Refinery Energy Recovery System CECON Clutch for Rapid Response Delivery

A fast-turnaround rebuild of a Marland CECON CEUHS high-speed clutch was needed at a massive oil refinery located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The facility utilizes the clutch combined with a hydraulic turbine to recover hydraulic energy that would otherwise be wasted during the refining process when high-pressure liquid flow is reduced to a lower pressure.

The hydraulic turbine is connected to the CECON clutch input shaft, and the output shaft is connected to a double extended motor shaft or pump shaft. The motor is sized to carry the full pump load for those times, such as start-up, when little or no fluid is available to the hydraulic turbine. During these periods, the clutch is freewheeling, allowing the hydraulic turbine to remain stationary. As process fluid flow increases, the hydraulic turbine accelerates until it reaches the speed of the motor. The CECON clutch automatically engages to transmit hydraulic turbine torque to the motor, decreasing the motor current demand. The clutch also automatically engages and disengages if the hydraulic turbine speed varies with the change in the flow of the process fluid.

The customer contacted S&S Equipment & Supply, the only authorized Marland Repair Center (and Marland’s largest stocking distributor) in the continental U.S. S&S informed the customer that a new, replacement CECON CEUSHS model was in stock and available for immediate shipment, saving weeks off a new order from the factory. Due to the critical role of the clutch within the refinery operation, the customer gladly placed the order for the new unit and shipped its old unit to S&S for the necessary rebuild.

S&S’ “whatever it takes” service commitment saved this customer significant operational downtime along with the costs of unrecovered hydraulic energy.

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