Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Zhong-xiang Zhu

David Miller Espie

Graeme Richard Wilson

Gregory W Henzler

Controlling a capacity of the compression system in response to the variable incoming gas feed by: i) selectively varying a capacity of a first subset of one or more of the compressor trains by continuously varying the capacity of one or more cylinders of the one or more reciprocating compressor stages of the one or more compressor trains of the first subset between a maximum capacity and a minimum capacity; and/or ii) selectively varying a capacity of a second subset of one or more of the compressor trains by fully loading or fully unloading one or more cylinders of the one or more reciprocating compressor stages of the compressor trains of the second subset, wherein the first and second subsets are mutually exclusive.

Method and system for load control of reciprocating compressors

An industrial gas production plant operable to produce a feedstock gas at a variable production rate for supply to the downstream process; and a gas storage resource operable to store produced feedstock gas, the method comprising: determining the pressure of feedstock gas in a supply feed line to the downstream process; selectively controlling, using a control system, a flow of feedstock gas from the supply feed line to the gas storage resource or from the gas storage resource to the supply feed line in response to the determined pressure in order to regulate the pressure of the feedstock gas in the supply feed line to the downstream process at a predetermined set point pressure; and selectively controlling, using a control system, a flow rate of feedstock gas in the supply feed line to the downstream process in dependence upon at least one operational parameter of the gas storage resource.

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Macungie, PA, United States of America

Zhong-xiang Zhu