Grupo Compás, which trades as Alloy Valve Stockist, is an industrial alloy valve stockist and distributor based out of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and is recognized as one of the fastest growing service companies in Spain. Their customers come from three areas of activity: ''chemical and petrochemical refineries, combined cycle plants and companies related to the natural gas business'', such as BASF,

Repsol YPF Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31Originally an init ...

Saudi Aramco Saudi Aramco ( ar, أرامكو السعودية '), officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (formerly Arabian-American Oil Company) or simply Aramco, is a Saudi Arabian public petroleum and natural gas company based in Dhahran. , it is one of ...

, Galp,

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...

and

Marathon Oil Marathon Oil Corporation is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration incorporated in Ohio and headquartered in the Marathon Oil Tower in Houston, Texas. A direct descendant of Standard Oil, it also runs international gas operations ...

; ''integrated engineering companies'', like

Sener SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in 1956, and specialises in activities related to Engineering and Construction, and has industrial holdings in companies working in the areas of energy, environment and aeronautics. SEN ...

Technip Technip S.A. was a company that carried out project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry; in 2017 it completed a merger with FMC Technologies to form TechnipFMC. Its headquarters were in the 16th arrondissement of Pa ...

and

OneSteel Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group. Hist ...

; and ''valve manufacturers, stockists and specialized distributors'', like Econosto and MRC Transmark. Grupo Compás supplies end users internationally, though the bulk of customers come from the US,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Grupo Compás is part of The M Corporation (

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

), a company that specializes in supplies to

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

and fine chemicals companies. The company started in 1972, initially as a supplier of mechanical parts, such as nuts and bolts, to workshops and hydraulic maintenance companies. It gradually extended its scope of supply to larger engineering firms and manufacturing plants in

. During the 1980s and 1990s, the company obtained representation agreements with several international

pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

and

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

companies. Given the complexity of these products, the manufacturers of each brand had to be approved by the end user sites, and this part of the business gradually became the company's main focus. With the proliferation of products of Asian origin, which the market supplying to the petrochemical sector began noting heavily from 2000 onwards, Grupo Compás began withdrawing from the representation business, converting itself into a consultant to the end users to which it used to supply mechanical equipment. The strategy of advising plants on their procurements accelerated such that in 2003, Grupo Compás expanded its service from Spain to the rest of the

, then the rest of Europe in 2004, into

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in 2006 and to a worldwide scale in 2008, limiting its business to the valves business. In this business segment, Grupo Compás supplies

valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

s internationally from its Barcelona warehouse.

Processes in which high-alloy valves are used

Exotic alloy valves are designed to meet the complex combinations of corrosion, temperature and pressure in industrial processes.

Alkylation and Hydrofluoric Acid (HF Acid): monel valves in A494 M35-1, N04400 and Monel 400

Alkylation Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting ...

in petroleum refining is a process through which

olefin In organic chemistry, an alkene is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. Alkene is often used as synonym of olefin, that is, any hydrocarbon containing one or more double bonds.H. Stephen Stoker (2015): General, Organic, an ...

s and parafins are combined to form high molecular weight

isoparaffin In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in which ...

s. Alkylation uses

hydrofluoric acid Hydrofluoric acid is a Solution (chemistry), solution of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in water. Solutions of HF are colourless, acidic and highly Corrosive substance, corrosive. It is used to make most fluorine-containing compounds; examples include th ...

(hf acid), a highly corrosive substance that dissolves a wide range of materials, particularly the

oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound that contains at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion of oxygen, an O2– (molecular) ion. with oxygen in the oxidation state of −2. Most of the E ...

s. Monel valves are generally used in the most critical phases of alkylation due to their corrosion resistant properties.

Sulphuric acid: Alloy 20 valves in A182 CN7M, N08020 and Carpenter 20

Sulphuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

is a petrochemical derivative used in the manufacture of fertilizers; it is highly corrosive. Alloy 20 valves are used to handle the corrosion, particularly when the acid concentration levels reach 96-98%.

Desalination: duplex and super duplex valves in A182 F51, F55, S31802, S32760, A995 4A and 6A

Desalination plants refine

sea water Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...

in order to produce potable water. Duplex and super duplex valves are corrosion resistant to sea water salinity are therefore often used in desalination plants.

Thermal interchange: titanium valves in A182 316Ti, B381 F2, B367 C2, R50400, B348 and 1.4571

Heat exchange systems—often found at

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

s—are used due to their mechanical resistance properties which in turn makes de tubular plenums resistant to vibrations. This in turn allows the tubes to be thinner and hence allow for eat exchange As titanium produces a stainless cover on its surface, it makes it a heat and

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engine ...

resistant medium. Titanium valves are therefore often used in heat critical parts thermal power stations.

Nuclear reactors: valves in Hastelloy B and C A494 CW6M y CW6, N06022, N10276, B3, C22 and C276

Nickel alloys, such as the different grades of hastelloy are known for their heat resistance properties, as well as their moderate to elevated resistance to head. Hastelloy valves are often used in pressure vessels at

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

Gas turbines: inconel and incoloy valves in A494 CY40 y CW6M, N06600, N06625, N08800, N08825 and B564

Inconel and incoloy valves are used in gas turbine engines in those parts of the process that are subject to heat and require mechanical resistance to

creep Creep, Creeps or CREEP may refer to: People * Creep, a creepy person Politics * Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), mockingly abbreviated as CREEP, an fundraising organization for Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign Art ...

as well as corrosion and

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

Vapor: copper valves in A182 F91, A217 C12, 904L, Uranus B6 and N08904

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

and

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

alloys are extremely heat resistant and can tolerate the high pressure-temperature process combination that are typically found at combined cycle plants that use super heated vapor to produce electricity.

Chlorine: super austenitic valves in A182 F44, 254 SMO, 6Moly and A351 CK3MCu

Piping and valves that are exposed to concentrated chlorine require super austenitic alloys that remain inert to the medium. Valves made of 6moly, 254 SMO and A182 F44 are suitable for such process conditions.

Valve trims

Some petrochemical processes do not require valves to be completely made of a particular alloy, but allow that only the valve parts that are in contact with the medium (known as trim or wetted parts).Engineering discussions on the selection of appropriat
valve trims
/ref> Cost savings are a great catalyst for combining standard material valve bodies with alloy trim. For example, for a valve used at an inland desalination plant may it might be sufficient to use a duplex or super duplex trim, whilst the same valve used offshore might have to be made of duplex or super duplex body and trim. The

American Petroleum Institute The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the pet ...

ha
standardized
18 trims, amongst others Trim 9 (monel), and trim 13 (Alloy 20). Other trims, however, can be made according to a manufacturer's own standards.

Product gallery

Hastelloy Ball valve.jpg, Hastelloy ball valve Valve.jpg, Stainless steel gate valve Gate valve.JPG, Stainless steel gate valve Swing Check valves.JPG, Hastelloy

check valve A check valve, non-return valve, reflux valve, retention valve, foot valve, or one-way valve is a valve that normally allows fluid (liquid or gas) to flow through it in only one direction. Check valves are two-port valves, meaning they have t ...

s Duplex-valve-A182-F51.JPG, Duplex ball valve Inconel gate valve--The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Inconel gate valve Wafer check valve--The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Stainless steel wafer

Inconel-Tilting_disc_check_valve--The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Inconel

Ball valve--The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Stainless steel ball valve Cryogenic-gate-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Cryogenic 254 SMO gate valve Inside-tilting-disc-check-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.jpg, Inside view of a tilting disc inconel

Duplex-ball-valves-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Duplex ball valves Cryogenic-stainless-steel-gate-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Cryogenic super duplex gate valve frozen up during operation Duplex-ball-valves-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist-side.JPG, Super duplex ball valves Flanged-Nozzle-check-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Flanged nozzle inconel

or axial check valve Inside-wafer-check-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.JPG, Inside hastelloy

, wafer configuration Large-swing-check-valve-The-Alloy-Valve-Stockist.jpg, Large carbon steel swing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grupo Compas Companies based in Barcelona