EAGLEBURGMANN ESPEY

Compressors

Com­pres­sors place the highest demands on the sealing systems in use. Gear and screw com­pres­sors are used in cryo­genic plant and air sep­a­ra­tion equip­ment, for CO2 com­pres­sion, and for syn­the­ses in the chemical and petro­chem­i­cal in­dus­tries, the oil and gas in­dus­tries, as well as in power plant tech­nol­ogy and in energy recovery. These complex processes, often con­sist­ing of multiple stages with strict re­quire­ments, present sealing tech­nol­ogy with par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges. Espey® carbon floating ring seals from EagleBurgmann Espey are designed to meet these chal­lenges, where pres­sures may rise to 250 bar and where the seals are exposed to toxic and ag­gres­sive media. Using a modular system, they are in­di­vid­u­ally cus­tomized to the op­er­at­ing pa­ra­me­ters of any par­tic­u­lar ap­pli­ca­tion. The com­pre­hen­sive range of types con­tributes to ensuring the re­li­a­bil­ity and func­tion­al­ity of in­dus­trial equip­ment.

APPLICATION EXAMPLE: SEALING OF  GEAR COMPRESSOR FOR THE FERTILIZER PRODUCTION

Issue and chal­lenge:

Mechanical seal installation on industrial rotating equipment housing.

Urea is the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer agent in the world. Urea is manufactured in a synthesis tower at high pressure and high temperature through a process of high-pressure synthesis from liquid ammonia and a gas-water mixture with 88.7 % CO2. This gives rise to synthetic ammonium carbamide. Dehydrating while adding acid and heating, and further processing finally yield a white granulate – the fertilizer. The high pressures required by the process are generated in multi-stage radial integrally geared compressors. Each compressor stage requires a chamber seal with barrier gas and a leakage connection. For reasons of working safety, the highly compressed CO2 must never escape from the process area into the atmosphere.

Solution from EagleBurgmann Espey:

For the eight compressor stages, Espey developed the compact Espey® WKA802HD chamber seal with barrier gas and leakage connections, and with up to eight seal rings in up to three ring groups for pressures of up to 140 bar (2030.53 PSI), temperatures up to 225 °C (437 °F), and rotation speeds of up to about 40,000 rpm. Nitrogen is used as barrier gas. Each of the eight stages has a special version of the Espey® WKA802HD, with different lengths, and with different seal and external diameters. The one-piece bandaged carbon seal rings are axially sprung to help deal with vibrations during the startup and rundown phases of the geared compressor. The seal solution has a long service life, is maintenance-free, and is designed for dry running.

Mechanical seal assembly mounted on industrial shaft equipment.