American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2019 - 61

SpecialReport: Gas Compression & Vapor Recovery
he considers.
Nevertheless, he conveys optimism
about innovations in system monitoring
and their implications for improving
compressor performance. "These are not
necessarily new technologies but they
are being refined," Loustalot explains.
"You have remote monitoring and predictive maintenance instead of simple
preventative maintenance. Monitoring
systems are better able to predict prefailure and when to investigate a particular
issue. The technology has been there
for a while, but people are putting more
value on it as horsepower is becoming
more utilized."
Additionally, he observes, original
equipment manufacturers such as Caterpillar and Waukesha are improving engine
efficiency to maximize power out of the
next generation of their flagship engines,
he says. "SNC-Lavalin was on the front
line in putting Waukesha's new Series 5
engine to the test in the field and Caterpillar has made similar advances with
its ADEM 4, for which we see high demand," Loustalot reports. "Ariel has followed suit with the release of its 'KB'
compressor frame. These advances get
additional horsepower out of similarly
sized and priced equipment in the range
of 10-20%."
Intelligent Systems
Compression system changes coincide
with post-2014 workforce shifts that together require greater demands on controllers and monitoring systems to alert
compression system operators about system conditions and help them avoid potential downtime, says Rick Harris, director
of product management and development
for FW Murphy Production Controls.
Veteran generations of technicians have
retired or left the industry, and the younger
generation that has filled the void requires
greater component and information monitoring to identify potential repairs or
maintenance procedures to protect larger,
more elaborate compressor systems that
perform gas lift today, he says.
"Companies are facing the challenge
of optimizing assets in a market where
skills are in increasing demand and scarce,"
Harris remarks.

The diagnostics on FW Murphy's CenturionTM C5 production
controller elucidate system performance on everything from
major complications to simple
wiring problems, and reduce
troubleshooting downtime with
improved system feedback. The
company says its application
controller can collect information and offer a single source of
skid information.

Operating companies are looking to
OEMs to help meet demographic needs,
he says. Increasingly, controls must be
more capable and yet simpler for a generation accustomed to getting information
from Google and YouTube. "Systems
have to be more intelligent to provide
context and actionable direction instead
of just data, so we have to create these
consumable information context systems," Harris reasons. "Engine companies
have to do more to make their information transparent. In 2011, we created
the Engine Integrated Control System
(EICS®) to address this need. When an
application controller is interrogating
an engine for more information, it not
only can provide more actionable information to the operator in the context
of the compressor application, but it
can modify the compressor behavior as
a result of what the engine reports, reducing costly and preventable dynamic
condition related shutdowns."
Diagnostic Abilities
In 2018, FW Murphy introduced the
latest generation of its CenturionTM controller, the C5, building on the line's evolution since its initial introduction in
2004, Harris reports. The newest gas
compressor application controller gives

users more diagnostics to reduce troubleshooting time, improve communication
and enhance data management throughout
the entire compression system, including
engine monitoring, he says.
The C5's diagnostics offer insights
into how systems are running, from
major complications to simple wiring
problems, and reduce troubleshooting
downtime with improved system feedback, Harris details.
"Engines are interoperated with Centurion so we know everything we need to
about the engine and our application controller can collect that information and
become a single source of skid information,"
he says. "Combine that with scrubbers,
cooler and auxiliary equipment on- and
off-skid, and the users have a comprehensive
view of the system and the ability to
manage it all from a single point."
The company also has added Ethernet
and Wi-Fi capabilities in the process of
moving toward the mobile app category,
Harris says.
"We are positioning the Centurion application controller to interact with operators on form factors and with technology
that allows them to do more with less,
and Wi-Fi and mobile applications are a
big part of that strategy," he says.
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2019

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