Guidelines on Selection and

Design of Cooling Options for

Offshore Applications
Gas compression and cooling is most common in offshore facilities. Gas compression is
required to meet export gas pressure, or to deliver high pressure lift gas or injection gas to
reservoir, to recover more oil. Because of compression, gas temperatures go up necessitating
cooling. The cooling duty can be in the range of 5 MW to 40+ MW, depending on operating
conditions. In offshore applications, space and weight are critical; which makes selection and
design of cooling system very important. This article discusses various cooling options for gas
compression, which include air cooling, direct sea water cooling and the indirect sea water
cooling. Various types of heat exchangers, e.g. shell and tube heat exchangers, plate type heat
exchangers and printed circuit heat exchangers are considered for water cooling options. This
article provides broad guidelines on selection and design of various offshore cooling options.
Comparisons of these options are made with respect to space, fouling, material selection,
availability, reliability and maintenance considerations. The equipment required in each
option is also considered, to understand overall impact.

T
E
C
H
N
O
L
O
G
Y
Offshore
Equipment

as from gas liquid separator is sent to the

compression train for compression. A
typical two stage compression train is
shown in Figure 1. Before compression,
entrained liquid is removed in fine separator. Hot
compressed gas is cooled at every intermediate
and final stage.
Cooled compressed gas is
either exported
to an onshore
plant or the
gas can be used
as lift gas or
injection gas Figure 1
to the reservoir,
to recover more oil. Hot compressed gas can be
cooled via air cooling, direct sea water cooling or
indirect sea water cooling. For each option application, design details, merits and demerits are
discussed in detail in this article.

58

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

Air Cooling Option

In this option, hot compressed gas is cooled using
fin fan air coolers. This option is preferred for new
platforms or on onshore plants, where space is not a
constraint. Fin fan air coolers can be kept on top deck
of offshore platform.

Selection Criteria
Air cooling is a popular and simple option for
many gas platforms, which are also known for trouble free operation. This does not involve big sea
water lift pumps, filtration units, break tank, sea

Visit our website at www.safan.com

water fouling / plugging and exchanger cleaning

etc. Temperature control and maintenance are simple and down time is minimal. At the same time it
requires highest foot print of offshore platform and
higher height of the fin fan air cooler; which in turn
adds substantial structure weight and cost to the
project. There are other small issues like hot air
circulation and fan noise. Still, air cooler is an attractive option when cooling / injection water is not
easily available for gas cooling.

Design Cases
During production life cycle as time passes, reservoir pressure depletes and gas production also
drops. During later years, air cooler inlet temperatures are high because of high compression ratios
but cooling heat duty drops because of reduction
in mass flow rate. It is not always necessary that
highest heat duty is considered in design case.
Sometimes low inlet temperature to cooler is also considered for design case
because of low LMTD available. In special designs, same
air coolers are designed for
parallel and series operation,
for single and two stage compression respectively during
production life cycle. In critical service like twister, air
coolers are also designed for
one fail case. Generally overall finned heat transfer coefficient for compressor air cooler
is between 25 to 30 W/m2K.

The height of air coolers and nearby equipment

to be located must be considered carefully to
ensure sufficient air supply to the tube bundles.
Either grating or full opening below air coolers
are preferred to supply more air to fin fan air
coolers. Air inlet design temperature needs to be
selected carefully to avoid big overdesign.
Generally average temperature of the hottest
month can be considered as air inlet design temperature. For hot air circulation 1 or 2 degree
higher can be considered for forced draft
fan, and can later be
verified by CFD. In
cold regions, special
consideration needs to be given to avoid hydrate
formation or any condensation.

Direct Sea Water Cooling Option

In this option hot compressed gas is cooled
using direct sea water in shell and tube heat
exchangers. This option is preferred when space
is a major constraint.

Figure 2

Selection Criteria
As compared to
air coolers, direct
sea water cooling
requires a significantly smaller offshore footprint.

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

59

Either sea water is returned back to sea or it can be

used as injection water to recover more oil from the
reservoir. The hotter the injection water the better it
is for the injection purpose. Thus after gas cooling
sea water can be used as injection water. Otherwise
dedicated sea water lift pumps, filtration units,
chemical / corrosion inhibitor injection units, break
tank etc are required for the service. PCHE (Printed
circuit heat exchanger) is not suitable for direct sea
water cooling, as small pores can be blocked by dirty
sea water and scaling. Plate exchangers are limited
by design pressures and it can also be blocked by
solid particles. Thus only shell and tube exchangers
are suitable for direct sea water gas cooling.

Sea water return temperature to be

selection Criteria

Heat transfer is controlled by shell (gas) side, thus

the need to maximise pressure drop on gas side, but
it is limited by vibration. To reduce fouling and tube
skin temperature, sea water velocity needs to be kept
as high as possible (minimum 1 m/s and maximum
3+ m/s). Thus high pressure drop (1+ bar ) is preferred on tube (sea water) side. Lower tube skin
temperature lowers fouling tendency. Generally overall dirty heat transfer coefficient can be between 300
to 500+ W/m2K for direct sea water cooler using shell
and tube heat exchanger.

a) Generally it can be 40 to 45C or as per local

regulation to save marine life (if sea water is
returned back to sea). Lower sea water return
temperature means bigger the sea water
pumps and filtration units.
b) To avoid excessive fouling, maximum tube
skin temperature should not be higher than
5O/60C in clean condition.
c) Sea water return temperature should be lower
than process outlet temperature, to allow
multiple tube pass, this helps in increasing
tube side velocity.
With increase in sea water temperature or decrease
in water velocity, both will increase fouling tendency
in sea water.
The advantage of the direct water system includes
less deck area and less number of equipment, due to
elimination of the potable water system. However,
direct sea water cooling option is not preferred choice
because of the following issues:
1. Shell and tube exchanger with titanium tubes at
sea water side and high pressure duplex /

For exchanger cleaning, additional equivalent

space as exchanger size is NOT required, as mechanical cleaning is not required for shell type. Vibration free design is a challenge for the exchanger
designer. Double segmental baffle, no tubes in window, vapour belt feed device (annular distributor),

Inconel shell at process side are highly expensive. There can be also limitation on supply and
fabrication of this type of exchangers.
2. Gas compression generally occurs at gas
temperatures between 90 to 160C or higher. It
means, in some part of cooler; always tube skin

Process Parameters

Offshore
Equipment

J shell or rod baffles should be evaluated carefully

to ensure vibration free design.

60

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

Visit our website at www.safan.com

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

temperature at sea water side will exceed

5O/60C temperature. High tube skin temperature will accelerate fouling and corrosion
severely at sea water side; even sea water
return temperature is maintained at 4OC.
If sea water is used for direct process gas
cooling and other purpose, then non hazardous consumers should be separated using
break tank from hazardous consumers (process gas cooler). In case of tube rupture in gas
cooler, high pressure process gas should not
travel to non hazardous consumers. Additional break tank, pumps and water inside
break tank will take additional space and
weight on offshore platform.
Due to fouling / blocking, regular cleaning of
sea water cooler is always a concern to plant
operator and maintenance engineer. This
means less availability and reliability.
If sea water is not used for injection purpose,
then sea water is returned back to see. Thus
dedicated sea water lift pumps, filtration units,
chemical / corrosion inhibitor injection units
are required for this service.
To reduce high skin temperature / fouling as
well to limit sea water return temperature; sea
water flow increased substantially, which requires bigger pumps, power, filtration units etc.
During later life, cooling heat load will reduce, still same sea water flow rate need to
be kept to maintain good velocity. This will
do over cooling on gas side and power wastage for sea water pumps.

or 3 x 50% exchangers. This however increases

cost, weight and the deck area requirement.
3. Maintain very high tube velocity (3+m/s) in
titanium tubes and low sea water return temperature (35-38C), both will reduce fouling
considerably. But these will result into high
pressure drop and bigger sea water flow rates.
Thus bigger pumps and filtration units and
power requirement. To achieve higher velocity one can go for F shell with multiple
tube pass, if possible.

Sea Water Fouling and Scaling

There are two basic types of fouling that can
occur in seawater systems: marine growth and
scale formation. Marine fouling can be controlled.
Most operators have a continuous running system
backed up with shock dosing of biocide (say once
every couple of weeks). Two types of continuous
running systems are used: hypochlorite generation or copper ion systems.
Scale formation is caused due to the seawater getting too hot. To prevent this temperature rise on the
seawater needs to be limited and the exchanger
design needs to be reviewed for hot spots (tube skin
temperature at sea water side). Typically, the wall
temperature in contact with the sea water should
be maintained below 50/60C.

Indirect Sea Water Cooling Option

In this option, Hot Compressed gas is cooled using
closed loop potable water, and potable water is cooled
by sea water in plate exchanger. This option is preferred, when space is a constraint.

Following are different ways to improve availability and reliability of direct cooling option.
1. This includes on line chemical
cleaning, use of titanium tubes
with oxide coating, provision of
extra tubes which are normally
plugged and can be used in case
some of the tubes have developed
significant scale etc.
2. Another possibility that can be
explored is to provide more redundancy in terms of say 2 x 100%
Figure 3

Offshore
Equipment

62

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

Visit our website at www.safan.com

Selection Criteria
The indirect sea water cooling system eliminates high tube skin temperature, as sea water
cools potable water with maximum (outlet) temperature of 60C. Thus the indirect system is less
likely to have scaling and corrosion problems in
sea water coolers. Thus availability and reliability of indirect cooling is much higher than direct
cooling system. Indirect cooling option requires
potable water package, potable water tank and
pumps. If sea water is not required for injection
purpose, then dedicated sea water lift pumps,
filtration units, chemical / corrosion inhibitor
injection units, break tank etc are also required
for this service. Compared to direct cooling, sea
water return temperature can be higher for indirect cooling, thus requirement of sea water is less
for indirect cooling. For sea water cooler, plate
type is best choice. For the compressor gas cooler,
shell and tube exchanger and Printed Circuit Heat
Exchangers (PCHE) are two choices.
Plate Type Sea Water Cooler
For sea water cooler plate type is preferred choice
because of following reasons:
Both closed loop potable water and sea water
are low pressure system, thus plate can be
selected.
Sea water side fouling is reduced because of
high velocity in narrow plates.
Plate type exchanger occupies less space, weight
and much cheaper than the conventional shell
and tube exchangers.
Plate type exchanger is easy to clean.
During turn down remove few plates.
Low consumption of sea water because of
lowest possible temperature approach in plate
type exchanger.
Design Parameters for Plate Type Sea Water Cooler

Higher return temperature of the potable water

reduces the cost of the sea water plate cooler as well
as size of the cooling water pump and the piping.
Overall Heat transfer coefficient of plate type exchanger is 4-5KW /m2K.
Indirect cooling - Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers (PCHE)
PCHE has the lowest weight and lowest footprint as compared to all the options, but it requires additional inlet fine filters (1 operating
and 1 stand by), valves, instruments (differential
pressure gauge / alarm across filters) and piping
for both inlet streams of PCHE, which will take
additional space and weight. Typically the PCHEs
are 4 to 6 times smaller than the shell and tube
exchangers for same duty. Regular cleaning of
inlet filter will add maintenance cost. One has to
take special design and operation considerations to
prevent PCHE failure because of any flow fluctuations or thermal fatigue. Also PCHEs are very
prone to blockage as they have very small pore
sizes within the unit (in the order of 2 mm).
PCHE blockage due to solid particle in sea water
or hydrate formation on process side as gas is not
dry. The PCHEs are complete welded construction and contain no gasket joints, other than for
external connection to piping, hence maintenance
activities are kept to a minimum. Other things to
be concerned about PCHEs is boiling of the cooling medium (e.g. from loss of cooling medium
flow or hot spots in the unit). Considering all
these issues of PCHE offers less availability and
reliability as compared to shell and tube exchanger.
Vendors can guide design consultant as well the
Operator Company at the design stage and also
develop operating procedure for proper control to
avoid these failures. Many offshore platforms are
equipped with PCHE for the benefit of lowest
weight and footprint. By adding 100% standby
PCHE, one can
increase availability, but again
more piping and
instruments and
thus more space
and weight.

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

63

Offshore
Equipment

Overall Heat transfer coefficient of PCHE type

exchanger is 2-3+KW /m2K.

Final Recommendation
Select air cooler, when sea water is NOT

Generally overall heat transfer coefficient for shell

and tube gas cooler is 300 500+ W/m2K.

available (viable), and space is NOT a constraint. Air cooler is simple & easy to use,

64

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

Visit our website at www.safan.com

and it has, highest availability and reliability,

among all options.
Select indirect water cooling, when sea water
is available and space is a constraint.
Direct sea water cooling, is NOT a preferred
choice, because of exotic, expensive construction; and less availability, due to sever

scaling and blockage issues.

When clean river water is available, then direct
cooling, is best option from all options, for
onshore gas cooling application. (If sea water is
only choice, then above three points are valid,
PET
for onshore cooling application.)
ENQUIRY NUMBER:

This publication thanks Mr.

Manish Shah for providing this
paper Mr. Manish Shah, a Process Manger at Linde Engineering India, has a Degree in
Petrochemical Engineering from
MIT India. Mr. Shah is one of the Finalists
for the Chemical Engineering 2012 Personal
Achievement Award, has received a nomination for the John Grill Award from Worley
Parsons and received appreciation letter from
Linde. Mr. Shah is a Fellow Charter Engineer (UK CEng FIChemE 99929097) with
17 years of process design experience in leading various feasibility study, concept, feed,
basic and detail engineering of Oil & Gas,
Refinery and Petrochemical units. In the
field of Heat Transfer and Process safety,
Mr. Shah has presented seven technical papers in ten international conferences and
two technical papers in industrial magazines. His main specialization is in exchanger

(shell and tube and air cooler using HTRI

and HTFS) and Tray/packed column designing (using Hysys, Aspen Plus, Sulzer and
Koch program). He is proficient in Steady
state simulation using HYSYS, UniSim,
Aspen Plus & PRO II. He has done extensive
work in flare and blowdown system designing for high pressure oil and gas facility. He
has done Process design of offshore & onshore oil and gas facilities with gas compression, gas liquid water separation, oil
stabilisation, produced water system, acid
gas removal and gas Dehydration. Process
design of downstream industry includes SRU
(Sulphur recovery unit), TGTU, ARU, SWS,
LPG recovery. Process design of refinery
includes CDU (Crude Distillation Unit),
CFU (Condensate Fractionation Unit),
SGCU (Saturated Gas Concentration Unit),
LSG (Low Sulphur Gasoline), DHDS (Diesel Hydro De-Sulphurisation) and Mild
Hydro cracking unit.

01/02-01

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2013

65