Greg Gedney has over 30 years of experience in the elastomer/thermoplastic sealing and composites industry. He has held roles ranging from Product Manager, Equipment & End-user Segment Manager, and Global Engineering Manager, where he has always been motivated to solve his customer's most challenging issues. Greg graduated with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University, Alabama, US. 

How can sealing solutions help to improve efficiency in the fertilizer industry? 
Advanced sealing solutions such as Greene Tweed’s labyrinth seals made of advanced thermoplastic PEEK Arlon® 4020 material, play a vital role in four key areas:  

Reducing Leakage:
This directly improves efficiency in processes such as air separation during ammonia production in the fertilizer industry. The reduced leakage directly improves compressor efficiency, leading to energy and cost savings.  

Improving Efficiency:
Arlon® 4020 labyrinth seals tighten the clearance between the rotor and labyrinth seal tooth profile, restricting gas flow and delivering efficiency gains of up to 1.5%.

Durability and Resistance:
High-performance materials such as thermoplastic PEEK provide exceptional resistance to harsh media environments (e.g., ammonia production processes). The PEEK composite labyrinth tooth can also withstand contact with the rotor during upset (i.e. high vibration) conditions and return to its original shape without wear.  

Energy Savings:
Increased compressor efficiency reduces energy consumption, which can significantly lower operating costs and carbon footprints in energy-intensive industries like fertilizer production.  

Can you provide any case studies where seals have helped to achieve efficiency gains? 
Greene Tweed’s Arlon® 4020 labyrinth seals have enabled MAN Energy Solutions to significantly improve the efficiency of their centrifugal compressors, resulting in six-figure life cycle cost savings for their customers. Typically, leakage across metallic labyrinth seals causes efficiency losses in compressors of ~4%. Arlon® 4020 seals, featuring a flexible tooth profile and optimal clearances, improve the compressor efficiency by  1-2%.     

Theoretical efficiency gains of 1-1.5% (calculated through FEA/CFD analysis) and thoroughly evaluated during laboratory testing at the MAN R&D facilities, have now been proven during an extensive field trial at an air separation plant in Hamburg, Germany.  The Arlon 4020 labyrinth seals installed in January 2016 were removed after nearly nine years of use in November 2024. After removal, the seals showed no significant wear or corrosion, maintaining key parameters like diameter and roundness.  

Field tests validated greater than 1% efficiency improvement. For a typical new booster air compressor with four closed impellers and a 3-MW average power per stage, this efficiency boost translates to an estimated total lifecycle cost savings of $300,000, based on an average power cost evaluation of $0.025/kWh.  

What is your R&D process to develop new seals? 
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. By working closely with OEM customers and end users across the industries we serve, our engineers identify critical gaps, anticipate future needs, and align our product roadmap with what will benefit our customers’ operations the most.   

Four core priorities drive our R&D efforts: reliability, efficiency, safety, and sustainability. These pillars guide every project, ensuring that our innovations not only deliver exceptional performance, but also contribute to a safer, more efficient, and environmentally responsible future.   

(To learn more about R&D, testing, and field trials, read the full interview originally published in World Fertilizer)