Officials from ABB (Norwalk, Conn.), Texas A&M’s Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, and the Global Petroleum Research Institute recently marked the advances being made at the university’s Multiphase Field Lab with a ceremony that included the donation of a 350-hp ABB DriveIT variable frequency drive (VFD) (photo).
The VFD will be used to power and control all the multiphase pumps at Texas A&M’s Riverside Test Facility and, along with newly installed pumps, represents the latest technology to be put into use in oil and gas fields around the world.
In the past five years, more oil companies have installed multiphase pumps. Texas A&M is the only university in the nation to have two of the twin-screw type of pumps available for research and teaching. ABB’s donation—valued at about $65,000—included the ACS 600 DriveIT low-voltage ac drive and engineering services for installation, commissioning, and start up of the motor controller.
For more information, visit the Web at www.abb.com.
