CCC Receives Stamp of Approval From Premier Safety Management Co

(December 5, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation has recently received approval from the internet based service, Premier Safety Management Co for safety as well as for CCC’s drug and alcohol policies. CCC has also received an approval rating from the National Compliance Management Service.
Premier Safety Management Co. is a group of oil and gas operators joined together to establish consistent data collection criteria for training and safety statistics to benefit operators and contractors by reducing duplication of efforts and providing an expanded and centralized database. They assist in maintaining safety training and qualification records as well as establish guidelines for safety records collection and consistency. For more information, see their web site at www.psmindex.com

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

CCC Custom Made Training System Simulates Real Field Problems

(November 20, 2001)

CCC's training system, for use on Series 4 controllers, instructs technicians and engineers at Saudi Arabian Oil Company's Southern Area Job Skills Training Division (SAJSTD). The system simulates the behavior of complex compressor trains, imitating problems technicians may encounter in the field. The following article was first published in the October 31st issue of Saudi Arabian Oil Company’s weekly newsletter, The Arabian Sun. It details Compressor Controls Corporation’s custom made training system for use on CCCs Series 4 controllers. The new training system makes it easier to simulate real field problems system technicians and engineers may encounter while working with complex compressor trains.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

CCC and Petrobras: Working Together to meet Brazil's Energy Demands

(November 5, 2001)

In order to meet Brazil’s growing energy demands, Petrobras, the Brazilian oil and gas company, has enacted a program aimed at maximizing oil production and reducing gas emission through venting. As part of Petrobras’ new energy plan, Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC) is currently implementing the retrofit of parallel reinjection compressors on three offshore platforms located in Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro State. When completed, the retrofit will include antisurge, performance, load sharing, and flare control.

CCC was chosen based on its application expertise, flexibility to meet tight project schedules, and support capabilities after installation. This retrofit will increase surge protection and machine availability, reduce control system induced trip resulting from inadequate load sharing, optimize oil-gas separation for more precise pressure control, and minimize flaring. The first project was completed in less than three months, from order entry to commissioning.

CCC and Petrobras are working hand in hand to define cost effective control solutions, and optimize project scheduling. CCC has structured its local support to supply turnkey solutions to Petrobras, and will use remote diagnostic tools to enable fast, efficient response time for troubleshooting. Petrobras uses drastic testing measures to accept the systems (compressor cannot surge under heavy process disturbances like fast closing of suction valve, fast closing of discharge valve).

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

The Fifth Generation of CCC Products Takes Turbomachinery Control to a New Level. Your Search for Better Turbomachinery Control is Over!

(October 1, 2001)

In a time when many industrial automation vendors are retrenching, Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), located in Des Moines, Iowa, is investing heavily in the future. In the past year, CCC has launched more new products than at any time in the company’s history. Most recently, CCC officially unveiled its new Series 5™ family of products at the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Show and Symposium September 18th – 21st.

With the Series 5 Reliant™, the Series 5 Vanguard™, TrainView-II™, TrainWare™, SureLink™, TrainTools™ and the Guardian™ Overspeed Prevention System and the Vantage™ General Purpose Turbine Governor, CCC has made available to its customers a wide range of state-of-the-art, high performance turbomachinery control products.

Series 5 family of products was created based on user’s needs to have turbomachinery control that bridges the gap between general-purpose and purpose-built control systems. Purpose-built controls offer high performance but can be costly to support. General-purpose control equipment (PLC and DCS) is flexible and more affordable, but lacks the power and speed to do fully capable turbomachinery control. Serious performance compromises are required to utilize such platforms for the control of turbocompressors, gas turbines and steam turbines. Yet, control platforms based on open architectures are very attractive to many turbomachinery control customers.

Series 5 strikes a balance between the high performance of purpose-built controls and the openness of general-purpose controls without compromising the control and protection of the turbomachinery.

Continuing CCC tradition of the highest performance turbomachinery controls, Series 5 offers execution times as fast as 10 milliseconds. It offers the most complete integration of continuous control and sequencing for turbomachinery. Plus, it incorporates numerous open standards; including IEC-61131 programming environment, cPCI bus architecture (compact Peripheral Component Interconnect bus - the same architecture as your PC), ProfiBus for Remote I/O network, Ethernet, OPC, and more. Series 5 is the most open and user friendly CCC control system ever. It is highly scalable - just as suitable for a simple, single section, motor driven centrifugal compressor as it is for a network of several multi-section gas turbine driven compressors. Series 5 is also an effective powerful choice for generator and pump drive turbines.

With the introduction of Series 5, CCC’s staff of knowledgeable and experienced turbomachinery control engineers continues to meet customer needs, improve customer operations and increase customer profits.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

CCC Control System's Application for Blast Furnace Air Blower Featured in the Ukrainian Magazine

(July 23, 2001)

Over the years, Compressor Controls Corporation has accumulated vast experience in the design and installation of specialized control systems for blast furnace turbo air blowers in various steel mills worldwide. CCC control systems optimize the performance of turbomachinery that plays a crucial role in metal production, hence improving the overall plant’s efficiency. This is achieved by implementing CCC’s proprietary, proven control algorithms -– antisurge, load sharing, rotational speed control, over-speed protection, startup and shutdown sequencing, extraction control and valve management – in combination with other technological breakthroughs, such as the fully digital electric-to-hydraulic signal transducer (DEHT).

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

Parts Management Program (PMP) for SAUDI ARAMCO

(July 11, 2001)

The Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, has recently signed a Parts Management Program (PMP) contract with Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC). The contract is through A.A. Turki, CCC’s local Saudi Arabian agent. The PMP agreement states that CCC will stock critical parts for the Saudi Aramco installations, in-Kingdom. The spares will be available for all Saudi Aramco locations and stocked at a CCC location in Dammam. Any Saudi Aramco location can obtain a part through the CCC representative in Dammam. The needed equipment will be dispatched to the site immediately.

The spare parts will have the appropriate software pre-loaded for the specific site, ensuring a hot-swap without the need for a field engineer. A replacement part will then be ordered to maintain the spares inventory. As additional projects are commissioned, the volume of the spare inventory will be increased to keep up with demand.

The agreement is advantageous to both Saudi Aramco and CCC by providing rapid response to hardware failures. It takes almost four days for a DHL delivery to arrive in Saudi Arabia from Des Moines. With time and workweek differences, the delay in obtaining parts is critical. The PMP agreement ensures the parts are immediately available any time day or night.

For more information on CCC’s Parts Management Program or other customer service and support options, please contact your local sales representative or e-mail at support@cccglobal.com

CCC Commisions Steam Turbine Compressor Retrofit – RCFL India

(June 15, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC) has successfully commissioned a steam turbine compressor retrofit on a turbo air compressor train installed in the new Nitric Acid plant at Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizer’s (RCF) Chembur Works in India. The plant’s original pneumatic manual control system was more than 20 years old, and was negatively affecting process efficiency. The CCC retrofit scope consisted of redundant speed, erformance and antisurge controllers, plus a TrainView®/Toolbox Operator Interface Station, and an I/H mechanical retrofit kit for the steam turbine. Indigenous supplies and services provided by Sherman International included a local control panel, a Yokogawa DCS console look-a-like OIS panel, plus all the turnkey services. In spite of a very tight ten-day shut down schedule, the system was commissioned and handed over to the customer on time.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

CCC Improves Process Control at Inchon Refinery in Korea

(June 13, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC) has recently completed a field engineering service visit to Inchon Oil Refinery Co. Ltd. Korea which has crude processing capability of 275,000 BPSD and manufactures a variety of petroleum products to BTX for domestic and international markets.

After analyzing the existing process control system, CCC recommended several critical modifications and completed performance tuning for the recycle gas compressor. This change translated into a 25% reduction in energy costs, and will save the plant approximately $100,000 per year.

The recycle gas compressor was started three years ago and originally had two process flow controllers. One controlled process flow by manipulating the position of two valves in the discharge line. The second controller adjusted gas flow from the make-up compressor, and provided cascade control of suction pressure for the recycle gas compressor. The speed of the recycle gas compressor was set manually and needed adjustments when production rates changed.

CCC was called in to analyze the plant’s process control and reduce energy consumption. CCC recommended to keep both discharge process flow valves in fully opened positions and to have the cascade control removed from suction pressure control.

In the new configuration, the CCC performance controller was tuned to control suction pressure of the recycle gas compressor by manipulating the speed of the electric motor. When discharge process valves were placed in the fully open position, the CCC performance controller reduced speed of the electric motor more than 200 rpm, while keeping suction pressure of the recycle gas compressor as recommended by a process licenser.

Manipulation of the process flow rates is now completed by changes in flow rates of H2 rich gas from the make-up compressor. When the amount of make-up flow is changed, it starts affecting pressure in the system and the CCC performance pressure controller adjusts the speed accordingly. The main advantage of the configuration is that a recycle compressor is running at the lowest necessary speed (and lowest energy consumption by the electric motor) for the given process flow rates.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

First Gas Turbine Fuel Control Retrofit in India

(April 23, 2001)
Compressor Controls Corporation has successfully commissioned its first gas turbine fuel controller retrofit project in India (ONGC through Larsen & Toubro Limited, Control & Automation - BU). The gas turbine drives a compressor at Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) Bombay High South (BHS) offshore platform. The retrofit consisted of redundant turbine fuel controllers: simplex antisurge and performance control for the first section of compression, simplex antisurge controller on the second section, and overspeed protection system for two identical compressor trains operating in parallel and thus with a master controller to complete the system. The compressor is a 3-stage barrel type gas compressor from a Japanese OEM. The turbine/compressor start-stop and fail-safe logic is implemented by Control & Automation Business unit of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in a redundant PLC supplied by them along with other sub-system. L&T is the main system integrator for this project. Sherman International (P) Ltd. provided services to L&T for the Factory Acceptance Test and pre-commissioning activities at the offshore platform.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

CCC Develops Software for Fire Detection & Gas Contamination Control

(April 10, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC) has developed software for Fire Detection & Gas Contamination Control for two Gazprom compressor stations, “Arskaya” and “Dolgaya.” This project was accomplished within the scope of general relations with CCC’s long-term partner in Russia.
 

The new CCC software is in high demand where there is a need for instantaneous response to flame in highly combustible material environments, and where extra protection is required for large capital investments.

The most challenging part of the project was to pass the testing and certification procedure with Russian state authorities overseeing fire safety regulations. Compressor Controls Corporation is now a registered manufacturer of the so-called Fire Detection Controller (FDC-01) utilizing a third party’s hardware.

FDC-01 contains two interacting hierarchy levels. The lower level includes a network of final elements like heat, light, smoke, and other detectors of different principles of operation (optical infrared and ultraviolet). The network provides status signals for FDC, for the Distributed Control System, and for the CCC Automation and Control System.

The higher level has an Operator Workstation providing personnel with the most current information from the fire risk areas. The workstation is based on specialized CCC PC and TrainView® monitoring software. TrainView allows tracking, viewing, archiving, and reporting numerous channels from the field.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

Series 3 Plus
Controllers to Replace
Existing System at the
Refinery in China

(April 5, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation has received another retrofit order from Yan Shan Refinery in China, this time to replace the existing system on a hydrogen recycle compressor train. Much of the problem with the existing system was attributed to remote I/O used for critical loops and shutdown logic. Yan Shan Refinery specialists completed a reliability analysis and decided that CCC’s Series 3 Plus Total Train Control® system with TrainView® was the best solution. This is the tenth CCC control system to be supplied to Yan Shan Refinery. In each case, the user has completed both a pre-purchase and post-installation analysis of benefit gained, and in every case CCC has met or exceeded the Refinery’s expectations. In one 5-train refrigeration installation, the CCC retrofit saved approximately one million units (kWh) of electricity within the first six months of operation, according to the end-user’s calculations.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

OnLook Remote Diagnostics Prevents Process Trip

(April 2, 2001)

Four thousand feet below the Earth’s surface, the Falconbridge Limited, Kidd Mining Division in Timmins, Ontario, Canada digs for copper and zinc. Four powerful centrifugal compressors, (two 2,000 hp each manufactured by Brown Boeveri, and two 1750 hp each manufactured by Cooper Joy,) provide compressed air for the entire operation.

Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), located in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A., installed a new Series 4 control system for an Air Miser® with logic control last year. The new control system was installed to replace obsolete equipment and to reduce surge problems.

Earlier this fall, one of the Brown Boeveri compressors surged during machine start-up. Falconbridge decided to bring in different engineers to work with the Falconbridge Maintenance Department to analyze the problem. CCC recommended a surge test using it’s new customer service tool, OnLook Remote Diagnostics, via the phone line.

OnLook is a practical, real-time application that allows the engineer to access the customer’s process information from a remote location. By analyzing this information, the engineer can diagnose problems without the need for an on-site visit, reducing lost production time and eliminating travel expenses. CCC always offers it’s customers solutions within their budget. OnLook is another method in which CCC searches for the most economical way to solve problems.

OnLook Remote Diagnostics works in conjunction with TrainView™, a CCC operator interface software package. The software was supplied to Falconbridge as part of the previously installed Series 4 control System. Using the TrainView system, a CCC Engineer answered questioned and performed the on-line surge test on all four units.
OnLook Remote Diagnostics allows a CCC systems engineer to see what the customer sees and correct the problem or perform tests over a telephone connection. Without this ability, the field engineer would have to travel to the site, in this case Timmins, Ontario, Canada, in order to diagnose and perform any necessary tests. At the same time, Falconbridge would have had to shut down operations and lost critical production time. If it is determined an on-site, follow-up visit is necessary, a field engineer is dispatched immediately.

The OnLook Remote Diagnostics surge test was a success. The results proved that the compressors were configured correctly and pointed to a problem with the valves. Through the use of the OnLook Remote Diagnostics, the problem was identified and solved within a matter of hours instead of days. It also saved the customer money by eliminating the need for an on-site visit, reducing downtime.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com

New Technology for Utility and Industrial Steam Turbine Control

(December 22, 2001)

Compressor Controls Corporation has developed a truly digital turbine control system with a digital electric-to-hydraulic transducer (DEHT). The new system was created as an alternative to the high cost of electronic-to-hydraulic signal transducer (EHT)-based control systems. Instead of the “balanced type” pilot valve actuation employed by the EHT, DEHT is based on digital-drive technology. In November 2000, the first DEHT system was
commissioned on a turbo airblower in one of Eastern Europe’s largest metallurgical plants in Ukraine. A month later, another DEHT system was commissioned on a 300 MW utility turbo-generator in Kazakhstan. In both cases, this new technology allowed our customers to retrofit their 30-year-old-steam turbines (at a moderate cost) with the new systems, which resulted in performance that exceeded customer's expectations. The new technology allowed the utilization of existing power-fluid pumps and systems, and the use of existing hydraulic servomotors with their pilot valves.

For more information please contact CCC at solutions@cccglobal.com