Focus on the customer solution – Development of process engineering solutions and field tests
Process Test Center, GEA Separation, Oelde, Germany
GEA has decades of experience and a large number of references in the design of mechanical separation technology processes for the oil and gas industry. Highly complex machines and systems – both on-shore and off-shore – ensure the safe and efficient operation of plants of the global players in the industry. Investments and implementation in greenfield and brownfield plants are often very long and costly. Therefore, a correct process design with regard to efficiency and reliability of the plants is of utmost importance.
GEA Process Test Center – New development of process engineering solutions and optimization of existing processes
The internal Process Test Center of GEA in Oelde (PTC), sees itself as supplier of reliable basic data for the optimal selection and design of separation processes and the centrifuges used in them – with decades of experience in the evaluation of customer process engineering solutions. The scope of services ranges from the specification of product properties, the selection and design of machine types including peripherals, to pilot test under real conditions and factory acceptance tests (FATs) at GEA or directly at the customer’s premises
Range of services:
- Product investigations: Specification of the properties of the product to be separated e.g. by means of test tube centrifuge test, determination of viscosity, measurement of different particle sizes, gravitational behavior
- Trials in the PTC: Provision of all important data for the process engineering design of the production plant by operating the centrifuge and the required peripherals as close as possible to the planned process. By means of scale-up, the machine parameters can be extrapolated to the actually required output and thus the investment costs can be determined.
- Process developments: At specific customer request or based on own market analyses, the PTC also develops completely new processes for centrifuge-supported production processes, which are subjected to precise testing and verification in practice by means of laboratory test, pilot tests up to machine or prototype tests on site before being released to the market
Containerized field test unit
On-site trials with proven field test units from GEA
GEA offers the possibility to simulate the planned processes on the basis of trials with field test units on a pilot scale at the customer’s site.
Before such a field test is carried out, the physical and chemical substance data must usually be determined and the separation task to be solved must be specified. To this end, either tests are carried out with a mobile laboratory centrifuge or a sample analysis is carried out in the GEA laboratory in order to be able to plan the subsequent test in detail. These preliminary tests enable a precise configuration of the field test unit so that the separation task can be performed as precisely as possible from the start.
When both customer requirements and main objectives have been defined, a GEA field test unit is installed at the customer’s in a field test that answers the crucial questions:
- How is the separation task solved efficiently?
- How is the desired concentrate concentration achieved?
- Can the test be scaled to the subsequent process performance without any problems?
- What additional parameters need to be considered for the future process control?
All these analyses serve to provide conclusive assurance of both the process solution and the planned investment. These tests also enable GEA to correctly design and construct the production machines and systems to be used in the future.
With our mobile test systems we can simulate a complete process on a pilot scale, since our tests systems are ready-to-use centrifuge models equipped with heat exchangers, chemical dosing systems, feed pumps and control valves. All components are designed for operation potentially explosive areas.
Online calculator
