MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT, IIT DELHI

STUDY ON PBR II REFRIGERATION

COMPRESSOR CAPACITY
VARIATION/REQUIREMENT
Summer Internship Program 2014, Reliance Industries Limited

Mohan Sai Chiriki

2011ME10696
MET 410

Mechanical Engineering Department
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
New Delhi
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Acknowledgement

Its a pleasure to thank all the authorities and personnel, who directly or indirectly are involved
in the successful completion of our vocational training.
I also bestow my gratitude to Mr. Birju Mistry for granting us the permission to obtain training at
Reliance Industries Limited
I am thankful to Ms. Nidhi Yadav, my industry mentor, for continuously guiding and
encouraging me at each step of our training. She not only solved my difficulties, but also shared
his immense experience of his service in the industry. This was the most valuable thing I earned
at RIL-VMD. My training would have been remained incomplete without him.
I also extend my thanks to the Graduate Engineer Trainees (GET) working in PBR II, Mr.
Ayush Jain and Mr. Prakhar Acharya for their inputs and support during the period of my
internship.
My sincere thanks to Prof R. K. Pandey and Prof Nomesh Bolia for their guidance.

Regards,
Mohan Sai Chiriki

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Contents
RelianceIndustriesLimitedVadodaraManufacturingDivision.................................................................4
PolybutadieneRubber..............................................................................................................................5
PBR2......................................................................................................................................................6
Refrigeration.................................................................................................................................................8
StandardVaporCompressionRefrigerationSystem(SVCRS).................................................................10
SubcoolingandSuperheating................................................................................................................12
FlashTanks..............................................................................................................................................13
Intercooling.............................................................................................................................................15
PBRII700AREAREFRIGERATIONSYSTEM............................................................................................16
Refrigerant..............................................................................................................................................17
Compressors...........................................................................................................................................18
ITSystem&NewTechnicalities..................................................................................................................20
References..................................................................................................................................................21

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Table of Figures
Figure1PolymerizationofButadiene...........................................................................................................5
Figure2PBRpreparationbysolventpolymerization...................................................................................7
Figure3ADirectEvaporativeCoolingSystem..............................................................................................9
Figure4SchematicofaStandardVCRS......................................................................................................10
Figure5StandardVCRScyclerepresentedonaTsDiagram.....................................................................10
Figure6RealSVCRScyclerepresentedonPhplane.................................................................................11
Figure7SubcoolingshownonPhplane....................................................................................................12
Figure8SuperheatingshownonPhplane................................................................................................13
Figure9SchematicofaFlashTank.............................................................................................................14
Figure10AFlashtankrepresentedonthePhdiagram............................................................................14
Figure11IntercoolingrepresentedonaPdiagram..................................................................................15
Figure12DifferentkindsofCompressors..................................................................................................18

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Reliance Industries Limited Vadodara Manufacturing Division

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Navi Mumbai,

Maharashtra. Its main operating sectors are: exploration and production, petroleum refining and
marketing, petrochemicals, textiles, retail and telecommunications. Founded by late Dhirubhai
Ambani in 1966 as Reliance Commercial Corporation is now Indias largest private sector
company with yearly revenues soaring above $66 billion and is only second to IOCL, a public
enterprise. Reliance is a global leader in the markets of polyester and fibre. Its main subsidiaries
are Reliance Retail, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure
Limited (RIIL) among others. Under the hood of RIL, there are various world class
manufacturing facilities operating spread all over the nation. Important locations include
Jamnagar, Vadodara, Allahabad, Surat and Patalganga. RILs structure can be seen in Fig. 1

A body called Group Manufacturing Services (GMS) which acts as a representative of all the
various manufacturing facilities of RIL to the outside world. GMS is responsible for hiring new
engineers, summer interns like us, getting different licenses and approvals and availing latest
research to the manufacturing facilities

Located in the outskirts of Vadodara, VMD is a huge manufacturing facility spreading over 347
Hectares of land. The plant built up area accounts to over 213 Hectares with 24 Hectares allotted
for future expansion. Administration and Central Services buildings, roads and greenery make up
the remaining land. VMD is connected through pipelines with RILs other manufacturing
divisions in Dahej and Jamnagar. These pipelines carry materials like Naphtha, Ethylene and
Propylene in addition from the materials purchased from the neighboring Gujarat Refinery run
by IOCL. Water required for VMD is drawn by pipelines also from Khandi-Jalampura and the
average requirement is around 10 Million Gallons per Day (MGD). The water storage capacity
of the facility is a humongous 22 MGD. A power requirement of near 60 MW is met by 2 gas
turbines each of 32 MW capacity and 2 steam turbines of 10 MW. These turbines are installed
inside the facility itself giving it a total capacity of 84 MW and as a backup; VMD has an
agreement with the state grid for backup power up to 35 MW. Other utilities like nitrogen,
demineralized and cooling water and compressed air are all generated within the site in their
respective auxiliary plants.

RIL-VMD was earlier part of the Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd. (IPCL) with
Management control by Govt. of India. In 2002, due to divestment of the equity, the
management control went in the hands of Reliance Petro invest Co. of RIL group. On 5
th
Sept.
2007, got merged with RIL.


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The facility consists of a primary naphtha cracker, where the raw material naphtha is cracked and
refined and the various by-products are delivered to the 15 different plants. The 15 plants operate
to produce various chemicals and products like Polybutadiene Rubber, polypropylene, PVC,
PVM, benzene and acrylates. There are two different plants producing Polybutadiene Rubber
(PBR) named PBR 1 and PBR 2. VMD has an employee base of around 4000 and the annual
profits are around INR 300 400 Crores. Being the only producer in India and because of its
immense demand in the rubber industry, the PBR plants are among the most important plants
here.
Polybutadiene Rubber

Rubbers can be broadly classified as natural and synthetic. Natural elastomers or rubbers are
extracted from the latex of tropical trees while synthetic rubber is a synthesized product, usually
from the byproducts of petroleum refinement. A variety of synthetic rubbers are available in the
market today for different purposes and Polybutadiene rubber is the second most popular and
important synthetic rubber after styrene butadiene rubber (SBR). Polybutadiene rubber is also
popularly called butadiene rubber or just polybutadiene.
Polybutadiene is a rubber formed by the polymerization of 1, 3 butadiene. It is prepared mostly
by polymerization of butadiene using a solvent. Using an emulsion instead of a solvent is another
method through which PBR can be manufactured. Butadiene is purified and then mixed with the
solvent and catalysts. Once the production target is reached, the catalyst is deactivated and PBR
is collected from among the unreacted butadiene and solvent and is later processed to remove the
reaction residues and sent for finishing. The reaction can be seen in Fig. 1

Figure1PolymerizationofButadiene


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Depending on the catalyst used, different configurations of PBR are formed. The dependence on
catalyst can be seen in Table 1.
Catalyst/Configuration Cis (%) Trans (%) Vinyl (%)
Neodymium 98 1 1
Cobalt 96 2 2
Nickel 96 3 1
Titanium 93 3 4
Lithium 10 to 30 20 to 60 10 o 70
Table 1 Catalyst dependence of product in polymerization of Butadiene
PBR is used widely in various industries, both tyre and non tyre. In the tyre industry, PBR is
used to manufacture the blend used for making tyres. The following properties of PBR make it
an indispensable component of rubber based industry.
High abrasion resistivity
Good flexibility
Low growth/propagation of crack
Low heat build up
There are the salient properties of PBR which natural rubber does not possess make the
production of PBR a necessity for the rubber based industry.

PBR 2

The first PBR plant in VMD, the PBR 1 was commissioned in the year 1979 along with most
of the other plants. Its younger twin, PBR 2 was commissioned in the year 1996 to meet the
demand. While PBR 1 has a production capacity of more than 25000 MT/Year, PBR 2 was
initially commissioned as 30000 MT/Year plant and got its capacity increased to over 40, 000
MT/Year after RIL took over in 2002. Now, PBR 2 boasts of a production capacity nearly
double that of its elder brother, of 46000MT/Year. PBR 2 plants production capacity has been
increasing over the years since its inception and more so after the takeover by RIL in 2002 and is
scheduled to have this number well in to the 50 thousands in the next 3 years. Nickel is used as
catalyst here, resulting in PBR which is high in CIS content, up to 96%. VMD supplies PBR to
MRF, Apollo, JK, CEAT, and Bridgestone in the tyre industry and to Midas Group, Indag
Rubber, Vamshi Rubber and Phoenix Industries in the non tyre segment.
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In PBR 2, 1, 3 cis butadiene is the monomer, heptane and toluene act as solvents and nickel
(not in its pure form) and other chemicals are used as catalysts. In PBR 1, set up in 1978 under
the stewardship of IPCL, cobalt based catalyst is used instead of nickel like in PBR 2.
The manufacturing process in the PBR 2 can be classified into 7 sections.
1. Monomer Purification
2. Solvent Purification
3. Catalyst and other Chemical Preparation
4. Polymerization
5. Homogenization
6. Solvent Recovery
7. Finishing
Refrigeration, solvent and oil flushing systems act as the auxiliary systems to the process in
this plant. My project is related to the auxiliary refrigeration unit operating in the PBR 2
plant. A block diagram of the process can be seen in Fig. 3

Figure2PBRpreparationbysolventpolymerization
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The different sections in the PBR 2, plant comprise of a large variety of equipment. These are
listed below.
1. Reactors
2. Distillation Columns
3. Strippers
4. Ammonia Compressors
5. Expeller
6. Expander/Drier
7. Vibrating/Spiral Conveyors
8. Large Gear Pumps and Metering Pumps
9. Hydraulic Balers

The production of butadiene involves a hugely exothermic reaction, releasing up to over a 1
million kcal per hour. For the production to be feasible and for the preservation of the reactor
vessels, an auxiliary refrigeration system has been put in place.
Refrigeration

Refrigeration is defined as the process of cooling of substances to a temperature lower than the
surrounding temperature at a particular instant. It is different from the phenomenon of cooling as
energy is expended for refrigeration while cooling occurs naturally. No energy is expended when
hot milk cools down due to exposure to atmosphere while a lot of energy is required to chill the
milk for a milk shake in a refrigerator. So, it can be said that all refrigeration processes involve
cooling but all cooling processes need not necessarily involve refrigeration.
The most common means of refrigeration in the modern world are
1. Evaporative Cooling and
2. Vapor Compression Refrigeration (VCR)
Evaporative Cooling is the process of bringing down temperatures of a system by evaporation of
a liquid, generally water. It has been in use for centuries to cool water in earthen pots. Water
seeps through the pores in the pot and evaporates on the surface, extracting the latent heat of
vaporization required from the water in the pot and hence cooling it. Dessert cooler, which is a
household thing in India works on the concept of Evaporative Cooling. Air is made to flow past
sheet wetted in water and the water evaporates by taking heat equivalent to its latent heat of
vaporization from the air and hence cooling the air. Dessert coolers are very effective in hot and
dry regions.
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Figure3ADirectEvaporativeCoolingSystem
Vapor Compression Refrigeration or Mechanical Refrigeration systems involve a fluid
vaporizing by extracting heat equivalent to the latent heat of vaporization from the substance to
be cooled and later condensing back to the liquid form by giving out the latent heat to the
surroundings. The two important thermodynamic properties involved in this process are latent
heat and vapor pressure. At a pressure called Saturation Pressure, a liquid is in thermodynamic
equilibrium with its vapor and this property is a function of temperature alone. A common VCR
system consists of an evaporator, a condenser, a compressor and an expansion device. The
refrigeration effect is obtained by evaporating the working fluid called refrigerant in the
evaporator at a temperature lower than the temperature required to maintain in the refrigerated
area. The temperature of the refrigerant remains constant as long as the saturation pressure is
maintained. The energy input is given in the form of electricity to the compressor which
maintains the saturation pressures in both the evaporator and condenser. The vapor refrigerant is
then condensed back to liquid state in the condenser and is sent back into the evaporator again
through the expansion device through which a pressure drop occurs. VCR systems are very
popular due to their capability of providing refrigeration effect ranging from a few watts to few
megawatts. A wide variety of refrigerants in addition to the different types of compressors, heat
exchangers and expansion devices are available depending on the temperatures and range of
refrigeration required.
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Standard Vapor Compression Refrigeration System (SVCRS)

1. Process 1-2: Isentropic compression of saturated vapor in compressor
2. Process 2-3: Isobaric heat rejection in condenser
3. Process 3-4: Isenthalpic expansion of saturated liquid in expansion device
4. Process 4-1: Isobaric heat extraction in the evaporator

Figure4SchematicofaStandardVCRS

Figure5StandardVCRScyclerepresentedonaTsDiagram
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There is a small loss in the refrigerating effect due to replacing the turbine with a throttling
device and this is called throttling loss.
The process in the real time refrigeration systems deviate from the ideal process. The
evaporation and condensation processes are not constant pressure processes but pressure drops of
small scale occur. Pressure drops also occur at the suction and discharge valves of the
compressor and heat transfer can occur between the compressor and refrigerant during the
compression process. The phenomenon of heat exchange in the compressor is more common in
oil flooded compressors where oil is used as a lubricant and cooling. Oil flooded rotary screw
compressors face this issue more often than others. In addition to these, there can occur pressure
drops and heat transfer while the refrigerant is being transported along the system in the
pipelines.
The pressure drops along the evaporator and condenser can have a significant effect on the
performance of the system. As it can be seen, with decrease in pressure along the evaporator, the
specific volume of the refrigerant increases at the compressor suction and this results in an
increase in compression ratio and also discharge temperatures arising in the compressor. High
discharge temperatures are not favorable because of the detrimental effect on the life and
working of the compressors. The actual compression process involves frictional factors and
hence it is not reversible as in the ideal cycle process. The heat generated is detrimental to the
compressors life and an external cooling system is installed.

Figure6RealSVCRScyclerepresentedonPhplane


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Sub cooling and Superheating

In most refrigeration systems, heat rejection in the condenser is done to the atmosphere and the
condensing temperatures are much higher than atmospheric temperatures. This huge temperature
differential facilitates efficient heat transfer. By using a slightly larger heat exchanger, the
refrigerant temperature can be brought lower than the condensing temperature which avails us to
have a better refrigeration effect. In such cases, the refrigerant leaving the condenser is said to be
in the sub-cooled state and this process is called sub cooling. Similarly, utilizing the temperature
differential between the evaporator and the space to be refrigerated, the refrigerant temperature
in the evaporation can be taken to a slightly higher value than the set evaporation temperature.
This extra temperature is called superheat and the process is called superheating. Sub cooling
and superheating are beneficial by increasing the refrigeration effect. In addition to this, both sub
cooling and superheating also have their individual benefits. Sub cooling ensures that the
refrigerant enters the expansion device as a sub cooled liquid and this results in efficient
expansion. Similarly, superheating ensures that the refrigerant enters the compressor in a
superheated vapor state and this eliminates the risk of wet compression. The refrigerant can also
exchange heat with the surroundings apart from the space to be refrigerated, mostly inside the
pipes and get superheated. This superheat does not result in an increase in refrigeration effect
and this is useless superheat. The superheating which results in an increase in the refrigeration
effect is called useful superheat. Along with the refrigeration effect, this also leads to an increase
in the compressor work. Due to this, the CoP of the system may or may not increase when
superheating techniques are employed as it depends on the relative increases in refrigeration
effect and compressor work which in turn depends on the type and nature of the refrigerant used.
On the other hand, sub cooling always results in an increase in the CoP as it increases the
refrigeration effect.

Figure7SubcoolingshownonPhplane
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Figure8SuperheatingshownonPhplane
Sub cooling can be achieved by installed another heat exchanger, which are called economizers.
The name comes so because by including this in the process, we are economizing the
refrigeration process. The working principle of an economizer very similar to that of
intercoolers. The refrigerant stream is divided into two before entering the economizer and heat
transfer occurs among these two. One of the stream is expanded in an expansion device and the
second stream is cooled by extracting energy from it to vaporize the first stream. The vaporized
refrigerant is then allowed to mix with the refrigerant that is being compressed in the
compressors. Economizers are more common in systems working with rotary screw compressors
as they have the provision of a second suction port just a little above the primary suction port.
This secondary suction port is called economizer port and the refrigerant vaporized in the
economizer is sucked in through this port and gets compressed along with the refrigerant coming
from the low stage compressor.
Flash Tanks
Like mentioned earlier, a major consequence of big temperature lifts is the quality of the
refrigerant entering the evaporator being higher. This leads to a fall in refrigeration effect. The
vapor entering into the evaporator is formed during the throttling process and is called flash gas.
The process of vapor formation is called flashing. To prevent the loss of refrigeration effect, it is
desirable to separate the vapor from the liquid refrigerant before it enters the evaporator. For this
purpose, a pressure vessel is installed at an intermediate pressure between the evaporator and
condenser where the vapor is separated and is sent for compression. This pressure vessel is called
flash tank. The refrigerant from condenser is first expanded to an intermediate pressure
corresponding to the pressure of flash tank, using a low side float valve. The float valve also
maintains a constant liquid level in the flash tank. In the flash tank, the refrigerant liquid and
vapour are separated. The saturated liquid in the tank is fed to the evaporator after throttling it to
the required evaporator pressure, using another expansion valve.
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Figure9SchematicofaFlashTank

Figure10AFlashtankrepresentedonthePhdiagram
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Intercooling
From the pressure enthalpy chart, we can see that the specific volume of the fluid can be
reduced by decreasing its temperature. As already discussed, fluid with higher specific density
entering the compressor results in higher discharge temperatures which is detrimental to the life
and working of the compressor. To avoid this, the refrigerant can be cooling before it is sent to
the compressor suction. This is the principle behind intercooling. The refrigerant is compressed
to an intermediate pressure and then is cooled in an intercooler and the refrigerant at a lower
temperature and lowered specific volume will be sucked in by the second compressor.

Figure11IntercoolingrepresentedonaPdiagram
Intercoolers are basically heat exchangers and can be of two different types.
1. Internal Intercoolers
2. External Intercoolers
In internal intercoolers, the heat exchange occurs between the refrigerant in the system itself. The
refrigerant stream is split into 2 before entering the intercooler and one of the stream is expanded
to a lower temperature and pressure and the other stream is cooled by extracting heat to vaporize
the first stream. In external intercoolers, external water supply or oil is used to cool the
refrigerant.




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PBR II 700 AREA REFRIGERATION SYSTEM

The refrigeration system put in place in PBR 2 plant is a multi stage (multi compressor)
refrigeration system with ammonia NH3 as the refrigerant. The system has three oil flooded
rotary screw compressors 2 of them operating parallel to each other at lower suction and
discharge pressures and the third operating as the high stage compressor ( or 2
nd
stage
compressor) at higher suction and discharge pressures. Other components of the refrigeration
system include an economizer for refrigerant sub cooling and an intercooler for refrigerant de
superheating. Both the economizer and intercooler are shell and tube type heat exchangers with
the primary stream (which is cooled) flows through the tube and the secondary stream (which is
heated and vaporized) flows through the shell side. The expansion devices used in the system are
low pressure float valves. These are installed at different places, one each for the economizer and
intercooler where they control the refrigerant level in the shell side. The evaporation of the
refrigerant occurs at different places as the refrigerant stream is separated into different streams
and is sent to different places for cooling. The refrigerant is sent to the 4 reactors where the
highly exothermic polymerization reaction occurs and also for cooling of the solvent and
monomer i.e. butadiene. The condenser is also a shell and tube type condenser where the cooling
water runs through the shell side. In addition to this, there are the usual security equipment which
cuts off the system in case of different conditions which are detrimental to the different
components of the system mainly the compressors. High discharge temperatures in the
compressor is one such condition. These are the standard equipment which are found in most of
the refrigeration system but this being a large scale industrial refrigeration system, there are other
industry standard equipment in the system.
They are:
1. Knockout Drum: The refrigerant returning from the evaporators is generally expected to
be in a superheated vapor form. But during the transportation of the refrigeration, some
condensation might occur in the pipelines or the refrigerant might not have evaporated
completely. Liquid refrigerant entering the compressor would lead to wet compression,
which, as suggested already, is very detrimental to the compressor life and working. To
prevent the wet compression, a knockout drum is installed through which the refrigerant
returning from the evaporators passes through before entering the compressors. The
liquid and vapor refrigerant get separated in the knockout drum and the vapor is sent for
suction by the low stage compressors. A knockout drum is essentially a flash tank.
2. Oil Separators: As the system is operating oil flooded rotary screw compressors, it is
necessary to remove the oil mixed with the refrigerant after the compression process.
Usually, the oil is heavier than the refrigerant, hence it is collected in tanks installed in
the vicinity of the compressors and these tanks are called oil separators.
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3. Auxiliary Coolers: Like mentioned earlier, due to the action of frictional forces, the
temperatures in the compressors reach very high values. The oil inside the compressors
acts both as a lubricant and also a coolant. This helps in prolonging the life of the
compressor components. As a result, the oil heats up and this needs to be cooled down.
Auxiliary heat exchangers carrying cooling waters are installed for this purpose. Apart
from absorbing the frictional heat, the compressor oil temperatures also go up due to it
being compressed along with the refrigerant i.e. a small part of the work being done by
the compressor is done on the oil and not entirely on the refrigerant.
4. Receiver Tank: A pressure vessel into which liquid refrigerant from the condensers gets
collected after getting sub cooled in the economizer is called a receiver tank. The
purpose of receiver tanks is to accumulate the reserve liquid refrigerant and also to store
the whole charge of the refrigerant in the system when timely maintenance is being
carried out. This also acts as a barrier to stop the vapor from entering the liquid line of the
system i.e. the evaporator side.
Apart from these equipment, standard pressure and temperature gauges have been installed at
various positions of the system. By using these instruments, pressure and temperature at different
stages of the system can be known to carry out the cycle analysis. The line diagram of the
refrigeration system in place can be seen as shown in Fig.
Refrigerant
Ammonia is the most commonly used refrigerant for large scale refrigeration purposes in huge
industries. Usage of ammonia as a refrigerant became popular after the harmful effects of
refrigerants containing CFCs were identified. Once it has been accepted worldwide that these
CFC refrigerants were causing the depletion of the ozone layer, they were slowly phased out for
safer and efficient refrigerants like ammonia.
The following salient features of ammonia make it an industry favorite refrigerant for large scale
projects.
1. Energy efficient: Ammonia is among the most efficient refrigerants. A system operating
with ammonia works with an almost 15-20 % higher efficiency than the same system
running with another popular refrigerant R404.
2. Manufacturer and Environment Friendly: It is easy to procure ammonia as it is also
known as a natural refrigerant. Due to this, the price of ammonia is also not very high as
compared to other refrigerants, making it a favorite for the industries. Also, ammonia is
almost the most environment friendly refrigerant its ozone layer depletion and global
warming potential are near zero.
3. Safety: Though ammonia is a toxic chemical and is flammable, its characteristic odor
unlike other refrigerants helps in identifying leakages very early on and hence, preventing
accidents.
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4. Heat Transfer Properties: Ammonia has better heat transfer properties than most chemical
refrigerants and can make do with smaller piping and heat exchanging equipment. This
will help the industry to cut its initial setting up cost.
Due to the toxic nature of ammonia, it is not very common in the domestic refrigeration systems.
Also, the energy and economic benefits come into play only when the refrigeration required is
large, like in industries.
Compressors
A rotary screw compressor is a type of gas compressor which uses a rotary type positive
displacement mechanism. They are commonly used to replace piston compressors where large
volumes of high pressure air are needed, either for large industrial applications.
Rotary screw compressors are the most commonly used compressors in the huge industrial
refrigeration systems while hermetic compressors are used in domestic refrigeration and air
conditioning systems. The different types of compressors can be seen in Fig. 17

Figure13DifferentkindsofCompressors
Screw compressors usually can vary their cooling capacity between 10% and 100% according to
the load requirement. The most common techniques to vary the capacity of the compressor
according to the refrigeration requirement are as follows:
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1. Operating parallel compressors

2. Internal bypass in the compressors
3. Speed variation
4. Variation of compressor displacement by slider control
5. Evaporation pressure control with hot gas bypass
The refrigeration system put in place in PBR II employees multiple techniques from the above
mentioned. There are two screw compressors running in parallel in the first stage of compression
whose displacement can be varied using a slider control. The capacity is controlled in such a way
that the suction and discharge pressures are maintained at a certain level. Multiple compressors
operating in parallel is a common sight in large refrigeration systems used in industries. Screw
compressors are the most common type of compressors chosen for applications requiring parallel
compressors. A study was conducted in University of Wisconsin and the following excerpts are
the conclusions and suggestions as suggested by those scientists.
Large screw and reciprocating compressors typically have the capability for reducing their
capacity to match the required refrigeration demand by the system. Screw compressors
accomplish this task by the use of a slide valve that, effectively, changes the point where the
compression process begins along the axis of the screw. Most screw compressors have the ability
to continuously modulate capacity between 10 to 100% of its available full load capacity.
Reciprocating compressors can be equipped with unloaders. Unloaders consist of hydraulically
or electrically-actuated push rods that hold open suction valves on individual or groups of
cylinders. By holding open the suction valves, the number of cylinders that are providing active
gas compression is reduced; thereby, reducing the compressor's capacity. As screw compressors
are unloaded, their power and oil cooling requirements decrease, but not necessarily in direct
proportion to capacity. Reciprocating compressors tend to unload more linearly
If multiple compressors are used to meet refrigeration loads, it is desirable to operate the
compressors at the lowest combined power while still meeting the system loads. In refrigeration
systems with variable loads, the delivered capacity of the compressors must be modulated by
unloading the compressors in order to balance the compressor(s) capacity with the refrigeration
demands of the system. Each compressor, depending upon type and manufacturer, may have a
different unloading characteristic.
A single screw compressor unloaded to 25 percent of its full load capacity has nearly a 50
percent increase in specific power when compared to a reciprocating compressor. Screw
compressors perform better than reciprocating compressors when operated near full load. The
performance advantage increases as the suction pressure drops. Reciprocating compressors are
better suited in refrigeration systems where significant unloading, i.e. load following, is required.
From an energy standpoint, is more important to size screw compressors correctly as compared
to multi-cylinder reciprocating compressors
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When the system refrigeration load exceeds the capacity of a primary compressor, a secondary
compressor must be cycled on to augment the capacity of the primary compressor. How best to
split the load between the two compressors depends upon the magnitude of the load, the type,
and size of the compressors. Screw compressors unload non-linearly and their parallel operation
must be treated quite differently compared to reciprocating compressors
When two screw compressors are sharing a load, control strategies should avoid operating any
screw compressor below 50 percent of its full load capacity. Unloading performance
characteristics of systems with unequal sized compressors differ from systems with equally sized
compressors. Screw compressors are best suited for base loading where they can be run at full
load.
IT System & New Technicalities
Reliance Industries had a centralized IT system installed in their offices across the country. Each
employee is given a login id and password, one similar to the proxy login id and password we
are given in IIT Delhi. All communication between the employees is done through an internal
mailing service which is run using Microsofts Outlook mail application. Outside communication
is limited to few employees at higher positions. This is to prevent employees from sending
confidential documents outside the secure Reliance servers. They also have a centralized File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) to share files and documents among the employees. The simulation
software Aspen was used widely along with Microsoft Office to conduct analyses regarding the
performance of the plants. Also, a number of websites have been blocked on the server to
prevent employees from indulging in activities not related to work.
There were many technical aspects which I saw for the first time. Compressors operating in
parallel is one such technicality. Not only have I never saw such a system, but also have not
heard of read about such operations. It was an entirely new concept. Other new technical
concepts include the shell and tube heat exchangers acting as economizer and intercooler. Instead
of using external water or oil for the cooling purposes, the refrigerant stream was divided into
two streams and the refrigerant itself acting as the hot fluid and cold fluid. Another interesting
aspect was the utilization of Windows Remote Desktop feature to monitor the plant operation
without visiting the control room. For demonstration and inspection purposes, the senior
engineers had access to view the control room computers on their computers from their offices.


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References

1. Technical Documents, PBR II, RIL VMD

2. Wikipedia contributors. "Polybutadiene." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia,
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7. Refigeration and Air Conditioning Course Material, NPTEL, IIT Madras
8. Capacity Control of Screw Compressors: Speed or Slider Control A Comparative
Study, Bitzer International
9. Basics of Operation, Application & Troubleshooting of Screw Compressors, Frick
International
10. Refrigerant Inventory Calculation, Daniel Dettmers, Industrial Refrigeration Consortium
(IRC)
11. Components of Refrigeration Cycle Efficient Improvement, Thomas T. S. Wan
12. Economizer Cycle In Air Conditioning Systems with Rotary Vane Compressors, I. B.
Vaisman, Purdue e Pubs
13. Economizers in Chiller Systems, Ekaterina Vinogradova
14. SRC W & SW Series Compressors Economizers, RefComp
15. Basics of Operation and Applications of Oil Flooded Rotary Screw Compressors, Joseph
W. Phillis
16. Load Sharing Strategies in Multiple Compressor Refrigeration Systems, Manske et al