One of Eldridge’s long-time OEM customers needed to modify the design of an existing trailer turbine package to instead use a heavy gas fuel source. The customer needed our assistance in designing an external enclosure exhaust system that would evacuate any fugitive emissions from the heavy gas fuel supply. In undertaking this project, we faced a few key design challenges for a heavy gas fan skid, but we were able to successfully provide the ideal solution for our customer’s application.
Design Challenges
At the start of this project, we identified a couple of key design challenges that we would be facing. Our first design challenge was that the customer wanted to use propane as the fuel source which is about 50% more dense than air. The density of the gas that needed to be evacuated posed two design issues. First, the higher density gas would require more horsepower to be evacuated. Second, because the higher density gas would sink to the floor, exhaust ducting inlets would need to be located at floor level.
The biggest design challenge faced was the requirement for the enclosure exhaust system to be external to the enclosure, portable and have quick connections. This would mean we needed to arrange all of the ventilation equipment into a compact, single skid structure that could be set in place by a crane or forklift. Our design team was pushed beyond their limits and this forced them to think outside of the box.
Final Product Design
Our design team and the OEM’s engineers worked diligently to produce an enclosure exhaust system design to meet their performance requirements. The collaboration resulted in the redesigned trailer turbine package or Heavy Gas Fan Skid, becoming a commercial success. The picture below shows completed systems being prepared for shipment.
Customer Satisfaction
Eldridge strives to provide solutions to our customer’s problems. Often, this requires our design team to think outside the box. As tasking as this may be, it pays off when we design innovative products to meet our customer’s requirements.