Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia 2024 Kicks off in Sunny Houston

The 2024 Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia, held Aug. 20 - 22 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, kicked off today in Houston. Organized by Texas A&M’s Turbomachinery Laboratory, the show boasts over 4,500 attendees and 300+ exhibitors from over 50 countries. Tuesday morning’s welcome address will be led by Dr. Eric Petersen, the Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Turbomachinery Laboratory Director at Texas A&M.

Short courses start this morning while technical sessions kick off on Tuesday with the exhibit hall opening at noon. Other events include Women of TPS Luncheon, a Social Media Scavenger Hunt, a Spouse Program, and more.

Technical Sessions

On Tuesday, Aug. 20, folks from Siemens Energy are presenting the tutorial session, The Integration of CO₂ Capture Plants with Open Cycle Gas Turbines—speakers include Lukas Biyikli, R&D Portfolio Manager of Integrally Geared Compressors, Alastair Clegg, Technology & Innovation Manager, Michael Welch, Industry Marketing Manager, and Joe Williams, Director of Emerging Technologies.

Carbon capture is seen as an essential step to a fully decarbonized world. Still, the challenges of providing the flue gas in the correct conditions and supplying the energy required for the CO₂ capture process are not well-known.

The tutorial will look at:

• different technological approaches to CO₂ capture, particularly traditional amine capture systems, but will also cover potassium carbonate and pressurized hot potassium carbonate concepts
• more novel approaches

Later in the morning, numerous presenters from Compressor Controls Corp. (CCC) and Petrobras are hosting a paper presentation: Optimizing Compressors Anti-Surge Control to Reduce Power Consumption and Greenhouse Gases Emissions in Oil Production Units. The session will be led by Wayne Jacobsen, Field Applications Manager, Serge Staroselsky, Chief Technology Officer, and Fabio Jacinto Zanetti De Souza, Brownfield Account Manager—all from CCC—as well as speakers from Petrobras.

The paper delves into the analysis of compressor anti-surge control optimizations to improve energy and carbon performance within some existing offshore platforms in the Brazilian pre-salt fields. By intertwining the optimization of turbomachinery controls with a proper energy and carbon performance management system, decarbonization opportunities emerge for these oil production units.

Toward the end of the day, speakers from Elliott Group and RKSBenergy will give a lecture on the Performance of Industrial Gas Turbines and Bottoming Cycles. Speakers include Karl Wygant, Senior Manager at Elliott Group, Klaus Brun, Director of Global R&D at Elliott Group, and Rainer Kurz, Principal of RKSBenergy.

“This lecture addresses the design and application challenges of gas turbines that operate in combined cycle with a bottoming plant,” Brun said. “Technologies such as waste heat recovery steam boiler, supercritical carbon dioxide, and organic Rankine bottoming cycle options and their impact on the primary cycle and total plant performance will be discussed. This talk is not just about the enhanced power output and improved efficiency that combined cycle provides but also about the operability and the limits of the system.”

Stay tuned for live updates, Q&As, video interviews, session coverage, and more.