INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPRESSOR REVIEW
21 st century
reciprocating
compressors
Greg Phillippi, Ariel Corporation, USA, discusses the role,
and development, of reciprocating compressors in the
downstream oil and gas industry.
T
echnology, like time, marches on. Consider the
advancements in technology that have taken
place over the last 50 years. Advancements
have taken the world from punch cards to
medical computers that can be swallowed.
Telecommunication has developed from rotary dial to cell
phones. Most advancements led to smaller, less expensive
means to do the same thing. It begs the question: why do
some industry standards, and the people who write them,
refuse to acknowledge proven technologies that are as
reliable but less expensive than those used 50 years ago?
Take the reciprocating compressor industry as an example.
For nearly 100 years reciprocating compressors used in
downstream oil and gas industry (process) applications
have utilised long strokes and low rotating speeds.
Virtually all have been block mounted and equipped with
compressor cylinder liners and provision for cooling
supported since 1964 by American Petroleum Institute
(API) Standard 618 Reciprocating Compressors for
Petroleum, Chemical, and Gas Industry Services.
Today alternate designs are available, offering the
industry equal reliability at lower capital cost. Several
manufacturers offer designs with shorter strokes, in the
76 - 229 mm (3 - 9 in.) range, with rotating speeds varying
from 600 - 1000 rpm. These modern designs are packaged
into complete compression system modules, contributing
to decreased capital cost through reduced installation
time. Many of these modern designs omit liners and
provision for cooling, as required by API Standard 618,
further reducing cost.
Very early reciprocating compressors had strokes in
the range of 914 mm (36 in.) or longer, rotating speeds that
today would be considered very low (in the range of
100 rpm), and were derived from steam engine technology.
Over time the rotating and average piston speed increased
as the sealing technology for piston rod packing and
piston rings improved. For example, very early piston rod
packing was called a stuffing box, as it was a cylindrical
cavity surrounding the piston rod filled (stuffed) with
coiled rope to create a seal. This stuffing box was derived
from steam engine technology. Over time the packing
became much more sophisticated, developing into the
segmented packing ring sets made up of various metallic
and non-metallic materials that are so common today.
There is end user interest to increase rotating and
piston speed, as increases in both reduce the physical size
of the machine, resulting in less mass and, therefore, less
cost. Today, the vast majority of downstream process
reciprocating compressors are driven by electric motors,
for which cost decreases as rotating speed increases. So,
an increase in rotating speed decreases the cost of both of
the compressor and the driver.
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ENGINEERING Reprinted from August 2015

Figure 1. Large block mount low speed long stroke
compressor during construction at site.
Figures 1 and 2, lends itself to being stick built at site (block
mounted) rather than packaged into a module in a fabrication
facility. Most of the reciprocating compressors that exist
today in refineries and petrochemical facilities are block
mounted, meaning that bare compressors are manufactured in
a factory, shipped to the installation site, assembled or
disassembled (depending on size and shipping restrictions),
and installed on a large concrete foundation (the block, see
Figure 1). Following this, all the supporting systems, such as
pulsation bottles, separators, process and utility piping,
lubrication systems, driver, coupling, instrumentation and the
control system, are installed. Long stroke low speed
compressors lend themselves to this manner of installation as
they are typically very large and heavy.
Modern short stroke medium speed compressors lend
themselves to being packaged (Figure 3) as they are smaller
and lighter for the same capacity. A compressor package is a
complete gas compression system module, having the
compressor with its driver, coupling, all process gas and utility
piping, lubrication systems, and all the instrumentation and
control systems mounted on a structural steel skid. This skid
serves as a platform on which to mount all the previously
mentioned equipment, but also, in many instances, the
compressors foundation.

Lined versus unlined

API Standard 618 requires compressor cylinders to have liners.
Fundamentally, liners are included only for commercial
reasons. A liner is not a part required for a compressor
cylinder to be able to compress gas. The reasons a liner may
be used include:
nn A liner can be a lower cost replaceable wear element in a
compressor cylinder assembly where a bare replacement
cylinder body might be very expensive with a long lead
Figure 2. Large block mount low speed long stroke time relative to the cost and lead time of a replacement
compressor in operation. liner.
nn A liner can be made of a suitable wear material, such as
grey iron, when the cylinder body is made of an
unsuitable wear material. An example of such an
unsuitable material is ASTM A395 Standard Specification
for Ferritic Ductile Iron Pressure Retaining Castings for Use
at Elevated Temperatures, the material API 618 requires
be used for cast ductile iron cylinder bodies. ASTM A395
happens to be a very poor material for use in an
application that subjects the material to rubbing wear as
is the case in a cylinder bore where the piston and piston
rings, or the wearbands and piston rings, are rubbing
against it. Consideration must be given to protect A395
ductile iron material and a liner is only one way to
accomplish that.
nn Utilisation of a liner allows the cylinder bore diameter to
be changed easily.

One of the major reasons why liners are not utilised in

Figure 3. Packaged medium speed short stroke
short stroke cylinders is the liners effect on the cylinders
compressor.
capacity capability. This is a technical issue that leads to
significant commercial harm (Figure 4).
A liner adds fixed clearance, which reduces capacity.
Block mount versus This capacity reduction can be substantial in shorter
packaged stroke cylinders. The addition of the liner also reduces
The physical size of the typical long stroke (305 - 508 mm, piston displacement, which when combined with the
12 - 20 in.) low speed (250 - 500 rpm) compressor, as shown in effect of the additional fixed clearance, results in a

HYDROCARBON
Reprinted from August 2015 ENGINEERING
significant reduction in a cylinders capacity capability.
The chart in Figure 4 takes both into account. For example,
consider a 300 mm liner bore diameter (11.8 in., 300 on
the horizontal axis). This is actually a 325 mm (12.8 in.)
diameter bore cylinder with a 12.5mm (0.5 in.) thick liner
installed, so the capacity capability has been reduced
from that of a 325 mm bore cylinder to that of a 300 mm.
Furthermore, the addition of the liner has increased the
fixed clearance volume, which reduces the volumetric
efficiency, further reducing the capacity capability. For the
300 mm liner bore example, this capacity capability
reduction is on the order of 35% for 76 mm (3 in.) stroke,
and is still significant for a 457 mm (18 in.) stroke at
approximately a 17% reduction. The chart assumes a
Figure 4. Chart showing change in capacity
compression ratio of 2.5 and a gas adiabatic exponent of capability due to the addition of a liner.
1.4. Assumed liner thickness is 9.5 mm (0.375 in.) up to 254
mm liner bore (10 in.) and 12.5 mm (0.500 in.) up to 254 mm
bore (10 in.) and larger following API Standard 618
guidelines.
For a given required compressor capacity, the addition of a
liner requires a larger compressor by the percentage shown in
the chart. Again referring to the 300 mm example, a 76 mm
stroke compressor would have to be approximately 35% larger
if equipped with a liner. So, an end user is purchasing a
compressor that is approximately 35% larger just to have it
equipped with lined cylinders.
While a liner provides one method of protecting A395
ductile iron from wear, other methods exist. Another
possibility is to harden the unlined cylinder bore to improve
the wear characteristics. One proven hardening method uses
the ion nitride heat treat process. A full explanation of the
process is beyond the scope of this article, but it results in a
hardness at the surface of A395 ductile iron of approximately
55 Rockwell C and provides substantial case depth with a Figure 5. Drawing of a cylinder body with a liner
hardness of approximately 30 Rockwell C at a depth of and cooling jacket.
0.15 mm (0.006 in.).

Cooled versus non-cooled

API Standard 618 also requires compressor cylinders to have
provision for cooling. Figure 5 is a cylinder with a liner and a
cooling jacket and Figure 6 is a cylinder without a liner or a
cooling jacket. Like liners, cooling is not required for a
compressor cylinder to compress gas.
API Standard 618 mentions one instance where
provision for cooling may be beneficial: when cylinders
are operated while unloaded for extended periods of
time. This refers to the situation when it may be required
or beneficial to operate a double acting cylinder with
both the head and crank ends deactivated at the same
time. The standard requires that a forced liquid coolant
system be used when cylinders may be required to operate
fully unloaded. It is correct that in some situations the
cooling system may have the capacity to remove enough
Figure 6. Drawing of a cylinder body without a
of the parasitic heat generated when the gas washes in
liner or cooling jacket.
and out of the head and crank end compression chambers
to allow operation fully unloaded for extended periods
of time. It is not a given that every compressor cylinder potentially causing piston ring, wearband and compressor
incorporating forced liquid coolant can operate fully valve premature wear or failures.
unloaded for an extended period as the cooling system When discussing the cooling requirement, end users and
may not be capable of removing enough parasitic heat, manufacturers will often mention the need to use the

HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING Reprinted from August 2015
 cooling jackets as heaters. The cooling jackets will be used Conclusion
to heat the cylinders prior to startup to avoid liquid Short stroke medium speed reciprocating compressors
condensing out of the gas stream (warm saturated gas utilising unlined and non-cooled compressor cylinder
contacting cold metal) and causing damage to the technology represent the newest technology, and are the
compressor valves or other components when the 21st century reciprocating compressors for downstream
compressor starts. While this certainly works and can be a applications. These compressors dominate the upstream
valid reason for using cylinders with cooling (heating) and midstream oil and gas industries and are becoming
jackets, not every application encounters this issue and it is more common and gaining wider acceptance downstream.
not the only way to start a compressor to avoid this However, many downstream end users have been
condensation. reluctant to consider short stroke higher speed
Non-cooled cylinders have been used with success in compressors primarily because of concerns about reliability.
the upstream natural gas industry for 50 years and the Many find it difficult to understand how a higher speed
downstream industry for 20 years. There can be no question reciprocating compressor can have equal reliability to a low
that the technology works, especially considering that speed, but it is possible and being proven every day. An
almost every manufacturer offering reciprocating example is two 4.1MW (5500 hp) 146 mm (5.75 in.) stroke 713
compressors to the upstream and midstream markets has rpm packaged compressors operating in a hydrogen product
models utilising non-cooled cylinders, with one having application in a hydrogen plant in the US Gulf Coast area.
shipped over 150 000. Both have achieved over 24 000 hours of uninterrupted
The benefits to end users of non-cooled cylinder operation and are scheduled for an overhaul at 32 000
technology include: hours. This is exactly the type of success being achieved
nn Less capital cost as there is no cylinder jacket water with this 21st century technology.
system to purchase. Although the basic design of a reciprocating compressor
nn Less operation and maintenance cost. There is no has not changed much over the years, manufacturing, design
cylinder jacket water system to operate or maintain. capabilities, non-metallic materials and performance
nn Higher quality compressor cylinder bodies. Non-cooled modelling have. Modern reciprocating compressors are
cylinder body castings are of significantly higher quality capable of higher rotating and piston speeds without
due to the fact there is no cooling jacket complicating compromising reliability. To paraphrase an advert from a US
the casting. This also means there is reduced chance of
automobile manufacturer, 'these are not your fathers
a future structural failure.
reciprocating compressors'.

Ariel Moderate-Speed API 618 Compressors

Ariels moderate-speed API 618 process compressors are utilized in a wide range of applications around the
globe, providing the safety and reliability demanded by todays refinery and petrochemical industries. With
40,000+ reciprocating compressors ranging from 100 to 10,000 horsepower shipped since 1966, Ariel is the
largest manufacturer of separable reciprocating gas compressors in the world.

1000 Current Lube Limit Traditional Lube & Current Non-Lube Limit 5.0

900 4.5
850 4.3
800 4.0
Piston Speed (ft/min)

750
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3.8
Piston Speed (m/s)

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400 2.0

300 Slow-Speed ( Long-Stroke) Moderate-Speed ( Short-Stroke) 1.5

225 277 327 400 450 514 600 720 900 (60hz) 1200
200 1.0
100 200 273 333375 429 500 600 750 1000 (50hz)
Synchronous Speeds (RPM)

Ariels moderate-speed process compressors operate in comparable piston speed ranges to long-stroke, slow-
speed compressors. Ariels extensive product line supports a wide range of process applications.