American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2021 - 73

pages 67-73_Layout 1 5/10/2021 4:37 PM Page 73

SpecialReport: Gas Compression Tech
If the gas stream contains dirt or other
abrasives, the valve seat wears out quickly
and the plate or poppet and springs can
fail, Mohamed says. He warns that valves
fail more rapidly if the compressor operates
at a high speed or moves gas with a high
molecular weight.
" With our valve, the gas flows through
a straight path inside cartridges that
contain all the wear elements. The flow
is blocked by reeds in the cartridge, but
as long as the gas is coming from the
right direction, it will easily deflect the
reeds and flow through the valve with
minimal pressure drop, " Mohamed says.
" Once the pressure equalizes across the
valve, the reeds naturally return to their
normal closed position. "
The reeds are more resilient than
helical coil springs, and because the gas
is flowing straight rather than turning,
the valves resist liquid and dirt or other
contaminants more effectively than plate
or poppet valves, Mohamed reports. " Since
the flow path is straight and there is so
little resistance to flow, we reduce valve
losses by as much as 40% in some applications, " he adds. " That is where the increase in efficiency comes from.
" Because they do not have a plate or
multiple poppets constantly hitting a valve
seat or guard, our valves transmit less
force to the cylinder during operation,
resulting in lower vibration, " Mohamed
continues. " Reducing the vibration improves the reliability of everything on
the compressor. It also means the compressor runs about 7 to 8 decibels quieter,
which can reduce sound insulation costs
in residential areas. "
When a Zahroof valve does wear out,
Mohamed indicates it can be repaired in
the field. " All the wear components are
in standard sized cartridges in the valve,
so all the technician has to do to bring the
valve back to factory-fresh condition is
open it, pull out the old cartridges and replace them with new ones, by hand without
any special tools, " he describes. " This is
much simpler than sending a conventional
valve to a machine shop for repair. "
Mohamed adds that this approach
eliminates the need to stock spare valves
to reduce downtime. " Our customers do
need to store the cartridges, but those
are small, interchangeable between valves
in different compressors, and robust
enough that each type fits a variety of

applications, so we generally reduce inventory 90%, " he says.
" We have a 10-year warranty on our
housings, " he says. " Because they generally
last the life of the compressor rather than
needing to be replaced as they are serviced,
we build them out of high-quality materials.
Our valves for oil and gas applications
typically use stainless steel seats with an
electroless nickel coating for additional

wear and corrosion resistance. "
The housings are sized to be drop-in
replacements for traditional designs, meaning they do not require any compressor
modifications, Zahroof assures. " Because
the housings last so long, we can rent or
lease valves, something that has never
been done before, " he adds. " This lets
companies with tight CAPEX budgets
adopt the valves through OPEX. "
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MAY 2021 73

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