Erdgas Südwest - Biogas Plant in Germany
Gas Compressing Station
- Two frequency-regulated Wittig ROW 80G and explosion-proofed rotary vane compressors with circulating oil lubrication
- Compresses over 2 million m3 of bio methane at 6.5 bar to be fed into the customer's own network
Benefits of the rotary vane compressor
Along with gas treatment, the most important process step at this kind of plant is compression. The gas is supplied at a slight excess pressure of around 50 mbar and must then be compressed to approximately 6.5 bar. The plant manufacturer can choose from various compression principles here. The choice was between screw, piston and rotary vane compressors.
Because the moving rotary vanes that compress the gas do not come into direct contact with the housing wall, but move across a hydrodynamic lubricating film, there is absolutely no wear in the compression chamber. In addition, all the moving parts such as the motor, coupling and oil cooling are designed to have an extremely long life.
Furthermore, the bearings can be changed much less often with a rotary vane compressor than with a screw compressor. The service costs are therefore extremely low and there is very little unplanned downtime.
As the customer explained: “Downtime occurs much less often with rotary vane compressors than with the other types of compressors we have installed.” This reliability pays off in a big way, not only for the operators but also for their partners: the farmers that own the biogas generation plant.
Karlheinz Brunner: “Every day that the plant is not running reduces sales for the producers. All those involved are therefore keen to ensure that the running time of the Burgrieden plant is as high as possible. It is in operation 360 days a year, and the two Wittig rotary vane compressors compress over 2 million m3 of bio methane from the region every year, operating almost continuously.”
Two frequency-regulated Wittig X-ROW 80-G rotary vane compressors with circulating oil lubrication from Gardner Denver are used at the new plant in Burgrieden. They stand out due to their quiet operation and very long service life with low maintenance requirements, and are thus ideal for applications involving continuous operation.
The compressors installed are designed for volume flows of up to 506 Nm3/h, and naturally the explosion-proof version for gas exzones is used here. In terms of control technology, the compressors are integrated into the overall system.