Novel Design of Booster Compressor Facilities with Zero Emission for Sustainability Development
Authors: Pechvijitra Pimpisa , Nontaphodej Nuttamon , Nitayaphan Saranee , Yongchooyot Arak , Moonrat Warapong , Samakkarn Supalap , Wongtanapat Thaninthorn , Wutthivongthanakorn Nat , Chuechamluang Hatthachai 
Published: February 2023

One of our natural gas production fields’ production pressure has been declining due to its continuous operation since 2006. As a consequence, the installation of the booster compressor facilities is deemed as one of the key development plans to maintain natural gas production and enhance reservoir recovery factor. It is PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP)'s ambition to design the booster compressor facilities as zero-emission surface facilities to aligns with our corporate's EP Net Zero in 2050. Moreover, since this gas field is located in a national park which is ecologically and environmentally sensitive and requires a special design than a conventional practice.

The booster compressor facilities at Wellpad A has been designed with innovative ideas to cover all operating scenarios provisioned for the future production and meet environmental crucial criteria. In addition, all activities are undertaken in close co-operation with the local and regional authorities, the internal and external stakeholders, and the local population. The design of the booster compressor and its facilities has set a goal for sustainability development by adopting a zero emission concept and taking noise concerns from community complaints into consideration.

To achieve a zero emission target, all hydrocarbon vent and flare must be diminished. The conventional design requires a vent or a flare to receive gas from the process and safety equipment (i.e., pressure safety valves and blowdown valves). Instead of following the conventional design, the booster compressor facilities utilize a high-integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS) which is designed to prevent over-pressurization of the plant. The HIPPS will shut off and isolate the dangerous high-pressure sources before the system exceeds the design pressure instead of relieving the excess flow to the atmosphere. The HIPPS prevents loss of containment and protects the environment by not allowing any process fluids to release to the atmosphere. Furthermore, the HIPPS is also engineered to equal or exceed the safety performance of the conventional safety valves. Another area of concerns is the noise emission from the booster compressors. The design must be responsible for low noise emission as the installation area is surrounded by local communities. Noise simulation study has been performed and noise enclosures, therefore, will be provided to reduce the generated noise from operating machines to less than 68 dBA at 1 meter away from the operating area which is sufficient to prevent the noise emission to sensitive neighborhood.

The booster compressor facilities at Wellpad A is one of PTTEP's first zero-emission surface engineering designs to support the sustainability development milestones. In addition, this novel design is a stepping stone towards zero emission facilities design in the future to achieve a Net Zero world.