Turbocharger vs. HPRT: energy recovery applications in Oil&Gas Industry
Teijeiro, Beatriz
In the past, most of the Oil&Gas industries used conventional pressure reducing valves to suit to downstream process conditions. Therefore, a big amount of hydraulic energy was dissipated and wasted. Hydraulic Power Recovery Turbines (HPRT) were developed in order to convert this pressure into mechanical shaft energy and increase the overall process efficiency as first step in the energy use area. Nowadays, HPRTs are being substituted by turbochargers. This new rotating machinery is mainly used in Chemical Plants and they are under development by several manufacturers in the Oil&Gas Industry. The main goal of this workshop is to follow selection criteria of these machines (either HPRTs or Turbochargers) highlighting advantages and disadvantages of both options in the same process application.