Portable Air Driven
Gas Boosters &
Gas Boosting Stations


Stephen Balaram Engineering have many years of experience in designing and supplying a diverse range of high pressure test pumps & systems, hydraulic high pressure power packs and specialist bespoke designed hydraulic control panels, spanning across a wide range of industries, including but not limited to, the Oil & Gas Industry, Machine Tool Industry, Hose & Valve Manufacturing, Automotive & Autoancillaries, Defence Research & Development, Educational R&D Institutes, Space & Aerospace Manufacturing, etc., to name a few.

SBE Portable Air Driven Gas Boosters


SBE-J24320-AG-75 for accumulator charging

SBE-J24320-AG-75 for accumulator charging


As with air driven hydraulic pumping systems, the engineers at Stephen Balaram Engineering are well versed with the design and application of high pressure pneumatic/gas boosters and gas pressure boosting stations. A range of designs and layout arrangements are offered, depending on the particular industrial environment, available utilities, and of course the client’s specific requirements.

Designed around the wide range of Haskel air driven gas boosters, with expert advice available directly from the manufacturer, SBE portable air driven gas boosters are fully functional devices with plug-and-play convenience. SBE’s portable air driven gas booster packages range from simple portable roll-bar frame mounted units with basic controls to portable, fully enclosed units, packaged in rugged, lightweight portable ‘Pelican’ carry cases. The packaged units SBE-J23420- series are favoured by helicopter maintenance crews as they are compact, lightweight and easy to transport in small aircraft cabins. They are also popular with offshore oil & gas maintenance teams for applications such as pneumatic testing of safety relief valves at remote offshore/onshore site locations. The roll bar units are typically used for “topping up’ or gas charging of Nitrogen gas filled hydraulic bladder accumulators or piston accumulators, with models available for gas filling at pressures upto 500 bar / 7,250 psi or higher.

Portable compact roll bar frame units are extensively used for pneumatic calibration, pneumatic/gas high pressure leak testing of tubes, components, etc.. Models are typically available for maximum operating pressures of 200 bar, 400 bar, 500 bar, 600 bar, 1000 bar, 1400 bar and 1600 bar.


SBE Gas Boosting Stations


SBE 3-stage gas boosting station for testing large subsea valves

SBE 3-stage gas boosting station for testing large subsea valves


For stationary applications or those applications requiring sophisticated gas pressurization & control or for the generation of higher gas pressures, SBE offer custom designed Gas Boosting Stations.

SBE gas boosting stations can involve the following gas booster compressor technologies:

  • Air driven gas boosters
  • Electro hydraulically driven gas booster compressors
  • Electric motor driven diaphragm booster compressors
  • Electric motor driven reciprocating multi-stage booster compressors

Selection of the appropriate technology and the particular pressure boosting equipment needs to be done very carefully, keeping in mind the pressures, flows, cycling speeds, available utilities and in case of air driven boosters, the available drive air flowrate and pressure. A combination of in-depth knowledge and experience is required to offer an effective solution.

As with air driven hydraulic pumps, too many times vendors offer or customers select “catalog” ratings and discover disappointment with the performance, resulting in financial losses. The SBE engineering team knows only too well of many instances of incorrect selection of technologies and even incorrect model selection, which have proven to be costly mistakes. During selection of pneumatic driven gas boosters, for example, an often ignored yet extremely important parameter, is the maximum operating ‘Compression Ratio”. Typically, ignorance of the C/R results in selection of a single-stage gas booster (or sometimes even two stage) due to the lower price, when in fact a two-stage gas booster (or even three stage or four stage) booster may well be called for. At other times, where the heavy-duty 8” dia. gas boosters series 8AGD or 8AGT need to be used, it is observed that the standard AG boosters have been purchased, resulting in unsatisfactory performance.

Where full automation is necessary, the SBE team are skilled and experienced with designing and manufacturing PLC controlled test benches complete with Windows PC based SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition) system for pressures to 35,000 psi / 2,500 bar.

Even higher gas pressures are possible using the specialist high pressure range of Nova Swiss Diaphragm Compressors.

SBE Gas Boosting Station for CNG / Hydrogen gas for Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs)

SBE Gas Boosting Station for CNG / Hydrogen gas for Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs)