OK, fascinating concept, but what kind of compressor is it and what is the driver? I've looked at a couple of dozen articles but they were all non-technical and just say "compressor".
Its been a long time since this appeared on the horizon with Shell Norway - nearly got canned a few years ago due to rising project costs - think it got to the point of no return.
They had a scale model of this system and the compressor at the Man Diesel & Turbo booth at the Pump Users / Turbomachinery Symposium in Houston last week. The compressor is a hermetically sealed, canned motor with active magnetic bearings. The attached link can take you to their compressor products which shows this type of compressor.
Thanks Johnny, that link led me to an e-mail address for the manufacturer and much of the info I was looking for (now I know it is a vertically split casing centrifugal compressor, I asked the product manager about number of stages, etc).
I was just wondering about the title that says this is the first subsea compressor.
I thought some other manufacturers have successfully built already and sold same concept for subsea application (hermetically sealed centrifugal compressor with magnetic bearings); namely GE and Siemens.
MAN Diesel & Turbo is quite known for being pioneer in this technology ; they have developped their well know Mopico concept and have this in their fleet since quite few decades now ; it is an hermetically sealed compressor with magnetic bearings and the motor is cooled with process gas, however it is for surface applications not subsea ; anyway the technology is similar and subsea is derivated from that.
We are looking at one of these units for an onshore brownfield application where we are severely restricted on space. I think the key aspects are the mag bearings and high speed HV motors, and whether they have reached a mature enough stage to be considered as a viable alternative to the conventional approach.
I have attached the latest info I received from GE, which explains it some more.
