Although the ball valve was invented in the 1950’s it is more used today than ever before in history. This valve made of a simple ball with a hole in it has found wide spread applications in the chemical, petroleum refining, paper making, water treatment plants, and many other industries.

The engineering beauty of ball valves and control valves from their simplicity. A ball with a hole in the middle sits inside passage way that fluid or air from passing through. When the ball is turned so its hole is in line with the pipe the fluid passes though, however when it is turned so the hole does not line up with the pipe the movement of fluid is stopped. This simple design allows ball valves to withstand temperatures of up to 200 degrees and pressures of up to 700 bars making them ideal for most industrial uses and easy to repair. The whole mechanism can easily be controlled by a handle outside the valve that can be turned 90 degrees.

Ball valves come in a large variety. There sizes range from as small as half of a centimeter to is much is 30 centimeters. They also come in five different body styles: split body, single body, top entry, three-piece body, and wielded. Despite the variety in ball valves, all ball valves work in much the same way.

Houston.jpg.scaled500 Ball Valves Are They Useful?

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2Apr/110

Valves and More at Global Valves and Controls

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Pipeline Ball Valves are manufactured and tested in accordance with the requirements of API 6D, and are designed not to rely on lubricant to ensure that they seal.

During manufacture and factory testing, the use of lubricants and/or sealants is prohibited. This is to prevent masking of any defects in the new valve.

Installation and commissioning into a pipeline is an interventive engineering process, making use of hot and cold working techniques relying on mechanical tooling. As a result it is inevitable that between valve installation and commissioning, an amount of foreign debris will enter the valve (i.e. sand / dirt / swarf / weld slag). This is a natural result of the manufacturing process that cannot be avoided.

Once installed the valve is usually cycled during the testing of its gearbox or actuator, and again during hydrostatic testing of the pipeline.

These activities create tiny scratches on the polished ball surface where the debris present in the line wears on the ball and seat during the cycling of the valve.

In time, this reduces the valves ability to provide an adequate seal, as these tiny scratches begin to cause minor leak paths. All fluid and gas flows contain an element of contaminant which contributes to this effect over the life of the valve.

Minor leak paths that seal at low pressure become obvious when using the valve to isolate high pressure gas. Seating material is often softer than the ball itself in order to provide a pliable material which takes up minor leak paths, but at higher pressures the gas compresses the seats and they become less pliable meaning that the minor leak paths become more significant at higher pressures.

This type of damage mechanism can also be said to be true for gate and plug valves, as gate and plug surfaces are also susceptible to the similar damage. In fact any sealing surface subject to mechanical friction is susceptible to the damage mechanism described above.

Lubricants, lubricant-sealants and emergency-sealants

Lubricants help clean valve internals, and reduce operating torque. Valvecare use a light lubricant called Equa-Lube Eighty from Sealweld immediately after hydrostatic testing of valve, to purge all test water from seat pockets where corrosion normally occurs. The advantage of this is that it removes as much debris as possible from the internal mechanism of the valve, thus reducing the chance for wear. Lubrication also reduces the friction between the wearing surfaces. Of course, new contaminant can be introduced at any time via the flow in the pipeline.

Lubricant-Sealants help to preserve seat sealing effectiveness, and to seal worn valves with minor leakage problems. Valvecare use a lubricant-sealant called Total-Lube # 911 from Sealweld, this has been proven to seal minor scratches to sealing surfaces and shallow corrosion pits, as well as small nicks and cuts on soft seals.

For valves with sealing surface scoring, this is an effective way to achieve a bubble tight seal on a valve that would otherwise fail a leak test. Use of lubricant-sealants can delay or prevent the need for costly overhaul of a worn valve.

Emergency Sealants provide an effective temporary means of creating of leak tight seal, even on valves with severe leakage problems. Valve sealing plays an important role, when performing pipeline repair, modification or renewal work, as often the costs of shutting down, evacuating, draining, and excavating pipeline equipment are typically many times more than just the cost of a new valve. Valvecare use a Valve Sealant called Ball Valve Sealant #5050 from Sealweld, containing particles of PTFE, and is capable of sealing relatively large scratches to sealing surfaces.

Lubrication

Lubrication is introduced into the valve, using the seat injection fittings. Valves that do not have seat injections fittings can usually be retrofitted to include these. Specialist valve maintenance companies, such as Valvecare, can advise you on specifics for individual valves.

Seat lubrication, is a proven means of cleaning foreign debris from valve seats, and done properly as part of a scheduled valve maintenance programme, stops debris from getting there in the first place. This practice significantly reduces damage suffered during installation, commissioning and normal cycling operation, extending the service life of the valve dramatically. The costs associated with a scheduled maintenance program including lubrication are considerably lower than a full overhaul or replacement of the valve itself.

Lubricating your valves gives the following operational advantages:

Cleans their seats of potentially damaging particles (Sand / Dirt / Swarf / weld slag)
Stops debris from getting stuck between seats if administered before pigging pipeline
Prevents and removes stiction (Torque to operate reduced / less strain on stem and actuator)
Preserves the life of their seals, and components against mechanical and corrosion damage

These advantages reduce operational cost and should therefore form part of your planned valve maintenance programme.

Sealing

Emergency Sealing involves the introduction of heavy sealant, through the valve seat injection fittings, to achieve a temporary seal. Valves that do not have seat injections fittings can usually be retrofitted to include these. Specialist valve maintenance companies, such as Valvecare, can advise you on specifics for individual valves.

Emergency Sealing your valves:

Provides an temporary bubble tight seal, even on valves with severe leakage problems

Has significant cost savings, when compared to alternatives

Saves time, with lead times for some replacement pipeline valves taking several months

The Lubrication, lubricant-Sealant and Emergency Sealant process involves the use of specialist equipment, capable of pumping a range of lubrication and sealant types safely at pressures of 10,000–15,000 psi. It is recommended that trained valve service engineers, proficient in the safe use of sealant guns and pumps, carry out this procedure.

Important Considerations

Lubrication and sealing becomes more critical in applications such as Natural Gas, Production Wellheads, Gathering Systems, Gas processing Plants, Pipelines, Gas Storage Facilities and Gas Distribution Systems. Applications like these are more likely to cause damage to the critical sealing surfaces of valves, due to the lack of lubrication present in dry gas, and the presence of sand and debris in production wellheads. As part of a valve maintenance programme, preventative valve maintenance helps minimises the adverse effects of these services, increasing the service life of your valves.

For increased valve service life, the presence of an emergency seat sealant injection feature is an important consideration when procuring pipeline valve stock.

Equally as important is the choice of injection fittings and/or adaptors that are installed on the valve. Sealant injection fittings feature a means of passing sealant or lubricant into the valve, and incorporate a high pressure metal seated check valve. As a safety precaution, Valvecare do not endorse the use of carbon steel, crimped style injection fittings. As standard, we only recommend the use quality stainless steel injection fittings incorporating a threaded spring retaining cage, in order to minimise the risk of dangerous fitting failure.

Valve lubrication and sealing is an essential part of an effectively managed valve maintenance programme. Once installed and lubricated, a regular documented lubrication schedule should be established for all critical valves. Valvecare specialise in a supplying a total management programme for your valves, with a focus on the criticality of valves in relation to impact on safety elements and production, maintenance routines, spares holding, valve tracking and selection procedures. This type of valve management programme is a highly effective way of optimising reliability and safety whilst minimising cost and downtime.

Valves and More at Global Valves and Controls

1Apr/110

Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

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Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

When it comes to infrastructure, we can really name a lot of companies which are getting into it and one of the most in demand services anywhere today is plumbing. Without plumbing, people would always have a ruin day due to an inadequacy of water. More than that, when we are also going to talk about plumbing, we also need to consider the things that they mostly use and one of which are those valves that are useful in order to make a job successful. If you are among the plumbers, you will surely look for the most durable and top-quality kind of valve, and in such case, the use of steel ball valves should be taken account.

There are now plenty of manufacturing companies who had study hard in order to make the best valve to use in any sorts of plumbing activity and good thing was, Global Valve and Controls had able to establish the perfect valve to be used in any sorts of plumbing constructions. Steel ball valves are among their recent valves being made which has been establish through the finest technological method and had able to pass various evaluations from experts as well. With these steel ball valves, you can really have the guarantee that this would last long despite the fact that it is being use constantly.

Global Valve and Controls had undergone careful study in order to perfectly design the right valves to be use in all sorts of plumbing construction. GVC’s have their own technical support team who see to it that all steel ball valves are of top quality and will even provide you with best function. You can now start buying these steel ball valves since these are now available in all markets in your place.

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31Mar/110

Keystone XL Pipeline In Final Stages Of Federal Review – Helping Pipeline Companies

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"Keystone XL has been under review since 2008 and we are confident we have addressed the major questions raised by regulators and government agencies," says Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive. "We expect a final regulatory decision for this project by late 2011 and we are pleased the Department of State has committed it will conclude its review of Keystone XL by the end of the year. The Keystone expansion is expected to be operational in 2013."

Since 2008, TransCanada has held more than 90 open houses and public meetings along the pipeline route; given hundreds of hours of testimony to local, state and federal officials and submitted thousands of pages of information to government agencies in response to questions. The Department of State concluded in the spring of 2010 that Keystone XL would have limited impact on the environment during construction and operation.

"A growing number of opinion leaders, elected officials, labour unions, associations and members of the public are showing their support for Keystone XL," adds Girling. "Instability and unrest in Libya and other parts of the Middle East demonstrate the need for the U.S. to receive a safe, secure, stable supply of oil--Keystone XL will provide that. The project will help put America back to work, creating 20,000 jobs and injecting billions into the U.S. economy."

The U.S. Department of Energy stated in a recent study that "increased Canadian oil imports will help reduce U.S. imports of foreign oil from sources outside of North America." This supports TransCanada's point that we can reduce America's dependence on oil from Venezuela and the Middle East by up to 40 percent with the Keystone XL pipeline. As the American GI Forum of Texas recently pointed out, the oil that the Keystone system will deliver is "conflict free."

The study also confirmed that the construction of Keystone XL would not change global refinery carbon dioxide or total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier analysis by The Perryman Group out of Texas regarding the economic benefits of the project concluded that:

•More than $585 million in new taxes will go to the states and communities along the pipeline route

•An additional $5.2 billion in property taxes will be paid over the operating life of the pipeline

•More than $6.5 billion in personal income will go to Americans

•U.S.-based producers will have new options to move crude oil to American refineries.

"Keystone XL is a shovel-ready project that is funded completely by private sector investment at no cost to American taxpayers," concluds Girling. "It will be a safe, modern and leading-edge pipeline and we have provided the Department of State and other agencies with the facts regarding Keystone XL's design, safety, operating procedures and limited environmental impact."

Keystone XL Pipeline In Final Stages Of Federal Review Helping Pipeline Companies

31Mar/110

Sunoco Expand Pipeline Deal

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Sunoco Expand Pipeline Deal

NEB Schedules Hearing For Trans Mountain Firm Service Application- Mar 25, 2011
Marcellus Midstream 2011: Sensor-based Technologies Are A Focus For Pipeline Research- Mar 24, 2011
Niobrara Midstream- Mar 18, 2011
Rockies Midstream Infrastructure- Mar 18, 2011
Mackenzie Gas Project Receives NEB Approval- Mar 18, 2011

MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources, LLC, Denver, Colo., a partnership between MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. and The Energy & Minerals Group, and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P., Philadephia, Penn., have reported the development of Project Mariner West, a pipeline project to deliver Marcellus Shale ethane from MarkWest Liberty’s Houston, Pennsylvania processing and fractionation complex to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada markets. Mariner West, which is being developed at the request of Marcellus producer customers and is supported by Sarnia ethane consumers, will utilize new and existing pipelines and is anticipated to have a maximum capacity to transport up to 65,000 barrels per day of ethane by the third quarter of 2012. Mariner West is an expansion of Project Mariner, a pipeline and marine project developed to transport ethane produced in the Marcellus Shale basin to US Gulf Coast and international markets by mid-2013.

To support deliveries to Canadian markets in 2012, MarkWest Liberty will make minor modifications to its natural gas processing complexes and will install ethane extraction facilities at its Houston complex to deliver ethane to Mariner West earlier than will be required for deliveries to Project Mariner. In addition, MarkWest Liberty will construct a 25-mile pipeline from the Houston complex to an interconnection with an existing Sunoco Logistics pipeline at Vanport, Pennsylvania. The ethane will then be transported from Vanport to markets in Sarnia utilizing existing Sunoco Logistics pipelines, which will be modified for ethane service. Project Mariner and Mariner West are both designed to provide Marcellus producers with access to multiple ethane markets to match the growing rich-gas production in the Marcellus.

“When combined with our growing NGL pipeline network in the Marcellus and our highly integrated Houston fractionation and marketing complex, Mariner West provides a very significant advantage to Marcellus producers,” said Frank Semple, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MarkWest. “MarkWest and The Energy & Minerals Group are very pleased to partner again with Sunoco Logistics to further expand the midstream services we provide to our producer customers.”

“Project Mariner West has the advantage of allowing us to modify our existing pipeline facilities to reach Sarnia, Canada where there is a market for Marcellus ethane. We are pleased to participate in Project Mariner West and to partner with MarkWest Liberty in serving Marcellus producer customers," said Lynn L. Elsenhans, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sunoco Logistics. “Our existing infrastructure is well positioned to provide an efficient solution for producers to move ethane to Sarnia as well as across Pennsylvania to a Delaware River marine port to access multiple markets.”

29Mar/110

Keeping Up Todate With Global Valves and Controls

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Southcross Energy Agrees To Construct Major Natural Gas Pipeline Extension In South Texas

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March 8, 2011

Marcellus Midstream 2011: Range, MarkWest Speed Ahead In The Wet-Gas Marcellus- Mar 23, 2011
Granite Wash, Marcellus Represent Growth Areas for MarkWest- Mar 18, 2011
Chesapeake Midstream’s Low-Risk Model Proves Beneficial- Mar 18, 2011
Armstrong: Permitting Issues are the Biggest Obstacle for Midstream Operators- Mar 11, 2011
Southcross, Swift Ink TX Pipeline/Processing Agreement- Mar 8, 2011

Southcross Energy, Dallas, Texas, has reported that the company has entered into a long-term agreement with Swift Energy Company to provide natural gas gathering, transportation and processing services for production from Swift Energy’s acreage in McMullen County, Texas. Southcross will construct a 25-mile, 20-inch natural gas pipeline with related lateral gathering lines and convert an existing dry pipeline system to rich gas service in order to gather the Swift Energy gas for processing.

The McMullen extension will have an initial, expandable capacity of 120 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The system, which is expected to be in service in mid-2011, will originate in McMullen County, Texas and extend to Southcross’ CCNG Transmission pipeline for gas delivery to and processing at Southcross’ processing plant near Gregory, Texas.

“This pipeline will be an additional extension for Southcross into the Eagle Ford Shale play, an important step in accomplishing our growth strategy. We are delighted to establish this relationship with Swift Energy and provide the important services Swift Energy requires in South Texas,” says David W. Biegler, Southcross Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

28Mar/110

Flanged Valves and More At GVC

Related Information:

March 2, 2011

NEB Schedules Hearing For Trans Mountain Firm Service Application- Mar 25, 2011
Marcellus Midstream 2011: Sensor-based Technologies Are A Focus For Pipeline Research- Mar 24, 2011
Niobrara Midstream- Mar 18, 2011
Rockies Midstream Infrastructure- Mar 18, 2011
Mackenzie Gas Project Receives NEB Approval- Mar 18, 2011

Endeavour International Corp., Houston, has received approval from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change to go ahead with the Rochelle Field Development Plan (FDP) for Block 15/27 in the Central North Sea, now known as East Rochelle.

The current FDP calls for the subsea gas and condensate development to be linked by a 30 km pipeline to production facilities on the Scott Platform.

First production is planned for the second half of 2012.

Endeavour is operator of East Rochelle and holds a 55.6 per cent working interest in the development. Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd holds the remaining 44.4 per cent interest.

This approval represents phase one of the development of the Greater Rochelle area.

28Mar/110

Daily Article – Global Valve and Controls

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Frank Nieto | March 11, 2011

Gulf South Is One Of The Largest Pipeline Systems In U.S.- Mar 25, 2011

Gulf South Is One Of The Largest Pipeline Systems In U.S.- Mar 25, 2011

Just how significant has the Marcellus shale been in increasing the production of natural gas in the Northeast? That’s the question that the Midstream Monitor decided to answer in our first Spotlight feature.

Using data supplied by Hart Energy’s Mapping & GIS division, Midstream Monitor found that production out of the Marcellus region rose from 62.25 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) on January 1, 2008 just before the region became hot to 3.19 Bcf/d on December 31, 2010 after production had taken off in the region.

While there have been dips in these production figures during this two-year period, by and large production has gone from strength-to-strength with production peaking on December 24, 2010 at 3.24 Bcf/d.

It is important to note that these figures do not represent the Marcellus shale alone, only receipt figures from gathering systems in the region. These pipe flows do not necessarily represent actual wellhead production.

“Production out of the Marcellus shale is currently approximately 1.3 Bcf/d and should exit the year by jumping over the 2 Bcf/d hurdle,” Opoku Danquah, director of upstream research for Hart Energy, said.

While gas prices remain weak, the Marcellus shale represents a premium market for producers due to its proximity to lucrative markets in the Northeast. However, this location also presents a problem for producers – namely being able to get these volumes to market.

This has turned out to be a boon for midstream operators, who are in the midst of building up the region with much needed infrastructure. The biggest projects attached to the Marcellus from a midstream perspective are, of course, pipelines with companies such as Williams, Spectra, El Paso, Kinder Morgan and EQT building new pipelines, as well as laterals to existing pipelines.

However, there are also strong opportunities for natural gas processing plants since the states that make up the play are among the lowest in terms of processing capacity. Because of this processing shortage in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, we’ve already seen several plants in each state brought online or announced so far this year.

In January, Caiman Energy brought the 120 MMcf/d Ft. Beeler cryogenic plant online in Cameron, West Virginia and that same month MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources announced it will build its third natural gas processing plant in the play when it constructs a 120 MMcf/d cryogenic plant in Logansport, W. Va., by mid-2012. This will be MarkWest Liberty’s third plant in the play. – Frank Nieto

27Mar/110

Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

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Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

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Ball Valves – Are They Useful?

Ball Valves in our history, have always proven helpful in a variety of ways. Review the article below and let us know what you think. Enjoy!

Importance of Ball and Pressure Valves to Industry Today

Valves and More at Global Valves and Controls

Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

Keystone XL Pipeline In Final Stages Of Federal Review – Helping Pipeline Companies

Sunoco Expand Pipeline Deal

Sunoco Expand Pipeline Deal

Keeping Up Todate With Global Valves and Controls

Daily Article – Global Valve and Controls

Making Use of Steel Ball Valves

Blogroll

Flanged Valves Posts

Pipeline Valves Categories

Pipeline Valves Archives

Threaded & Socket Weld Valves

Learn More Below About Global Valve and Control Valves

High Performance Valves

Series FSD 525

Series 525

Series FS 525

Series GVD-20

General Service Valves

Series 800

Series 10

Series 20 RP

Series 20 FP

Series 30

Series BV2000

High Pressure Valves

Series BV6000

Series 790

Series NV 10000

Related articles

Ball Valves in our history, have always proven helpful in a variety of ways. Review the article below and let us know what you think. Enjoy!

Importance of Ball and Pressure Valves to Industry Today

Sunoco Expand Pipeline Deal

Blogroll

Flanged Valves Posts

Pipeline Valves Categories

Pipeline Valves Archives