional peak time power.

Doosan contracts

Doosan Skoda Power was awarded a contract to supply an ST for the Infraestructura Energética Mejillones coal plant in Chile. The 375 MW turbine is designed to withstand high seismic activity. It has a doublecasing design with a combined high-pressure and intermediate-pressure part, a double- flow, low-pressure part, and steam reheat. It is scheduled to come online in mid-2018.

Doosan Skoda Power has also been awarded a contract to supply an ST and generator for the 770 MW Empalme I combined cycle plant in Mexico. Located in Sonora State in northwestern Mexico, it will be operated by CFE. The condensing ST with reheat can withstand high inlet steam temperatures. It is scheduled to come online by the end of 2017.

MHPS digest

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) has received an order for a CCPP for Lamma Power Station Extension Unit 10 (350 MW) to be built in Hong Kong by Hong Kong Electric. MHPS will supply the main components of the power plant which is scheduled to commence in January 2020. This includes an M701F4 GT, an ST, an HRSG and an air quality control system.

MHPS has received an order to refurbish eight units at the Ulaanbaatar Thermal Power Plant No.4, which is Mongolia's largest coal-fired thermal power generation plant. Refurbishment is slated for completion in October 2018. This encompasses core components of the coal pulverizers and soot blowers to prevent fall-off in heatexchange efficiency.

MHPSA has announced the retirement of its President and CEO, David Walsh. He is replaced by Paul F. Browning. Browning has extensive leadership experience in distributed and central power generation, as well as in midstream and downstream oil & gas operations. He has worked in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Germany.

Prior to joining MHPSA, Browning was President and CEO of Irving Oil Company, which owns and operates Canada’s largest oil refinery and crude oil import terminal. He also served as President and CEO of the Thermal Products Division of GE Power & Water, and Caterpillar in a variety of positions. He holds a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a M.S. degree in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Siemens digest

Following the lifting of sanctions, Siemens has signed an agreement with the Iranian MAPNA Group to strengthen cooperation and modernize energy infrastructure. Under a license agreement, MAPNA will acquire technological know-how to manufacture Siemens F-class GTs in Iran.

The deal will deliver more than 20 GTs and generators over the next decade. Work begins with Siemens delivering two F-class GTs to the Bandar Abbas power plant. Furthermore, both companies will jointly develop the roadmap for the extension of the Iranian grid. This includes generation, transmission, distribution, EPC and financing.

Siemens has handed over a CCPP to utility company Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG. The German plant is equipped with a Siemens Hclass gas turbine. During a test run before acceptance, it achieved an electrical net output of 603.8 MW and 61.5% net power-generating efficiency, which are records for a plant of this type in a single-shaft configuration.

In addition, the plant can deliver up to 300 MW for district heating. The GT can run at full load in less than 25 minutes after a hot start, enabling it to be used as a backup for renewables.

Siemens SGT6-5000F GT

Siemens has received an order for the components of the Azura-Edo IPP power plant in the south of Nigeria which will have a capacity of 459 MW. It has also been awarded a long-term service contract for a period of twelve years. The company will supply three SGT5-2000E GTs, three SGen-100A generators as well as the SPPA-T3000 control system.

The first GTs for the largest order in Siemens’ history have started their journey to Egypt. Two turbines for the Beni Suef power plant project will be installed in May. Eight SGT5-8000H GTs will be installed in the plant in several phases. The facility will be initially operated as a simple cycle plant. After its expansion into a CCPP with installed capacity of 4.8 GW, it will become the largest CCPP in the world.

Siemens has received an order to upgrade the simple cycle Santo Domingo de los Olleros power plant to combined cycle. The plant is near Lima, Peru, and the customer is Termochilca SA. This will raise output by 100 MW.

The order includes one SST-900 ST, one SGen6-100A generator, a three-pressure HRSG and an air-cooled condenser. The plant is already equipped with an SGT6- 5000F GT.

Siemens will deliver two SGT6- 5000F GTs, one SST6-5000 ST and three SGen-1000A generators for the St. Joseph Energy Center in Indiana. This 2x1 combined cycle configuration will provide 670 MW and will be built by Kiewit Power Constructors. Siemens also has a 25-year long-term service and maintenance agreement.

GE digest

GE’s Power Services business has secured orders to upgrade generator and ST assets at the Turow Power Plant in Poland.

The upgrades will result in a combined 45 MW output increase. GE will upgrade three 50WT20H-100 generators and three 13CK230 STs to extend equipment lifetime by at least 150,000 hours and raise availability to at least 97%. The upgrade of the generator rotors and the manufacturing of new rods will take place in GE’s generator factory in Wroclaw, Poland. The ST upgrade includes the delivery of new HP, IP and LP turbine inner modules, which will be manufactured in GE’s turbine factory in Elblag, Poland. Work is scheduled to begin in April 2017, and commissioning of the last unit is scheduled for January 2020.

GE will provide two high-efficiency 9HA GTs, one ST and two HRSGs to SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corporation for the 1.2 GW Haveli Bahadur Shah plant in Pakistan.

The ST and HRSGs have been engineered by Alstom. PowerChina will handle EPC. GE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Government of Pakistan to meet the projected demand of 54,000 MW by the year 2020.

GE will deliver two ultra-supercritical STs coupled with two turbogenerators to Taihang Power Plant that will each produce 660 MW of power in North China’s Shanxi Province. The units are scheduled for delivery by the end of 2017.

GE is also supplying HPI with STs and generators for the Pingliang II Power and tower boilers for the Luoyuan Power Plant. Also in China, GE will deliver two 660 MW ultra-supercritical STs to the Dabieshan Power Plant phase II project scheduled for delivery by mid-2017.

GE has agreed to provide Iraq’s national grid with 700 MW of additional power in time for summer. The company has commenced shipment of parts and began the on-site execution of these projects. Technology upgrades include heavy fuel oil (HFO) conversions in addition to installing advanced hot gas path (AGP) components.

Tecogen will be installing GE’s Equipment Insight in new equipment sold in 2016 as part of a pilot deployment program. In addition, the company has started to roll out the solution on selective deployments across its existing installed base of 2,300 CHP units. Equipment Insight will help to ensure the machinery operates at peak performance via remote monitoring and diagnostics.

Turow Power Plant in Poland

Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has ordered six GE trailer-mounted TM2500+ aeroderivative mobile GT packages for power plants in Jizan and Tabouk. Each GT can deliver around 30 MW, and can be deployed within three months from order to commissioning.

For the Bouchemma power plant in Tunisia, GE will provide two 9E.03 GTs and the electrical Balance of Plant (eBOP) in time for the hot summer. This puts more than 250 MW on the grid.

GE’s Power Services business has secured an $87 million order to upgrade three GT13E2 GTs with its MXL2 solutions at Centrica’s South Humber Bank CCPP in England. Work at this 1,285 MW facility is scheduled to be completed in 2018. GE’s Power Services business assumed responsibility for the installed fleet of GT13E2 GTs and MXL2 as part of its Alstom Power acquisition. The upgrades are expected to increase plant capacity by 14 MW.

GE has been selected by Mechelenbased Belgian Eco Energy (BEE) to build the largest greenfield, biomassfired power plant in the world. Powered by wood chips and agro residues, it will generate 215 MW.

The new plant also will be fitted with a district heating system of about 110 MW to supply heating to industries and households in the city of Ghent, Belgium. Commercial operation is planned for 2019.