Control and Adjustment Installation for Gas Compressors

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Control and Adjustment Installation for Gas Compressors

One of the most important technical solutions developed by S.C. Hasel industrial S.R.L. is called "CONTROL and ADJUSTMENT INSTALLATION IN ANTI EXPLOSIVE CONSTRUCTION FOR NATURAL GAS COMPRESSORS". It was patented in 1999 and consists of a complex automation installation that allows the operation of natural gas compression units without local human supervision and in full safety, while ensuring the remote transmission of the operating parameters of these units in order to achieve a SCADA type control.

The first implementation of the patent, with the registration number at OSIM RO 116112/1999, was made in 1999, resulting in the complete automation of the operation of compression units with electrically driven pistons or with thermal motor, within some compression stations of ROMGAZ. At that time, the automation system executed on the basis of the patented technical solution consisted of a local automation panel executed in anti-explosive construction, equipped with programmed logic, which took over operating parameters of the compression unit from the transducers located at the measuring points, by standardized analogue electrical signals and transmitted the electric control signals to the execution elements in order to maintain the operating state of the compression unit at nominal values. In addition, the data was transmitted to a so-called "GENERAL AUTOMATION PANEL"" from which the operation of all the units in the compression station could be monitored.

In this way, the centralized control of the control room station could be ensured, all the necessary adjustments for the correct and safe operation of the machines being made automatically according to a program registered in the memory of the central unit of the automation panel, called "MACHINE CONTROLLER". The machine controller was, at the time, physically made using a technical solution based on the ATMEL 89C52 micro controller. Thus, about 40 natural gas compression units were automated, both electric compressors and motor-compressors, a large part of which are still in operation today.

In 2013, based on the same invention, Hasel Invent developed an automation system, using PLCs as equipment with programmed logic, where the operation can be done both through touch displays and computers located remotely in the beneficiary's INTRANET.

The system consists of two main components, the first one being the one that provides local control and is located in the explosion danger area, a component that offers through a touch panel a three-dimensional interface of the unit and the gas keyboard, and the second one consists of remote control, also provided by a panel with programmed logic that ensures the control and command of the entire compression station, offering the possibility to monitor and control both the general technological parameters of the station and those of each machine.

The installation thus designed centralizes all the information coming from:

  • compression units
  • field instrumentation on the station keyboard
  • fire and gas detection systems
  • anti-burglary system
  • video surveillance system of the station

You can see below the three-dimensional graphical interface developed by Hasel Industrial in 2013, which allows simultaneous access of the operator to a much larger amount of information than in the initial version, thus facilitating a much more convenient operation of compression units compared to the situation existing in 1999 when the first implementation of the patent was made.