Turbomachinery International’s Top 10 Articles of 2024

1. POWERGEN 2024: An Overview of Nuclear, SMR Technology

At POWERGEN 2024 in New Orleans, LA, Kevin Hubery of Sargent & Lundy led the session, Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Technology and Market Overview. Huberty provided a comprehensive review of SMR technology, including the various models, ongoing projects, government regulations, and major vendors within the industry.

SMRs have enhanced safety measures with passive core-cooling technology, lowering the need for redundancy and safety-related equipment. Modularizing the technology will help construction schedules meet expectations and using digital controls and security-by-design will reduce operating costs. SMR licensing has been one of the largest hurdles for the industry, as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires extensive validation of SMRs prior to granting any land or technology permits.

Top Takeaways

• Benefits of SMRs for Nuclear Energy: They are considered a safer, more scalable solution to provide reliable baseload power while reducing the need for large emergency planning zones and enabling faster load-following to complement renewable energy.
• Challenges and Support for Licensing: The main challenge for SMRs is the lengthy and rigorous licensing process required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which can take 8 - 10 years.

Nuclear power plant with SMR technology; image credit: João Macedo - stock.adobe.com

2. Digital Twins in the Real World

A digital twin is a digital representation of an intended or actual real-world physical product, system, or process. It can be seen as a digital counterpart of equipment or an entire facility that can be used for simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance that accurately reflects the equipment or facility's ongoing operations. They can be used to simulate planned changes to see how the turbine will perform prior to the physical work being done and can be used to stay on top of performance and maintenance operations in real-time.

Those managing large fleets and OEMs monitoring their own units in the field can gather massive amounts of operational parameters and use the data to improve performance, lower emissions, spot degradation, and avoid unplanned downtime. AI and statistics-based digital twins add more value with gas and steam turbines that have hundreds and sometimes thousands of similar turbines operating around the globe.

Top Takeaways

• Real-Time Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance: Digital twin technology allows for real-time monitoring of complex systems like turbines and compressors, enabling operators to detect potential issues early, optimize performance, and reduce unplanned downtime.
• Challenges in Customized Systems: While digital twins offer significant benefits for large, standardized fleets like turbines, their application is limited in highly customized systems, such as compressors, due to variations in individual components that make data correlation difficult.

3. Myth Busters: Part II: Reciprocating vs. Centrifugal Compressors for CO₂ Capture and Storage: Challenges and Disadvantages

A variety of technical challenges make carbon capture and storage difficult for reciprocating and centrifugal compressors. These include CO₂’s thermodynamic path dependence and multi-phase behavior; amplified dynamic forces on moving components; carbonic acid formed in the presence of water; rapid decompression failures due to solubility in elastomeric materials; and aerodynamic issues due to low sonic speed.

These issues apply to both centrifugal and reciprocating compressors, but reciprocating compressors have additional issues when operating with CO₂. Some of the top challenges are pulsation control, leakage, flow control, and mechanical reliability.

Top Takeaways

1. Challenges with Reciprocating Compressors for CO₂ Compression: These include pulsation control issues, which can cause long-distance acoustic resonances and structural damage to pipe systems, as well as leakage problems due to the wear of sealing rings, which can lead to CO₂ emissions.
2. Centrifugal Compressor Benefits: As the industry moves toward higher CO₂ volume flow rates for large-scale carbon capture, reciprocating compressors are reaching practical limits. Instead, centrifugal compressors are increasingly used due to fewer moving parts, mechanical reliability, and fewer maintenance requirements.

4. Turbo Tips: How to Manage Bolt Connections & Bolt Joints in Turbomachines

Bolt connections only account for a small amount of the overall budget of a turbomachine; however, they are responsible for many leaks, operational problems, shutdowns, and failures. Bolt-connection requirements often determine the size and design of attached items, modules, and subsections, and specific nonstandard bolt connections may require extra thought in connection sizing, configuration, and installation.

The load capacities of each component and connection should be evaluated, including connectors such as bolts, nuts, and washers, and connection components such as plates or flanges. There should be sufficient distance between bolt holes and between each bolt hole and the edge of the connecting plate/part to avoid failure. Similarly, to tighten bolts, ensure access to each one and sufficient distances between bolts and the surrounding obstacles.

Top Takeaways

1. Complexity and Nonlinearity of Bolt Connections: This complexity arises from local yielding, material nonlinearity, and intricate contact stresses, making it challenging to accurately predict their performance and contributing to operational issues such as leaks, failures, and performance degradation.
2. Concerns in Bolt Connection Design and Maintenance: Key concerns include maintaining bolt preload (to prevent relaxation), slip resistance, and effectively tightening bolts during installation.

5. Centrifugal Compressors: The ‘Business End’ of Many Critical Industries

The centrifugal compressors market is served by over 20 OEMs globally, producing over 2,000 units per year, and in 2022, the value of this market (not including related aftermarket repairs) was approximately US$3.4 billion. Upcoming market trends include growth in LNG production, carbon capture and storage, subsea compression, and hydrogen/ammonia applications. Dora Partners estimated that 2023 will result in new unit orders of more than US$3.6 billion, with a relatively consistent growth forecast over the next 10 years.

The centrifugal compressor typology includes axial inlet pipeline, radially split barrel, beam-style pipeline, and integral motor compressors. These models are used across several sectors such as upstream, midstream, downstream oil and gas, and industrial applications. There are differences in driver types across the application segments, with gas turbines frequently being used in the midstream and upstream segments, and steam turbines often being used in the downstream segment.

Top Takeaways

1. Centrifugal Compressor Benefits: Their versatility and efficiency are emphasized through various designs tailored to specific needs, such as radially split barrel compressors for high-pressure environments or integral motor compressors for reduced environmental impact.
2. Durability and Limited Aftermarket Needs: Centrifugal compressors are highly durable with few wear-limited parts, allowing them to operate for decades with minimal corrective maintenance. This shifts aftermarket revenue to services like failure repairs, modernization, and capability revamps rather than routine part replacements.

6. Myth: Nothing Lasts Forever, Not Even Coatings

A coating is one layer of one substance over another to create a composite system that enhances the properties beyond those of each constituent alone. In modern turbomachines, coatings are vital to overcoming many technological limitations; for example, in gas turbines, thermal barrier coatings in combination with cooling allow hot sections of the turbine to heat well above the base metal’s temperature tolerance. In compressors and steam turbines, anti-erosion coatings are often used to extend the blade life in harsh operating environments.

The most common coating-failure mechanisms are liquid or solid erosion, mechanical surface wear, corrosion and pitting, flaking due to lack of adhesion, thermal and chemical blistering and cracking, and spallation due to mechanical or chemical incompatibility of the coating layers or base material. From a turbomachinery-design perspective, a machine cannot solely rely on the coating to avoid catastrophic failure or performance deterioration.

Top Takeaways

1. Importance of Coatings in Turbomachinery: Coatings in turbomachines, like those in gas turbines and compressors, serve critical roles such as protecting against wear, corrosion, erosion, and thermal stress.
2. Limitations and Maintenance of Coatings: Coatings inevitably degrade due to forces like erosion, wear, and chemical reactions. Proper design ensures turbomachinery can still function temporarily even after coating failure, emphasizing coatings as enhancements rather than primary protections.

7. The Global LNG Market: The Rise of LNG Production

The U.S. Energy Information Administration anticipates a modest increase in U.S. LNG exports for 2024 (2%) followed by significant growth in 2025 (an additional 18%). This growth is mirrored by expectations for a rise in U.S. natural gas exports by pipeline (3% in 2024, 4% in 2025) and a slight dip and recovery in pipeline imports in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Two trends are poised to send the global LNG markets into oversupply within two years: lackluster demand growth combined with a massive wave of new export capacity.

On the global side, the LNG market is expected to shift as new liquefaction projects become operational. International LNG production capacity may grow by approximately 193 MTPA between 2024 - 2028, rising from ~474 MTPA of nameplate capacity at the beginning of 2024 to 666.5 MTPA by the end of 2028—the fastest capacity growth in the history of the global LNG industry, representing a 40% increase in five years.

Top Takeaways

1. LNG Market Growth and U.S. Dominance: The global LNG market is set for significant expansion, with the U.S. leading the charge. By 2028, U.S. LNG export capacity is projected to grow by 85%, with five major projects contributing over 71 MTPA of new liquefaction capacity.
2. LNG Trends: The LNG sector is embracing modularization and electrification to enhance efficiency and reduce emissions.

8. Gas Turbine Sales Report: 2023 Holds Its Own

Overall gas turbine MW capacity orders were down 12.6% in 2023 due to the cyclic nature of the market for large turbines, but total unit sales rose by 3%. OEMs spend years taking major orders from start to commissioning; hence, it is rarely the case that a good year for sales is followed by an even stronger year. This indicates that the downward trajectory of gas turbine sales during 2010 - 2019 has been arrested, if not reverted.

With so much attention on renewables, emissions reduction, hydrogen, and net zero, Brough strongly believes the market will remain healthy for many years to come. The gas turbine market is impacted by increased OEM competition, market disruptions caused by international conflict and political regulations, the supply chain, AI data center power demand, and grids with an increasingly high share of renewable energy.

Top Takeaways

1. Resilient Gas Turbine Market with Growing Applications: The increased attention on renewables, emissions reduction, hydrogen, and net-zero goals will not impact the gas turbine market but will shift its focus to deliver peaking power during intermittent energy supply.
2. Innovation Driving Competition in Aeroderivatives: GE Vernova’s LM2500+ and Baker Hughes lead the aeroderivative market, but competition is growing due to models like the Solar Titan 350, Siemens Energy’s SGT-800, and modular trailer-mounted units.

9. Product Spotlight: Baker Hughes’ NMBL LNG

NMBL LNG is Baker Hughes’ modular solution for mid-scale gas liquefaction. Its modules can process from 0.8 up to ~2 MTPA each and are based on the single-mixed refrigerant liquefaction process. Each NMBL liquefaction train includes a process module, a turbo or electric motor compressor for the mixed refrigerant, a surge vessel for refrigeration storage, a cold box of brazed aluminum heat exchanger type, and an e-room.

Its mid-sized modular design mitigates the challenges faced with traditional approaches to engineering and construction and can reduce risks and increase control during the execution phase. Upon arrival, final installation is significantly faster and requires fewer onsite personnel depending on the project specifics. Modules can be transformed into “smart objects” via the Baker Hughes iCenter digital platform powered by Cordant asset performance management software.

Top Takeaways

1. Flexibility and Zero-Emission Capability: The NMBL modules offer flexibility by accommodating various compressor drivers, including gas turbines and electric motors, without altering their configuration. When paired with electric motor compressors, the liquefaction process achieves zero emissions.
2. Modular LNG Innovations: NMBL integrates renewable-compatible designs, zero-emission electric motor compressors, and digital native systems for lifecycle optimization.

10. Turbo Tips: Lube Oil Types & Selection for Turbomachines

Lube oil selection is important for turbomachines: A properly selected synthetic oil can offer superior performance, including resistance to high and low temperatures, a longer service life, and more. The fundamentals of successful lube oil application include its behaviors in various operating conditions, the effects of lube oil additives, and ISO oil grades. Turbocompressors and centrifugal pumps typically use premium extreme-pressure lube oil—multi-purpose oils for a dependable performance over a wide range of temperatures and operating conditions.

As a rough guideline, lube oils for turbomachines should have oxidative and thermal stability; small changes in fluid viscosity; low pour points for cold temperatures; lubricity for resistance to friction and wear; extreme pressure characteristics; resistance to mechanical breakdown; resistance to sludge and varnish formation; resistance to corrosion and staining; and compatibility with elastomers and coatings.

Top Takeaways

1. Importance of Synthetic Oils and Selection Criteria: Proper selection should consider factors like operating temperature ranges, viscosity index, and the effects of specific additives to ensure the oil performs well under varied conditions.
2. Matching Lube Oil to Equipment Needs: When multiple components share the same lube oil system, it’s essential to select an oil compatible with all involved machinery and to check for qualities like oxidative stability, anti-wear properties, and resistance to sludge.