Theoretical and experimental features of the thermodynamic process in oil injection screw compressors

For optimum performance of screw compressors, reduce wear and improve leakage, oil injection needs to be applied. The injected oil runs through the compressor together with the gas, taking a part of the heat of the gas resulting from compression during the process. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the compression process affected by the cooling of the oil injection. The oil injection screw compressor is ideal for this process because the oil injected into the compressor along with the lubrication and sealing technology cools the compressed gas, which makes the compression process to be much closer to an isothermal process (minimum compression required). In order to calculate the thermodynamic of the gas lift process, the hydraulic calculation of the process, in which the extracted production, the amount of gas required, the injection pressures and the location of the valves, should be performed. These parameters were determined to correspond to the oil injection screw compressors manufactured in Romania by INCDT-COMOTI. The essential characteristics of those screw compressors that could be used considering the specificity of the location where the compressor will be mounted will be highlighted also.