COMPRESSOR ASSEMBLIES AND METHODS TO MINIMIZE VENTING OF A PROCESS GAS DURING STARTUP OPERATIONS

摘要

Systems and methods are provided for compressing a cryogenic fluid using amulti-stagecompressor. Coolant in a first Coolant loop cools cooling jackets of thecompressionstages and/or inter-stage heat exchangers and warms a pre-compression heatexchanger. The temperature of the coolant in the first heat exchanger ismoderated byambient-air heat exchange. The process fluid is electively cooled by one ofthe inter-stageheat exchangers after each of the compression stage if the temperature of theprocess fluid is above a temperature criterion. This enables the system tooperatethrough a transient period (cool down period) without venting process fluid.The inter-stageheat exchangers are preferably bypassed when the system reaches steady-stateoperating temperature.