ROTATING

EQUIPMENT

COMPRESSOR
ANTISURGE
Background: Axial and centrifugal compressors are expensive, critical
pieces of equipment that can be found at the heart of many industrial
processes and across a multitude of industry segments. Implementing the
correct, high performance, compressor control strategy has direct impact
upon the control of the process and the profitability of the plant. It is
important to have control that is both responsive and stable to improve
yield and ensure compressor availability is maximized. One of the main
applications to ensure maximizing availability and throughput is Antisurge
Control.
Compressor surge events occur as a result of process dynamics and
are common during start-up and shutdown sequences, as well as when
the compressor is operated at a reduced rate of throughput. The surge
phenomenon is created when a flow reversal through the compressor occurs
due to the compressor discharge pressure increasing above the suction
pressure. An Antisurge Valve (ASV) is utilized to protect the compressor by
safely recycling gas from the discharge side to the suction side in order to
keep the compressor operating point safely away from the surge limit.

Key to success of this application is in sizing and selecting an ASV/Actuator

assembly that has minimal deadtime, rapid stroking speeds, and is capable
of precise modulating control. In a surge scenario, the ASV is designed to
rapidly fail to the open position in order to protect the compressor, typically
under 2 seconds, and occasionally as fast as 500msec. This action moves the
control set point away from the surge limit line and allows the compressor to
resume normal operation. Precision control, with minimal deadtime for steps
of all sizes, is critical to keep the compressor out of surge in the first place,

Rev 1
but equally as important in stabilizing this extremely fast (area). Plugging into a Boyle’s Law formula, the drastic
process. Valve hysteresis and overshoot can create and reduction in pressure requires a drastic increase in volume
accelerate process upset conditions. to equalize the equation. That increase in volume is directly
translated to overshoot in a pneumatic system. The goal
Problem: All suppliers of Antisurge Control Valves also of a smart positioner, regardless of the manufacturer,
offer actuation packages as part of the valve assembly.
is to limit the amount of jump/overshoot as pneumatic
Most of these companies are driven to offer their brand of
response can be predicted. The trade off with “controlling”
pneumatic positioner (smart or traditional) to support their
this effect is in greatly slowing the response, which is
own company growth strategy. These companies have
artificially adding deadtime into the loop. On small
gone through great effort to engineer the specifications for
step changes (less than 0.5%) the impact can be many
the application to meet the best “optimized” performance
seconds, in some cases greater than 10 seconds. In this
that can be achieved from pneumatic actuation. What is
application, where the impact on compressor efficiency
constant across all pneumatic actuation, in fact all closed
and throughput can be so easily affected by process
loop systems that use compressible gas as a medium, is
disturbances, pneumatic actuation on compressor control
the effect of Boyle’s law. Boyle’s Law explains the inverse
is costing end users millions of dollars in lost revenue.
relationship of pressure and volume with respect to a fixed
amount of gas, like a pneumatic actuator. This relationship Solution: In modern compressor control theory,
states that P1V1 = P2V2. This principle explains the a Surge Control Line (SCL) is developed to represent
effect of jump and overshoot (hysteresis) inherent to all optimal operating conditions for the compressor, but
pneumatic actuation. a required safety margin is still necessary to prevent
Every time a pneumatically-operated valve is required approaching the Surge Limit Line (SLL). See the graph
to move it needs to overcome the force of static friction below. The Surge Limit is the minimal flow point before
(P1)(area) to initiate movement. Once it overcomes static the compressor becomes unstable. Crossing above the
friction the dynamic friction force is greatly reduced (P2) SLL causes the compressor to enter a surge condition.
The SCL is typically established at around a 10% margin a surge condition. Minimal deadtime, precise control,
of safety below the SLL, but is really dependent upon and minimal overshoot from the ASV are critical to loop
both the process dynamics of the system surrounding the performance, particularly on small set point changes.
compressor, and system’s response at different loads. The The second requirement of the ASV is to be able to open
performance of critical valves, like the ASV, is a significant rapidly when a surge event does occur.
determining factor on loop performance. Some processes To meet the critical requirements of Compressor
require a larger margin of safety between the SCL and Control, REXA Actuators, based on the company’s
SLL to prevent the compressor from going into frequent proprietary Electraulic® Technology, are the perfect
surge cycles. As the required margin of safety increases, choice. The self-contained REXA Actuators combine the
the envelope of the compressor map decreases in size simplicity of electric operation, the power of hydraulics,
resulting in lower oprational efficiency of the compressor. the reliability of solid state electronics, and the flexibility
A less efficient compressor is not desirable, but is better of user-configured control.
than a compressor that is frequently in surge. Electraulic™ Technology is comprised of two
There are a two critical requirements of an ASV that primary subassemblies: a mechanical subassembly
the Antisurge Control application needs to meet to and an electrical subassembly. The principle behind its
ensure the compressor control is optimized. The first technology is a unique hydraulic circuitry called the flow
requirement is to open the ASV in a stable and precise match valve system (FMV). The actuator incorporates a
manner. The compressor controller maintains suction bi-directional gear pump coupled to either a stepper or
pressure, discharge pressure, flow, and temperature a servo motor that provides a highly-efficient method of
inputs while utilizing PID control to drive the performance pumping hydraulic fluid from one side of a double-acting
of the compressor. The ASV receives the command from cylinder to the other. The discrete operation of the motor
the controller and begins to open before the unit reaches and pump creates action only when a position change is
 required. Once the required position is reached, the motor
shuts off and the FMV system hydraulically locks the
actuator in place. Minimal power is required to maintain
actuator position. The motor and pump sit idle until a new
command signal is received.
REXA Actuators can easily exceed the requirements for
500msec full stroke trip, moving the ASV away from the
surge line and back into control. REXA Actuators are also
capable of much tighter control than pneumatic actuation.
REXA Actuation can precisely position down to 0.05% of
stroke, and are not impacted by process load because
hydraulics are non-compressible. REXA Actuators have Result
minimal deadtime (approximately 50-70msec), regardless
of the step change size. The result is improved performance of the
entire compressor train. With REXA Actuation,
the plant is now able to get better return out
of their compressor control system. Tighter
actuation technology allows for a large reduction,
and in some cases, elimination of surge events.
Elimination of surge events means less time
in recycle, therefore increased throughput for
the process. Reduced dead time and more
precise control allow for improvements in the
compressors performance control. Valves are
no longer subject to overshoot and hysteresis,
allowing the compressor map to be expanded
and higher compression ratios to be achieved.
Higher compression ratios and compressor
speeds directly lead to an increase in production.
In an average sized refinery, ammonia plant,
ethylene plant, or the like, even a modest increase
in production can bring millions to the bottom
line. Please contact REXA to discuss how we can
help your plant performance.

REXA, Inc.
Headquarters & Factory
4 Manley Street
West Bridgewater, MA 02379
(508) 584-1199

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