Rotork CMA electric control valve actuators eliminate venting and greenhouse gas emissions in compliance with new environmental protection legislation at remotely sited shale gas installations in the US, the company says.
Traditionally, spring diaphragm actuators powered by the produced gas have been used, but recent EPA mandates now limit this process to lower fugitive emissions caused by bleed gas. A shale gas company in Louisiana was therefore looking for an affordable and efficient low power solution that could be run by solar panels to replace existing actuation equipment and control a variety of fluids at line pressures up to 413 bar (6000 psig), Rotork says.
Most shale wells and flow lines are unmanned and located in remote areas that are difficult and expensive to monitor. Skilled technicians must check data and perform manual shutdowns, increasing costs for the time to travel to site, identifying the problem and stopping the flow, which is not cost-effective or practical. Actuators provide an ideal solution to automate valves at the remote wells.
Designed for quarter-turn, multi-turn and linear valve operation, Rotork CMA actuators perform numerous process control valve, choke valve, metering pump and damper applications demanding precise position control and continuous modulation. Single-phase or DC electrical power is all that is required for simplified installation and control valve actuation. Explosionproof certification to international standards is available for hazardous area applications. The CMA can be specified with increased functionality encompassing local controls, LCD positional display and programmable fail-to-position performance.
The success of this solution has enabled the Louisiana customer to standardize on the CMA actuator for future flow control applications, Rotork says.
