Burckhardt Compression, the Swiss-based LNG equipment maker for LNG shipping, said its oil-free, high-pressure compressor had highlighted its operational effectiveness on an LNG carrier.
The Winterthur-based company said its Laby GI Compressor type LP250, the world’s first oil-free reciprocating high-pressure fuel-gas compressor in service, reached 10,000 hours of uninterrupted operations.
The compressor system is installed on an LNG carrier with capacity of 174,000 cubic metres.
Burckhardt notes that it is the only manufacturer able to compress gas to 300 bar in a large, ring-sealed compressor system without cylinder lubrication.
In addition to its Swiss operations, Burckhardt has expanded in recent years to run compressor and service businesses in the US, Japan and China.
Burckhardt said its Laby GI fuel-gas compressor system plays an important role on LNG carriers to help maximise fuel efficiency.
“As the liquified natural gas warms up during storage and transportation, the evaporated boil-off gas must be economically managed by either using it as fuel or re-liquefying it,” the company explained.
“Both, dual-fuel engines as well as re-liquefaction plants, require a certain operation pressure, ranging up to 300 bar,” it added.
“Therefore, Burckhardt’s LNG solutions have been specifically designed to handle gases at low temperature and high pressure while meeting the requirements for operation at sea,” noted the company.
Burckhardt's five-stage fuel gas compressor system is designed to manage the vessel’s boil-off gas with a flow of up to 4’700 kg/h.
The company pointed out that dry-running sealing technology saved significant expenditure for cylinder lubrication and filter maintenance.
“The performance of the high-pressure re-liquefaction system is improved due to the absence of fouling caused by small traces of residual oil carried within the gas,” it said.
The oil-free gas compression completely removes the need for oil separation and gas filtration technology and guarantees the cleanliness of the heat exchanger in the high-pressure re-liquefaction system.
In addition, maintenance intervals for the oil-free, high-pressure sealing technology are confirmed to reach 8,000 operating hours.
At the start of 2021, Burckhardt signed a final contract agreeing to acquire the 40 percent of Chinese company Shenyang Yuanda Compressor it didn’t already own.
The contract meant the Swiss firm owned all of the Shenyang Yuanda Compressor company based in Shenyang in the northeast Liaoning Province of China.
The company had owned 60 percent of Shenyang Yuanda Compressor since May 2016.
Burckhardt had previously taken a stake in US firm Arkos Field Services and the business was fully acquired in November 2019.
It additionally completed a deal in April 2020 to acquire the global compressor business of Japan Steel Works Ltd.
