#Industry News
Nitrogen generation in russian outback
Generators with Power-as-needed technology
A Russian oil and gas refinery uses nitrogen during oil and gas processing. The company is situated on the Russian-Chinese border and therefore far from the primary transport and delivery routes. In the past, liquid nitrogen was delivered with trucks. Today, the company produces the required nitrogen with Inmatec's nitrogen generators.
The delivery of nitrogen by truck is not always reliable and is very cost-intensive. Without sufficient nitrogen, the worst-case scenario is a production stoppage at the refinery. Remove the customer's dependence on unreliable or inconsistent nitrogen deliveries. Achieve cost savings and increased reliability of the production process through self-supply of N2.
As an INMATEC customer, the Russian refinery has the possibility to produce nitrogen independently using its own on-site nitrogen generators. With our sophisticated PAN (Power As Needed) technology, N2 can be recovered from ambient air on demand and used directly in the refinery.
The Generator PN PAN 48.000 is able to produce a nitrogen capacity of 250 up tp 2500 Nm³/h, with a nitrogen purity of 99,95 % which can be controlled via Remote Control. The measurements of the plant are 8,5 x 7,8 x 5 m (HxLxW).
Use of nitrogen onsite
Nitrogen is used in the Russian oil and gas refinery for flushing the head-space in oil tanks, thus eliminating fire and explosion hazards. Naturally, the more oil that is removed from the storage tanks, the lower the oil level in the tank. Therefore, the head-space in the oil tank must simultaneously be rendered inert with N2 in order to minimise the risk of ignition.
Nitrogen is also used for explosion prevention when the tanks are cleaned every five years. When oil is stored in tanks, slag settles on the bottom of the tanks over time. As a result, the tanks loses effectiveness because the slag occupies some of the storage space. Detergents are used to dissolve this slag and return the tanks' storage capacity to 100%.
To ensure that there is also no danger of explosion during his process, the resulting empty space in the tank is filled with nitrogen. The customer uses an additional quantity of its self-generated N2 to blanket the mechanical seal in its turbo compressor. This compressor is used to increase the pressure of the natural gas to 55 bar so that it can be transported via pipelines. During inspections, the nitrogen pressure is increased to over 100 bar in order to detect any leaks in the pipes.
In parallel to the production, transport and safeguarding of oil and gas, the pipes in the refinery's internal pipeline network that are not in use are rendered inert with nitrogen and tested at different pressures in order to prevent damage and production stoppages in advance. For this purpose, a service platform allows easy servicing of the plant.
INMATEC has applied its modular PAN-PSA plant technology to facilitate all these different nitrogen-based processes, applications, pressure conditions and, at the same time, to ensure 100% system reliability for a single customer.
PAN-Technologie
PAN technology (Power As Needed) provides an on-demand, energy-optimised supply of nitrogen with a purity of up to 6.0/1.0 ppm (residual oxygen) and delivery quantities of 0.5 – 16,000 Nm³/h. It is thus highly efficient and provides cost savings of up to 60% for the customer.
INMATEC PSA nitrogen generators are distinguished by their ability to produce high-purity and ultra-pure N2. The clean, compressed air flows through CMS-filled adsorption vessels — as the pressure changes, high-quality activated carbon binds the oxygen molecules, while the free nitrogen molecules flow into the product tank. During this generation process, carbon dioxide molecules are removed in addition to the oxygen molecules. The dry and high-purity nitrogen can then be used for a diverse range of applications.
The modular design of the adsorption vessels, the so-called "TwinTower", also makes it possible to shut down unused nitrogen-production capacity completely or simply for inspection purposes. The INMATEC TwinTower system gives the customer the greatest possible flexibility when it comes to daily use of the nitrogen generator.
Industry 4.0 networking
INMATEC nitrogen and oxygen systems are equipped with the latest remote control technology. All functions and parameters of our nitrogen or oxygen generators are monitored via our web portal. The INMATEC web service is connected to the generator online and can access its systems directly as needed or for servicing. The INMATEC service team is able to access the generator via remote control within a maximum of 60 minutes, 365 days a year, thereby avoiding production downtime.
Our Remote Monitoring Box (RMB) allows all critical production data from the generators to be recorded and stored. The RMB guarantees permanent documentation and control while drastically reducing resource and energy usage, as well as service costs. The collected data is used to perform analyses and in algorithms designed to provide forecasts and recommendations.
