N°6 Autumn 2005

Tailored to you
the customer
The methods behind
CRYOSTAR know-how

Who you gona call?

Improving and extending
customer services

MAGMA hits ethylene market

Turbo expanders are hot on control
and flexibility
 Customer service is the very life-blood of CRYOSTAR. It encompasses everything from
before to after-sales service. Above all it reflects CRYOSTAR’s determination to work with
customers, delivering what they want when they want it, to the highest international
EDITO standards.

One aspect of CRYOSTAR customer service is the technological innovations behind our
products. In every market, in all geographies, CRYOSTAR technology provides our customers
with a competitive edge.

CRYOSTAR is at the forefront of cryogenic technology – more than 40 years studying the
art of cryogenics has led to a multitude of innovative solutions, new applications and
technological improvements.

Be it pumps, automation, turbines, expanders or LNG shipboard equipment, CRYOSTAR

continues to invest in research and development. Never a day goes by without our engineers
pushing the boundaries in one field or another.

In recent times we have brought to the market the MTC; the GBSD transport pump range;
the Modular Reciprocating Pump; the power recovery turbine; turnkey LNG / biogas
installations; fuelling and filling stations; hydrogen related cryogenic equipment... and the
list goes on.

In this edition of CRYOSTAR magazine we continue to highlight the latest advances in

technology and in Tailored to you, the customer, page 3, we provide some insight into how
our business operates.

At CRYOSTAR we believe in innovation, service, research and development, working in

partnership with customers. In the many markets in which our customers operate,
competition is keen and demands are constantly changing.

CRYOSTAR recognises this, which is why we put so much effort into improving technology,
improving our service offerings. It’s what makes CRYOSTAR a market leader.

We are committed to the pursuit of innovative technology, committed to meeting our

customers’ needs, any time, any place. CRYOSTAR technology is the jewel in many a cus-
tomer crown and we’re proud of that.

Daniel MEYER
President

Tailored to you, the customer ............. p 3

Cryostar gets its MAGMA turbo expanders in ethylene market ............. p 5
Everyone’s a winner with us ............. p 7
Controlling the process ............. p 8
News ............. p 9
Who you gonna call? ............. p 10
Events ............. p 11
Tools and datas ............. p 11

 Autumn 2005
Tailored to you, the customer
Thousands of engineering solutions for hundreds of
companies – Cryostar know-how, a jewel in many a
customer’s crown...
Four hundred different centrifugal and reciprocating cryogenic pump
models, more than fifty different turbo machine frame sizes and
thousands of precisely engineered designs – all to meet the needs of
the cryogenic and atmospheric and hydrocarbon gases industries. For
40 years Cryostar has been developing custom-made, designed and
engineered products and machinery.

But what is that makes Cryostar tick? Well, there is the ‘developments’
side, which can be split into three major platforms: machinery, ap-
plications and process. Machinery is driven by individual customer
and general market demand, and is based on existing machines and
Cryostar expertise. Applications are derived from working closely
with customers to help them further exploit Cryostar products.

Process, on the other hand, is very much internal, with Cryostar

research and development engineers working with frontline staff to
ensure the delivery of products to exacting international standards.
This way the best process and most efficient machine can be developed
for the market and customer fast.

However, ‘developments’ can also be categorised as ‘on the job’ and

‘off the job’. ‘On the job’ is usually reserved for those large machines,
which are extensions of the Cryostar product portfolio. ‘Off the job’ is
predominantly for products later sold in quantity, like small cryogenic
pumps or turbines, usually developed without a specific order but with
an eye on future customer needs.

Development cycles
Products that come under ‘on the job’ are developed and built dur-
ing the normal contract and commercial cycle, and delivery times are
dictated by the competitive situation.

During such developments, which are usually done by Cryostar engi-

neers, there are extensive design reviews and additional calculation
cycles with the possible inclusion external consultants. An extensive
in-house testing period follows completion. Importantly, the customer
can also be involved in the assessment cycle. This is because design
validation testing must fulfil predetermined test criteria to gain cus-
tomer sign-off. Cryostar’s inherent attention to detail also means its
development engineers are involved in the commissioning and start up
of a new machine.

Autumn 2005 
 CUSTOMERS

In case of the ‘off the job’ developments, the de- easily by staff working in tailored shift patterns.
sign and production will undergo same cycles, but
without the customer involvement and typically People and Expertise
without any major time constraints. More impor- And that is why the backbone of Cryostar is its staff
tant is the extensive and long-term in-house testing of almost 300. There are engineers with bachelor,
of a new product, to demonstrate suitability and master or even higher (PhD) degrees. Through in-
performance levels to the market. The new product ternal training courses and know-how transfer from
is launched only if the extensive testing shows it more experienced colleagues Cryostar continues to
fulfils or supersedes expectations. In many cases strengthen its capabilities. Staff development is a
this also includes extended testing at selected cus- priority and Cryostar invests close to three per cent
tomer sites prior making it generally available. of its annual turn over in training with a larger part
dedicated to engineering and development staff.
The test tools This type of investment in people allows Cryostar
As well as development validation Cryostar also to tackle and deliver solutions to varied and often
has performance testing capabilities. In Hésingue, complex customer problems. Not only does it have
the company has two large test facilities, one for extensive cryogenic know-how and aerodynamic
cryogenic pumps and the other for turbo machines. and hydraulic design expertise to call on, but 35
In Capdenac, Cryostar Automation test facility years in this specialist market has armed the com-
allows for complete filling stations and control pany with expertise in many other areas.
systems to be fully tested. All are equipped with They include: materials at cryogenic temperatures,
automated data acquisition systems. stress analysis, heat transfer, cryogenic vaporisa-
tion and condensation together with other unit
The test facility for pumps includes two liquid ni- operations, oxygen compatibility of materials,
trogen vacuum insulated cryogenic tanks with five and pressure containment design for extreme pres-
different metering test lines. Reciprocating pumps sures.
up to 600 bars and 100 l/min, and centrifugal
pumps for up to 100 bars at flows up to 14’000 Coupled with these are a multitude of special-
l/min, can be tested using liquid nitrogen. This ist tools, including: CAD for the design of turbo
cryogenic test facility is the largest of its kind for machines and pumps; CFD software for flow and
industrial gases pumps in the world. pressure distribution analysis in turbo machines
and pumps; and FEA software for wheel blades
The turbo machines test facility has a test space for resonance and for stress and displacement calcula-
simultaneous preparation and sequential testing of tions, to name but a few.
four low-duty compressors and for four high-duty
compressors for LNG carriers (two ship sets) at 60 For very specific tasks like rotor dynamics and ro-
Hz and any voltage up to 6’600 Volts. The third tor vibration behavior, aerodynamics and hydraulic
set of compressors can be under preparation, while design and analysis, external consultants can be
the forth can be at the completion stage after the brought in for independent evaluations.
testing. All these disciplines combine to form the basis of
Cryostar’s technological and commercial success.
In addition, up to six turbo expanders can be lo- In other words, it’s what makes the company tick.
cated in the test hall for testing with pressurized
The technological testing during the production cycle (hydro
air. The today’s volumes are in the order of 160
testing, gas leak testing, balancing, over speed testing, holo-
LNG carriers’ shipboard compressors and around graphic blade resonance testing, etc. ) will be the subject of a
100 turbo expanders per year. This can be extended future article.

 Autumn 2005
 TECHNOLOGY

Cryostar gets its MAGMA

turbo expanders in ethylene market
For ethylene plant owners, Cryostar has designed and For a price-competitive solution, Cryostar opted for
built a dual turbo expander compressor (2-MTC) two machines belonging to the MTC200 frame size.
solution that provides safety, ease of control and flex- MTC200 are magnetic bearings turbines braked by a
ibility. compressor wheel, with an expander wheel diameter of
nominally 200mm. For both HP and LP machines, the
Both low pressure (LP) and high pressure (HP) units expander wheel is made of a high strength aluminium
are mounted on the same skid, with explosion-proof alloy and the diameter is 210mm. Compressor wheels
instruments. The units are equipped with active are made of the same material with a 220mm diam-
magnetic bearings and controlled through a Cryostar- eter. All are milled from solid. This straightforward
programmed Programmable Logic Controller. design solution as described bellow eliminates any risk
of wheel cracking by blade resonances.
Two expanders in series expand the off-gas fluid,
with braking power being provided by compressor
wheels mounted on the same shaft. Both units rotate High speed rotor development
at the same high speed to maximise the expanders’ Prior to rotordynamics investigations, the natural
efficiency. resonance of the wheels must be calculated. The
modal analysis of expanders and compressor wheels
Magnetic bearings provide a 100 per cent leak-safe de- showed no risk of resonance in the range of operating
sign, avoiding any risk of oil ingestion into the process speeds. This assessment was performed using Finite
gas. Both LP and HP expanders can be independently Element Analysis (FEA). Once optimised, geometries
by-passed by the process gas. Therefore, either the LP of the wheels were fed into models representing full
or the HP machine can be operated as a single unit. rotors, to be used for the rotordynamics analysis.
This feature enhances process flexibility.
Due to the high maximum continuous rotating
At the root of this achievement is a state-of-the-art speed close to 40,000 rpm, and the relatively large
design process for wheels and shafts. The gas to be ex- wheels for MTC200 machine frame size, the new
panded combines a low molecular weight (less than 5 rotor design was a challenge that Cryostar experts
kg/kmol) and a high massflow (more than 1000 kmol/ were eager to face. Actually, with respect to the lat-
hr). The low molecular weight requires extremely high eral critical speed analysis (LCSA), several iterations
tip speed of the wheels for optimum efficiency. were needed to meet the API acceptance criteria.

Autumn 2005 
 TECHNOLOGY

The LCSA aims to defining rotor Technical data

natural frequencies associated
with structural deflections of the
rotor. Natural frequencies are
CRE Operating speeds CRE
converted into rotating speed
values called critical speeds.

Vibration level
SM SM
Ac1
All structures possess natural
0.707 peak
frequencies at which they vibrate
most violently when struck. For a
rotor, a state of resonance can be
reached if the rotation frequency N1 N2
equals one of the rotor natural N c1 N mc N cn
frequencies. This phenomenon Revolutions per minute
leads to deformations, which can
severely damage the structure.
The amount of expected deflection of the rotor is quantified by API stan-
dards with the amplification factor AF (The higher the Amplification Fac-
With regard to LCSA, API 617 tor, the sharper the deflection peak):
standards require that either the
deflection of the structure is low
enough or that the difference N c1 : Critical speed corresponding to the maximum deflection
N1 and N2 : Lesser and greater speeds at 0.707 x peak deflection (The peak deflection is at critical
between the maximum continuous speed Nc1)
speed and the first critical speed
is high enough (see “Technical
The difference between the maximum continuous speed and the first critical
data panel for accurate criteria”). speed is quantified by API standards with the separation margin SM, defined
as follows when the critical speed is greater than the maximum continuous
The LCSA enabled Cryostar to speed:
find the appropriate rotor for a
resonance-free design. Iterative
refinements of detailed design Nmc: Maximum continuous speed

features were carried out in close

co-operation with S2M, the Depending on the AF value, the API 617 standards acceptance criteria is:
magnetic bearing supplier. API
acceptance criteria were met 1. If
with a remaining safety margin.
2. If ,
High-tech design methods,
in case of a critical speed higher than the maximum continuous speed.
combined with pragmatic
targets, resulted in a smart
and robust solution. 3. If ,

in case of a critical speed lower than the minimum speed (not applicable to the developed case).
*The first two-stage Cryostar
MAGMA turbo expander 2-MTC
of this high speed configuration
was designed and built for cold
production in a new ethylene plant
in Qatar.

 Autumn 2005
 WINNER

Everyone’s a winner with us

Mahmood Javed, R&D Manager at Abdullah Hashim At a cost of over 4 million Euros, Cryostar’s testing fa-
Gas in Saudi Arabia, visited the Cryostar headquarters cilities represents a huge customer service investment.
in Hésingue, France on 29 April with his wife, as part “We have the world’s most sophisticated test stand for
of his prize for winning the Cryostar Middle East pumps,” said Laurent Rapp, test stand manager, “Not
Competition in February this year. only has it helped to expand our R&D programme
but we also provide individual customised test reports.
His visit began with the presentation of a souvenir One hundred per cent of the material our customers
Cryostar photo album along with a few words of con- buy is tested before delivery.”
gratulations from Daniel Meyer, Cryostar’s President.
This was followed by a slide show on the company and Final stop on the tour was the on-site maintenance
a tour of the site with Philippe Fauvel, Sales Manager, shop and customer service department.
South Europe and the Middle East. Our winner expressed his hopes that the visit would
be the start of a strong relationship between the two
The tour started in the main administration building companies.
which contains sales, purchasing and central manage-
ment for the company. Although based in France, the The winner’s weekend continued with sight seeing
headquarters is on the borders of both Germany and trips around the region including Colmar, in Alsace,
Switzerland, an important factor for a company which France, and the Black Forest in Germany.
exports around 90 per cent of its products. “Even our
employee base is multinational,” said Philippe. “We The Middle East Competition was a great success with
have over 230 people from 12 countries working at triple the industry average in responses. It is hoped
our French headquarters alone.” that the programme can now be expanded to other
regions.
The tour also took in Cryostar’s research and develop-
ment offices. “We have a team dedicated to R&D,”
explained Frédéric Marcuccilli,
R&D engineer. “And it is thanks
to this team that we are able to
develop and customise solutions
to exact needs of individual cus-
tomers.”

At the assembly workshop,

our winner was able to see first
hand the construction of several
product lines from the large LNG
compressors to the vast range of
world-leading Cryostar cryogenic
pumps.

“Mahmood was very impressed

with the high quality of Cryostar
production tools and the commit-
ment shown of all employees. Cus-
tomer satisfaction is something we
all focus on,” said Philippe.

Autumn 2005 
 PROCESS CONTROL

Controlling the process

To meet rising customer expec t ation in the fast changing Programmable L o g i c
Controller ( PLC ) world, Cr yost ar makes use of cut ting edge solutions ...

The escalating plant sizes are putting tremendous started to replace the other safety related hard-
pressure on reliability and availability requirements wired circuits.
to avoid any downtime or production loss. In ad-
dition, to reduce installation costs, less manpower As state-of-the-art technology sets the trend
is available on site, so reducing the manual activity towards application of best in class PLCs and as
to a minimum requires increased use of process safety of people and environmental protection
automation. become more important, customers will reject
lower integrity systems. This, together with the
Since the beginning of the process industry, control likelihood that safety integrated level requirements
systems have been required to meet ever-changing might be needed in the future, drives the use of the
demands. So over the last few years, Cryostar has safety PLC.
implemented many different PLC configurations
to suit specific customer needs. The latest main
developments are:

Redundancy
In order to deal with increased demand on avail-
ability, PLC redundancy is implemented. It avoids
disruption of the process in case of machine PLC
failure. Different redundant configurations are
possible. As a minimum, the power supply and the
CPU are duplicated, where the second unit takes
over the duty instantaneously in case the first fails,
ensuring continuous machine operation.
A further extension of redundancy can be the dupli-
cation of the inputs and outputs (e.g. an analogue
4-20mA output signal is fed a half-signal by each of
two output modules, and full-signal by one module
in case the other fails). Detected instrument fail-
ures, resulting in the shutdown of machinery, also
leads to a reduction in overall plant reliability and
availability. So spurious ‘trips’ have to be avoided.
This is done by triplication of selected sensors and
by the implementation of a two-out-of-three vot-
ing (2oo3) so at least two sensors must detect the
faulty situation in order to initiate a shutdown and
the process continues in case of failure of a single
sensor.

Safety
Safety systems have traditionally required hard wir-
ing and the use of electro-mechanical components.
Today, except for specific safety functions like the
emergency shutdown, dedicated ‘Safety PLCs’ have

 Autumn 2005
 PROCESS CONTROL

Remote I/O
To reduce site installation costs, PLC remote input/output (remote
I/O) technology has been developed. This is where multiple hard-wired
cables are replaced by a single or a redundant communication link.
This technology has been around for some time, and since it is now
field proven, its popularity has increased. It is now also certified for
hazardous areas, even for Zone I (on shipboard applications the remote
input/output is becoming standard equipment).

Interfaces
Data exchange with the different plant central controls, emergency
shutdown or machine maintenance systems are done by serial commu-
nication links, with Modbus the preferred protocol.
Flat panel displays with touch-screens are forcing the traditional lamp
and push-button machine interfaces into the history books. The colour
displays, showing machine mimics, on-line machine performance and
operating conditions, are much more user friendly and able to provide
more information.

In conclusion, whether installed in hydrocarbon or industrial gas plants,

Cryostar’s equipment is critical for plant operation. The availability
requirement for this equipment remains high and customer expecta-
tions continue to rise. This applies, of course, to both the mechanical
components and the control system, which is why Cryostar is at the
cutting edge of technological changes and trends offering state-of-the-
art solutions to fulfil customers’ growing requirements.

News
Exhibition in China

Biggest turbo expanders ever built by Cryostar Cryostar attended the IG China exhibition in Hang-
zhou in September. A team from our Hangzhou of-
fice and a delegation of the Cryostar SAS (France)
The biggest turbo expanders ever built by Cryostar - 2 MTC
management team attended to present Cryostar and
600/240 for the Orman Lange (Norway) project - were suc-
its solutions to the Chinese market. The response was
cessfully tested and shipped in September. The main charac-
excellent and many Chinese customers took the op-
teristics of these huge machines are:
portunity to discuss current and future projects.
- MTC 600/240 frame size going up to 12 MW

- Largest magnetic bearings for high speed applications with Cryostar USA East is moving
diameter 240 mm
We are pleased to announce that in order to meet
- Compressor housing diameter 1600 mm and 100 bar design growing demand in the US, Cryostar USA PA will
pressure. move to a larger facility in Allenton, PA. The new fa-
cility enjoys a total of 750 square metres of shopfloor
In testing the machines the following were used: six oil free and office space. The new address is:
screw compressors, diesel motor driven, with total 2,375 kW
power and 16,000 m3/hr throughput in addition to the in- 5897 Colony Drive
stalled PGW 4 stage centrifugal compressor with 1250 kW Bethlehem, PA 18017
electric motor and 11,000 m3/hr. USA

Autumn 2005 
 FOCUS ON ... THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT

Who you gonna call?

Cryostar’s Customer Service Department (CSD) for start-ups, consulting, commissioning and on-
is dedicated to achieving and even surpassing the site maintenance and audits.
highest standards of service expected by all custom-
ers. “We are continually looking to improve and OEM guaranteed high quality parts, fully compre-
extend the services we provide,” said Didier Walch, hensive parts kits, management of spare and wear
Customer Service Director. “At Cryostar we want parts and scheduled or emergency delivery times
to grow our customer partnerships and develop in are another of the cornerstones on which Cryostar’s
unison with the customer, to realise an enduring network meets the needs of customers. And so is
and mutually productive future together.” the web-based spare parts supply portal which will
soon be on-line, allowing contracted customers to
The CSD, based at the company headquarters in order spares, check pricing and receive delivery
France, is currently staffed by more than 40 market confirmation.
and product service specialists, all dedicated to
ensuring efficient, and customer focussed, before, Adding value is another Cryostar cornerstone.
during and after sales service. The CSD does this by providing efficiency and/or
lifetime improvements and retrofit upgrades of
In fact, this central team manages all customer ser- existing machines, often increasing running hours
vice activity around the world. The team develops and creating important savings for our customers.
all Cryostar standards, which are then duplicated Another aspect is fully customised training sessions
across the company’s network of business centres for all Cryostar products and applications, using
and local agents, ensuring consistently high quality all the latest tools and technologies for learning.
service on all five continents.
“Years of experience and expertise in the industry
But the network is not just a day-to-day support enables Cryostar to take on the full service element
mechanism for customers, it represents a power- for the customer,” said Marc Runser, Applications
ful combination of local solution providers able to and Customer Service Manager, Distribution prod-
tap into an international pool of experience and ucts and services.
expertise. “We can provide individual, innovative service
agreements, customised to particular requirements,
“Every Cryostar business centre maintains a 24- with a focus on providing peace of mind for the
hour emergency telephone service and our engineers customer.
are available for call out at any time,” said Julien
Rivello, Customer Service Operations Manager. “Cryostar maintenance agreements can include
anything and everything, from the basic preventive
Product reliability maintenance of pumps and turbines, through to
Cryostar understands the importance to customers consulting, training, crane hire and repainting.”
of product reliability. As a result, dedicated main-
tenance shops and maintenance teams are based in Cryostar’s Customer Service Department is all
France, the UK, China and the US. about customer care – so if you have a problem you
Expert support is equally available in other regions know who to call.

10 Autumn 2005
 EVENTS & TOOLS

Events
November, 2005 April, 25-29, 2006
Oil & Gas Exhibition 2005, Fiera Welding Zagreb, Zagreb Fair,
Milano, Padiglioni 14, 15, 16, Avenija Dubrovnik 15, HR-10
20145, Milano, Italy 020 Zagreb, Croatia

November, 2005 May, 23-26, 2006

IPPEX 2005, Nippon Convention SVARKA - WELDING 2006,
Center, Nakase 2-1, Mihama-ku, Lenexpo Fairgrounds, 103 Bol-
Chiba City,261-0023, Japan shoy Prospect; St. Petersburg,
199106, Russia
February, 2006
SOPEC 2006, Dhahran Inter-
national Exhibition Centre,
P.O.BOX 7519, Dammam 31472,
Saudi Arabia

Tools and datas:

Combustion constants of Hydrocarbon Gases
Heat of Combustion Pound per Pound of Combustible Gas

BTU per Pound Required for Combustion Products of Combustion

Mol
Name of gas Symbol Gross Net O2 + N2 = Air CO2 H2P N2
Weight

Carbon (Solid) C 12.011 14,093 14,093 2.664 8.863 11.527 3.664 - 8.863

Hydrogen H2 2.016 61,100 51,623 7.937 26.407 34.344 - 8.937 26.407

Carbon Mon-
CO 28.010 4347 4347 0.571 1.900 2.471 1.571 - 1.900
oxide

Methane CH4 16.043 23,879 21,520 3.990 12.257 17.265 2.744 2.246 13.275

Ethane C 2H 6 30.070 22,320 20,432 3.725 12.394 16.119 2.927 1.798 12.394

Propane C 3H8 44.097 21,661 19,994 3.629 12.074 15.703 2.994 1.634 12.074

Ethylene C 2H4 28.054 21,644 20,295 3.422 11.385 14.807 3.138 1.285 11.385

Propylene C 3H6 42.081 21,041 19,691 3.422 11.385 14.807 3.138 1.285 11.385

Acetylene C 2 H2 26.038 21,500 20,776 3.073 10.224 13.297 3.381 0.692 10.224

Autumn 2005 11
 © CRYOSTAR - all rights reserved
Contact: [email protected]

www.cryostar.com