Oil and Gas Industry Case Study: Halliburton, Houston, Texas

Expel provides the ultimate protection for pneumatic equipment by guaranteeing clean and dry compressed air for Haliburton in Houston, Texas.

Project Background

At the Halliburton site in Houston, Texas, Principal R&D Engineer Prashant Shekhar reported frequent moisture issues in the compressed air system at several points. Whilst liquid water is a natural by-product of compressed air, it causes irrevocable damage to pneumatic equipment. Compressed air usage at the site is vast. Therefore, the compressed air lines are long and exposed to multiple ambient temperature changes, which causes moisture to occur at several points in the pneumatic system. Because of moisture damage, the engineering team frequently replaced the solenoid, actuated, and positioner valves. The site also wanted to make the protection of gas analysers a main priority, as they are critical to the site’s functionality.

When protecting gas analysers, oil emulsion fluids must be removed because the oil contains hydrocarbons (HCs) and many gas analysers are used to detect HCs. Therefore, if oil emulsion fluids are present, this will add more HCs to the sample, invalidating the result. Liquid water is also an exceptionally destructive contaminant because it will corrode the gas analyser internally and cause damage to the capillary in the detector. The gas analyser will then need to be replaced, which increases costs, downtime and wastage.

Why did Halliburton choose Expel?

Compressed air needs treating through a molecular sieve before it enters a gas analyser. To extend the life of the molecular sieve, Halliburton wanted an ultimate pre-treatment system which would remove the main bulk of liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates before the polishing stage of absorption, chemical removal and molecular sieve. Expel was the perfect tool for the job.

Expel is a 3-in-1 solution capable of removing the three primary sources of contamination: liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates. Unlike conventional compressed air filters, the performance of Expel does not drop with use. Rather than containing mesh or sponge-like materials which trap the contaminants, Original AVG has designed Expel using computational fluid dynamics. The internal element circulates liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates and deposits them through gravity and airspeed. Because Expel does not retain contaminants, it is guaranteed to maintain 99.999% efficiency, ensuring clean and dry compressed air.

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