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LogiLube® White Papers

The Overall Economic Impact 
of SmartOil®
 Upgrade on Midstream Natural Gas Compression Systems

Business Benefits and Cost Savings Enabled
by LogiLube’s SmartOil® Technology Platform 

The Overall Economic Impact 
of SmartOil®
 Upgrade on Midstream Natural Gas Compression Systems

Business Benefits and Cost Savings Enabled
by LogiLube’s SmartOil® Technology Platform 

Today, the SmartOil® product ecosystem allows managers to properly time oil changes and schedule maintenance intelligently based on real-time awareness of machine conditions. This reduces the risk of maintenance-related failures, provides peace of mind, and ensures that high value assets are serviced timely and appropriately without incurring unnecessary downtime.

 

Substantial cost savings are a major benefit of reducing downtime, especially on assets such as high horsepower compression packages where the value of production is minimally $3,200 per hour, considering a compressor output of 25 MMscf per day and gas that costs $3.00 per Mscf. Field demonstrations of the SmartOil® product ecosystem clearly demonstrate the capabilities of the technology platform which, to-date, has accumulated over 60,000 hours of successful run time while installed into actual commercial operations. LogiLube® engineers choose the best approach that offers the client the optimum benefit and lowest compressor downtime.

Document Excerpt:

Executive Summary 

Problem:

 

Over lubrication of reciprocating compressor (“RECIP”) cylinders causes detrimental valve stiction which is defined as the viscous adhesion of oil between the moving and stationary parts of a valve. Stiction retards valve plate (or poppet valve) opening, causing the plate to over-accelerate and slam open when the compression pressure overcomes the stiction force; damage to the valve plate and underlying springs can occur. Stiction caused by over-lubrication also delays valve plate (poppet) closing increasing the valve closing impact velocity. If the plate closes so late that there is back-flow through the valve, then there is not only a greater potential for plate damage, there is also an actual loss of cylinder capacity which reduces compressor efficiency. High oil viscosity and an excessive cylinder lubrication rate contributes to the stiction effects. Valve stiction decreases the efficiency of the compression cycle by causing over-compression/over-expansion inside the cylinder while the discharge/suction valve remains closed. Historically, the compressor cylinder lube rate of a ‘force feed cylinder lubrication system’ is manually adjusted by the operator/mechanic and suffers from a “set it and forget it” mentality. Additionally, it has generally been assumed that “more is better” with regards to lubrication rates. Both practices can directly contribute to a gas compression system that is both inefficient and plagued with a high frequency of valve replacements leading to a reduction in mechanical availability, unscheduled maintenance, and high O&M costs.

SmartOil® Solution:

The SmartOil® and LogiFlow™ devices are a critical component of the LogiLube® technology ecosystem. Consisting of a retrofittable, field-installed oil monitoring and auto-sample used oil collection system, the SmartOil® system delivers real-time monitoring of key oil quality attributes coupled with edge processing and analytics. The LogiFlow™ oil flow meter sends precise information to the SmartOil® edge processor which continuously computes a “rate of oil flow” in real-time. This information is transmitted via a secure, client-facing web dashboard for further processing and display to the client. Metrics such as compressor cylinder force-feed lube rate are computed and analyzed by “Dangerous Condition” algorithms to ensure the equipment stays correctly lubricated. Constant monitoring and evaluation of the compressor cylinder force-feed lube rate creates the opportunity to mitigate potentially harmful under-lube or over-lube conditions by providing awareness and automated alerting should the lube rate deviate from an acceptable range or consistency level.

Financial Summary Showing (5-Year, Risk Adjusted)

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