In September 2007, a major power generation company received the order from a Chinese steel manufacturer to build the first large blast furnace gas (BFG)-fired combined-cycle power station in China.

In 2008 the power generation company supplied, among other things, two gas-turbine driven centrifugal compressor branches with EagleBurgmann gas seals in a tandem arrangement and put them successfully into service in December 2009.

There is probably no other industry that has come under such intense scrutiny as the oil refining industry. Still, there is no denying that processing crude oil into useful petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil is an important part of the world’s economy. Furthermore, the oil refining industry has made substantial changes to be more environmentally friendly both in its product line and process facilities.

One of the by-products of clean fuel production is liquid molten sulfur. As environmental legislation mandates stricter controls on refined products, oil refineries must remove more sulfur from their refined products, such as diesel fuel. The recovered sulfur, sold to other industrial companies, finds use in other products such as fungicides, black gunpowder, detergents and phosphate fertilizers, and for rubber vulcanization.

Since the introduction of EagleBurgmann DiamondFaces® in 2007, numerous applications in pumps, compressors and agitators in the chemical, oil & gas, refinery, slurry, pharmaceutical and water supply fields have demonstrated the clear advantages of such seals. Lower energy consumption, far longer service life and much improved MTBF and MTBR performance are convincing proof and directly reflected in cost savings. A diamond coating up to 8 µm thick makes the seal faces extremely hard and wear resistant. Other outstanding features include excellent heat conductivity, maximum chemical resistance and low friction.

The increased global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is having a significant impact on companies that both produce and supply equipment to this market, resulting in rapid advances in machine design, capacity and efficiency. In the LNG process, natural gas is converted to liquid form, making the gas easier to store and transport. When the LNG is needed for use, it is regasified and distributed as pipeline natural gas.

EagleBurgmann has launched a new separation seal offering a proven solution to the problems of oil penetrating from a compressor bearing into an outboard gas seal, and the ingress of process gas from the outboard stage of the gas seal into the bearing cavity. EagleBurgmann carbon ring seals and the new CobaSeals are designed primarily for turbomachinery applications and between them offer a choice to meet customer requirements for separation seals.

Mechanical seals are used as shaft seals in pumps, agitators, compressors and other rotary machines handling liquid and gaseous media. The process pressures which have to be contained by the seals range from vacuum to more than 400 bar. In some cases, the chemical and thermal stability required of the mechanical seal is very high. The design of the seal and the choice of material from which it is made play a crucial role in making sure that it operates reliably for a sustained length of time under the conditions for which it was designed and for which the material was chosen.

To ensure high reliability of gas seals, a clean and dry gas at the seal is required. Gas supply systems draw product gas from a higher-pressure stage of the compressor during dynamic operation, filter the gas and use it for flushing the seal. In standstill operation of the compressor there is no gas source of higher pressure available due to the lack in flow in the machine, i.e. the seal cannot be protected from contaminated product gas.

Chem-Trend, a leading global manufacturer of process chemical specialties with a main focus on high- performance mold release agents, now offers a comprehensive range of process chemicals for the packaging industry with the expansion of its Lusin® product line. Introduced to the market in 2010, these new products are NSF registered and can be used when manufacturing items subject to specific hygiene requirements, such as drink bottles, food packaging, toys, toothbrushes and household goods. Chem-Trend’s Lusin® products support users in every stage of production: they help to cleanly demold components, offer protection against corrosion and moisture and maintain the optimal condition of machines and tools at all times.