Gas compressor cleaning

GAS COMPRESSOR CLEANING 5 The present invention relates to a method of cleaning deposited solid material from a fouled portion of a gas compressor whilst the gas compressor is in situ in a natural gas processing system. The method comprises supplying a liquid cleaning agent to a gas inlet of the gas compressor. The liquid cleaning agent is capable of removing the deposited solid material. The method further comprises passing the 10 liquid cleaning agent through the gas compressor to a gas outlet of the gas compressor. At least a portion of the cleaning agent remains in a liquid state as it passes through the fouled portion of the gas compressor. The method further comprises recovering a fluid containing removed deposited solid material that is output from the gas compressor so as to prevent the removed deposited solid 15 material reaching one or more gas processing stages of the natural gas processing system downstream of the gas compressor. Recovering the fluid output from the gas compressor comprises supplying a fluid output from the gas outlet of the gas compressor to a separator that outputs a gas phase output and a liquid phase output. The liquid phase output comprises the removed deposited solid material 20 output from the gas compressor. The separator is upstream of the gas compressor and the fluid output from the gas compressor is passed to the separator by opening an anti-surge valve such that substantially all fluid output from the gas compressor is returned via an anti-surge line to the separator. 25 [Fig. 1] Fig. 1