Coretech Flow/Master Valve USA was awarded a contract for the supply of manual and automated ball valves for a 30-inch gas pipeline in Mexico. One of the largest private Mexican pipeline companies, Fermaca, will operate the pipeline. The project includes Spanish Engineering Company SENER, as EPC. It includes the 30-inch main line as well as some 42-inch connections. Coretech Flow and Master Valve USA together provided products, design changes, project management and on-site commissioning.
Coretech/Master Valve’s scope of supply included the full range of on/off block valves, 28 units of manual, and 39 units fully automated. Among the 39 automated packages, there are emergency shutdown valves, emergency blowdown valves and automated on/off valves. Only a few of the valve actuators derived their power supply from the gas pipeline. The majority were of electro-hydraulic type. The pipeline company was focused on eliminating emissions when possible and the electro-hydraulic packages served this purpose well. The ESD and BDV electro-hydraulic actuated packages featured advance programmable partial stroke testing capabilities (PST) for preventative diagnostics and failsafe mechanism for emergency situations.
Master Valve and their sister company, Coretech Flow, developed a scheme that allowed the pipeline to initially utilize the available 480 volt, 3 phase power for the motors, while accommodating future plans for making the packages completely “auto contenido”, self contained, when needed.
The overall plan for the pipeline is to eventually utilize solar and battery power for the automated valves. For this, Coretech/Master Valve supplied 24 volt DC motors on the electro-hydraulic actuators, with transformers and rectifiers included for the motors. When it comes time to connect the solar/battery power, the terminals for direct-to-motor connections are included in the terminal box.
The automated valves were integrated and thoroughly tested at the Coretech/Master Valve facilities in Katy, Texas. Coretech/Master Valve will provide technical field support for start-up, commissioning and personnel training as the project commences.
Courtesy of Coretech Flow/Master Valve USA.