Hot Gas Expanders for Power Recovery Systems

GE’s Hot Gas Expanders help refineries recover waste process gas to generate power and avoid CO2 emissions associated with power generation. Previously, expanders needed to be shutdown every one to two years. GE created an expander that runs nonstop for every four to five years. GE’s Hot Gas Expanders can generate power, decrease energy and maintenance costs.

The Environmental Challenge

Competitive pressure is driving customers to minimize operating costs as they struggle to meet new and increasingly stringent product specifications. GE’s Hot Gas Expanders allow customers to make the most of process waste gas by generating power, while avoiding CO2 emissions, as well as downsizing their energy bill.

GE’s Innovative Solution

Previously an expander needed to be shut down every one to two years, which compared to other equipment operating within a refinery, is a much shorter length of time. This caused an increase in maintenance costs and loss in production due to frequent stops.

GE’s new generation of expanders is designed to run for every four to five years nonstop. This allows refinery operators to align maintenance shutdowns of all their equipment, thus decreasing maintenance costs and avoiding frequent production stops. The expander can also be used in refineries that use oil that is corrosive and erosive and, which could consequently damage machines not specifically designed to withstand these problems.

Environmental Impact

An average-sized 18 MW GE Expander for Power Recovery System avoids the emission of more than 244,000 metric tons of CO2 per year from power generation, or the equivalent of taking more than 44,000 passenger cars off U.S. roads for a year. Put in another way, this amount of CO2 is equivalent to the quantity of CO2 that is absorbed by 66,000 acres of U.S. pine or fir forests every year, an area four times the size of Manhattan.

Cutting Costs

Thanks to their material selection, and mechanical and aerodynamic design, GE’s Hot Gas Expanders for Power Recovery Systems can bear the corrosion and erosion caused by crude oil. This, in turn, contributes to the alignment of other equipment maintenance programs that a refinery may have, thus leading to the decrease of overall plant maintenance costs.