Turbomachinery Symposia Highlights Rotating Equipment

Summary

ARC Advisory Group recently attended the 45th Turbomachinery & 32nd Pump Symposia in Houston.  This year’s event drew 5,456 registered attendees from 40 countries, down slightly from 2015.  A record 360 companies exhibited all things related to compressors, turbines, pumps, sensors, condition monitoring, remote monitoring solutions, and more. 

From ARC’s perspective, the event provided an informative and interesting line-up of content that included 24 detailed case study presentations, 17 lectures, 19 short courses, 24 tutorial sessions and 29 interactive discussion groups on a range of topics related to turbomachinery and pumps.  The event also provided an excellent opportunity to do some first-hand supplier research for our ongoing market research on both compressor and turbine monitoring & controls and optimization.  While we obviously couldn’t cover everything, some takeaways from the activities that we did attend follow.

Keynote Presentation Focused on Industry Outlook

In his keynote presentation kicking off the event, Keisuku Sadamori, Director of Energy Markets and Resources at the International Energy Agency (IEA), provided the IEA’s latest outlook on oil prices.  Mr. Sadamori outlined the “three E’s” of sound energy policy: Energy Security, Economic Growth, and Environmental Sustainability, with the fourth E of Engagement Worldwide.  He provided the following near-, medium-, and long-term outlook concerning oil and markets through 2021:

• Oil markets moving closer to balance as global supply growth falls away, primarily in North America and North Sea, and should balance by Q4 in 2017 as demand growth outlook remains steady from India and, to lesser extent, China.
• Medium-term outlook through 2021 shows global demand for oil growing slightly slower than previously forecast, but solid with non-OPEC (Americas) leading supply growth. However, huge uncertainties exist including OPEC production, non-OPEC (i.e., shale) production, and world economic growth.  Efficiency gains in extraction and production could also change the outlook going forward.

• Gas demand growth coming, albeit slower than initially anticipated, from developing countries such as India, China, and others in Asia as well as the Middle East as reliance on gas for power generation increases.
• Bulk of growth in supply of gas and LNG to be coming from US and Australia through 2021 despite a recent collapse in investment.
• Long-term outlook through 2040 shows continued demand growth for oil and gas, but gas will show greater growth as it is seen as the “bridge” fuel of the future.

ARC Walks the Exhibit Floor  

ARC had the opportunity to walk the entire show floor and visit almost all of the 360 exhibitors displaying their products, solutions and/or services.  

GE Oil & Gas

We were particularly impressed by the range of solutions on display at the GE Oil & Gas exhibit, which included new Smart Hemet technology, Virtual Training Solutions, and asset performance management solutions.

Smart Helmets for Field Service Engineers

GE is collaborating with VRMedia S.r.l., a spin-off company of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, to develop Smart Helmet technologies for use by the company’s field service engineers and customers.  The ATEX-certified technology was created by VRMedia and ENEL.  GE believes that this technology is crucial for the development of the “Digital FSE” and to support Field Service Engineers accomplish their tasks in the field, getting real-time collaboration from their colleagues in engineering at headquarters to hasten the solution of unplanned and complex issues.  GE is now working on a pilot project with 15 Smart Helmets built by VRMedia which will be tested in the field by GE Technicians to complete the validation of this first phase of development.

Virtual Training Solutions

GE also highlighted its Virtual Training Solutions designed to help build skills among engineers in training.  By leveraging GE engineering developments, the company created an immersive 3D environment where customers’ equipment can be uploaded to enable immersive virtual training experiences.  This means real maintenance and installation operations can be simulated in an infinitely repeatable and safe environment.  The solution enables engineers to become familiar with equipment before it’s even built or installed, thereby reducing risks and improving efficiency when ready for real operations with customers’ equipment.

GE also discussed some of its existing solutions such as System 1 condition monitoring, Smart Signal condition monitoring, and its cloud-based APM solutions, which were greatly enhanced by its recent acquisition of Meridium, which was announced publicly during the show.

Growing Demand for Intelligence in Rotating Equipment

To gain some fresh supplier insights related to our recently published compressor monitoring & controls  market analysis report and upcoming turbine monitoring & controls report (due later this year), we spent time visiting a number of companies exhibiting compressors, turbines, and compressor and turbine monitoring controls.

These included visits with Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), Siemens Dresser Rand, Continuous Controls Solutions (CCS), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Aerzen, Voith Turbo, Tri-Sen Systems Corp., Hitachi America, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Capstone Turbine Corp., Atlas Copco, Kobelco Compressors America, Ingersoll Rand, GE Oil & Gas, Burckhardt Compression, Neuman & Esser, MAN Diesel & Turbo North America, Johnson Controls, Elliott Group, Emerson, GEA Group, Solar Turbines (a Caterpillar Company), Schneider Electric, Woodward, and Drake Controls, among others. 

One general takeaway from these many meetings is that rotating equipment suppliers are seeing increasing awareness and demand for intelligence in critical rotating equipment used across multiple industries to help improve asset management through on-board diagnostics, remote communications, and advanced analytics.

IIoT-Enabled Solutions

Although not many suppliers went out of their way to highlight Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) at this event, we did identify a number of companies offering IIoT-enabled solutions.  These included condition monitoring, remote monitoring, vibration monitoring and analysis, smart valves and actuators, and predictive analytics-enabled proactive maintenance solutions.  Several suppliers also offer retrofit services and other service-related offerings.

We also visited a plethora of pump companies, many of which were covered in our Intelligent Pumps for the Digital Oilfield global market study.  These visits will help us fine-tune this research area in the future.

ARC visited a number of booths of suppliers offering condition monitoring or remote monitoring solutions, typically for vibration or acoustic monitoring and analysis.  These companies included PROGNOST Systems, OROS, PRUFTECHNIK, Schneider Electric, Emerson, Condition Monitoring Solutions Inc., and ANSYS with its engineering simulation solutions.  It appears that IIoT-enabled solutions are playing a greater role in helping operating companies optimize the performance of their turbomachinery and pumps. 

Conclusions

Despite the lower Symposia attendance this year, we observed significant activity on the exhibit floor, lots of discussion during the sessions, and increased interest in how companies can improve the performance of their turbomachinery and pumps as well as overall business operations.

ARC believes that owner-operators should seek out suppliers that are prepared to develop the appropriate automation and technology such as advanced compressor and turbine controls, remote monitoring and condition monitoring solutions, and automation solutions that enable them to lower costs, improve operational performance, and provide greater operational visibility, flexibility and agility.  Users should continue to collaborate with and, if necessary, encourage suppliers to help them reduce their capital and operational costs, improve operational performance, increase recovery rates and production, and improve profitability.  Ultimately, this would benefit the suppliers as well.

As ARC continues to finalize its market investigation into turbine monitoring & controls and optimization, the author welcomes further discussions with suppliers, owner-operators, and other stakeholders to determine current market requirements and associated solutions.

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Keywords: Turbomachinery & Pump Symposia, Compressors, Turbines, Condition Monitoring, Remote Monitoring, Pumps Optimization, ARC Advisory Group.