More than 270 Rotork process control actuators have been ordered for an LNG project in Australia.

The customers purchased the quarter-turn CVQ electric actuators which will operate ball and v-ball valves on separator skids to control the water extraction process at an onshore natural gas production site in the Surat Basin. The ball valves will be used to shut off the gas and the v-ball valves will carry out flow control by controlling pressure build up during well operation.

The basin, located in SW Queensland, is used by Shell’s QGC business to develop natural gas for domestic and international markets through the project. Here, natural gas is extracted from wells drilled into coal seams in the Surat Basin before it is transported to a collection point for the removal of water and condensates.

The highly accurate and responsive CVQ units offer resolution figures of 0.1 per cent and have the ability to eliminate position overshoot, helping reduce production costs and increase efficiency. The actuators, which are powered by 24 VDC and controlled by HART protocol for the project, also hold IEC Ex certification – the only acceptable hazardous area standard in Australia – while they are also double-sealed to IP68 (20 m for 10 days).

Rotork’s CVA range of actuators, which includes both the CVQ and CVL linear variant, are suitable for almost all part-turn and linear control valve applications. Providing continuous unrestricted modulation duty, the actuators feature an on-board datalogger as standard and configurable fail-to-position option using supercapacitor technology. Speed control can be adjusted while accurate and repeatable position control can be carried out using a 4-20 mA signal.