Leobersdorfer Maschinenfabrik GmbH has developed the trailer-mounted compressor unit to facilitate the recovery of natural gas during pipeline repairs. To safely repair a natural gas pipeline, the respective line section has to be cut off by upstream and downstream interception valves and the contained compressed gas removed from the isolated section. When a major gas pipeline consists of two or more parallel lines, the gas from the isolated section can be transferred to the next section still in service. In the case of a single line, the extracted gas from the isolated section can be compressed downstream the same line. Until now, pipeline operators have often neglected this sound practice and have vented the gas to the atmosphere or to a flare. Increasing concerns about environmental pollution and the price of gas make this old practice extremely costly and questionable. Even if, for the time being, natural gas venting is still legally possible for safety reasons, operators increasingly are trying to recover as much gas as possible. Due to those environmental and monetary reasons, there is considerable interest to develop and use more sophisticated technologies to reduce methane emissions to an absolute minimum before starting pipeline repair jobs.
The new LMF Mobile Pipeline Evacuation Unit is an efficient, self-sufficient compressor system, which fulfils the applicable European norms and standards as well as the rules for unrestricted road circulation.
