COURSE OVERVIEW

This practical and highly-interactive course includes real-life case studies where participants will be engaged in a series of interactive small groups and class workshops. 

Turbo-expanders have been used for decades in hundreds of applications and are used to drive generators, pumps and compressors in the most demanding of applications. Turbo-expanders are manufactured in both radial inflow (centrifugal) and axial configurations in sizes ranging from a fraction of a HP up to 50,000 HP.  The turboexpander is a centrifugal or axial flow turbine through which a high pressure gas is expanded to produce work that is typically used to drive a compressor. Because work is extracted from the expanding high pressure gas, the expansion is isentropic and the low pressure exhaust gas from the turbine is at a very low temperature, often as low as 200 K (-100 °F) or less. 

 

Turbo-expanders are essential components in air separation plants; cryogenic processes; LNG plants; natural gas and propane pressure letdown applications - gas plants & pipeline compressor stations; geothermal applications; and waste heat recovery systems.  It is common to have two or more turbo-expanders driving a single generator, pump or compressor. High-pressure turboexpanders, usually installed in pairs, are typically used to provide refrigeration for the production of cryogenic liquids. The expander extracts work from a high-pressure gas stream providing refrigeration to the process. The work removed from the gas stream by the expander is used to provide compression power to cycle. These applications demand high efficiency and reliability at a low installed cost. The efficiency of the turboexpander has a significant impact on the cost of the cryogenic liquid produced. 

Another application for turboexpanders is in power recovery from various heat sources utilizing the Rankine cycle. The heat sources presently being considered for large scale power plants include geothermal and ocean-thermal energy, while small systems are directed at solar heat, waste heat from reactor processes, gas turbine exhaust and many other industrial waste heat sources. The number of power recovery applications is steadily increasing. Large and small demonstration plants are operating, or are about to begin operation. Some of these were built to study or minimize potential problem areas for new, large power plants in the planning stage. Indeed, the potential is for large-scale utilization of such sources as ocean-thermal energy, solar heat, geothermal, waste heat, natural gas, waste gas pressure letdown, and undoubtedly others. 

 

This course is designed to provide participants with a complete and up-to-date overview of the turboexpanders from the basic knowledge and applications to the maintenance and troubleshooting techniques. The course will cover turboexpander fundamentals; application of cryogenic turboexpanders: processes; applications of hot gas turboexpanders; overview of turboexpander construction features; rotor dynamics; construction materials; fabrication issues; installation guides; turboexpander maintenance; failure analysis and troubleshooting.