In St. Petersburg, it was completed the testing of home-produced large-scale cryogenic LNG pump ENK 2000/241, developed and manufactured by OKBM Africantov, controlled by Atomenergomash JSC. The tests were conducted at first in Russia and Europe test rig intended for testing equipment of medium – and large-scale plants for the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
New LNG pump ENK 2000/241 with nominal capacity of 2000 m³ per hour is the highest capacity pump from the range of OKBM Afrikantov LNG products.
‘The characteristics of the new Russian pump proved to be even better than those in the technical requirements’, said Andrey Nikipelov, General Director of Atomenergomash to the journalists.
The works on the testing facility started in 2019 in pursuance of the Russian government order on the advanced development of LNG equipment production industry.
Two years later, in August 2021, the goals of the project were also supported by the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation on import substitution of critical equipment to ensure Russia's technological independence.
“The level of localization here is very high, over 90 percent,” Andrey Nikipelov emphasized. - The test stand allows to test the equipment in nitrogen medium at -193°C, and in LNG medium at -163°C. Besides, while foreign companies test their equipment during two to eight hours, we can do it up to 72 hours. We are now ready to produce pumps in six sizes and we are negotiating a contract for the supply of eight pumps for LNG production plant. Next in line is turbo expander, quite a high-tech equipment, that will improve the liquefaction of natural gas by 2 to 3 percent, and loading arms for loading LNG from plant to gas carriers and back, and special pumps for gas carriers.
Unique technical solutions were developed specially for the test facility. The tanks for storing the gas used in testing and liquid nitrogen are arranged not horizontally as usual, but vertically. The unique cryogenic valves work without failures at extremely low temperatures. In addition, a special engine of 14 MW capacity is used, which is approximately half the size of foreign equivalents, and it is important for the small area ofthe stand.
The head of Atomenergomash emphasized that the use of Russian equipment in LNG projects solves the strategic task of reducing the industry's dependence on the supply of imported components, spare parts, and services. Today Russian companies can meet all the demand for equipment for LNG production, storage and transportation. The testing facility allows testing of not only pumps, but also other LNG equipment - expanders, compressors. In addition, it can be used to study parts and mechanisms that have shown malfunction during operation. So, for example now at the LNG stand in St. Petersburg they are searching into the cause of the breakdown of two Korean technological units.