OREANDA-NEWS. September 10, 2012. TATNEFT has adopted a 3-year program to introduce "Capstone" micro-turbine power plants, working on associated petroleum gas (APG). The plans envisage installation of about 40 micro-turbine plants at the Company's facilities during this period, reported the press-centre of TATNEFT.

As an experiment "Tatex", a small oil company, had put a 30 kW "Capstone" micro-turbine into operation early in 2007. Given a successful five-year experience of the plant's operation, it was decided to build a more powerful gas turbine station with a total capacity of 1,600 kW consisting of 8 mini turbines with annual gas consumption in the amount of about 4 million cubic meters.

A specific feature of the "Capstone" turbines is the layout of the main components of the unit, which provides for placement of compressor, combustion chamber, regenerative heat exchanger, turbine and electric generator permanent magnets within a compact body. The generator is cooled by the airstream, which eliminates the need for a liquid cooling system arrangement and increases the reliability and efficiency of the equipment in service. A design feature of the engine is application of air bearings, which provide for a high shaft rotation speed of up to 62,000 rpm. It allows avoiding oil application.

Due to the high degree of automation the "Capstone" micro-turbine based power generating system can operate unattended. The turbine operation control is performed by the microprocessor based automatic control system with "remote access" capability. This allows operating the unit in remote hard-to-reach areas. This software program provides for controlling operating parameters of each turbine, changing generated power, if necessary, as well as troubleshooting. In addition, technicians can remotely control the technical operation of the gas turbine unit complex starting with gas supply to the booster compressor station to gas feeding to the turbine.

Currently there are design works underway including equipment selection for construction of gas turbine plants at Oil & Gas Producing Boards "Yamashneft", "Elkhovneft" and "Bavlyneft" of TATNEFT.