User:Doricas/sandbox/bdl

Zahroof Valves, Inc. is a manufacturer of valves for use in reciprocating gas compressors. It is headquartered in Houston, Texas, United States. Their reed valve system is regarded as a fundemental change in a 200 year old design.

History
Zahroof Valves Inc. (“ZVI”) is a privately owned Corporation founded by Zahroof Mohamed on November 9, 2010 as a Texas Corporation. It converted to a Delaware Corporation on May 23, 2016. ZVI was formed to develop the Modular Reed Valve technology developed by Zahroof Corp. in the application of valves assemblies for reciprocating gas compressors. The development of the Modular Reed Valve technology was started in the garage of Zahroof’s house in Cypress, TX. The Dynamic Valve Analysis and Cylinder Simulation program, a sophisticated program using NIST real gas properties to simulate the performance of a compressor cylinder using different types of valves, the dynamic analysis of the valves to predict failure, and the analysis of different leakage paths and inefficiencies for trouble-shooting was developed by February 2010.

A feasibility prototype valve was designed, manufactured and tested at Zahroof’s house form March through July 2010 and the first prototype valves for testing in a compressor station and in a large compressor in an OEM’s R&D facility were machined and assembled there by March 2011. In September 2011, ZVI hired Dilipsenthil Damodaran to be responsible for Quality Assurance and Supply Chain and the company moved to a 2000 sq ft facility on Jackrabbit Road in Houston, Texas. In 2011 and 2012 prototypes of the valve were tested in two different compressor stations validating the technology. In 2013, the first production pilot valves were tested in gas gathering applications in two different locations in Texas. Based on results from extensive testing of the valves in the laboratory as well as in the field, design parameters were developed and incorporated into the Dynamic Valve Analysis and Cylinder Simulation program to apply this technology reliabily in different gas compression applications. Since March of 2014, production valves have been installed in various applications in different parts of the US and Canada as drop in valve replacements for all the major compressor brands including Ariel, Dresser-Rand, Cooper, Superior, Gemini, CIP and Ingersoll-Rand. In 2014 the company moved to its current facility.

Shyamkumar Ravikumar joined ZVI as Mechanical Engineer in December 3, 2012. Anthony Gioffredi joined ZVI as CEO on September 15, 2014. Dan Rogers joined ZVI as VP, Sales and Marketing on July 13, 2016. Gary Kasper joined ZVI as VP, Finance on October 13, 2016. NGP Energy Technology Partners (NGP ETP), a private equity firm, invested in the company in July 2013 and December 2014.

Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the corporate venturing arm of Saudi Aramco, and NGP Energy Technology Partners closed a Series C round of funding for ZVI in July 2016.

In 2016, ZVI partnered with Drivetrain Power and Propulsion as the exclusive Australia and New Zealand distributor.

Products
Zahroof Valves, Inc. designs, manufactures and services valves for use in reciprocating gas compressors under the brand name StraightFloTM valve. The StraightFloTM valve uses the Modular Reed Valve technology developed by Zahroof Corp. The patented StraightFloTM valve is a drop in replacement valve for industrial reciprocating compressors for speeds from 350 rpm to over 3600 rpm, pressure differential across a valve to 5000 psi (345 bar), continuous working temperatures from -40 F (-40 C) to over 550 F (288 C) and for all gases including sweet natural gas, CO2, propane, Hydrogen, air, nitrogen and highly corrosive gases including gases with high H2S content.

In 2013, ZVI introduced the concentric valve using its standard modules as well as other configurations incorporating a suction and discharge valve in a single structure. In 2015, they introduced the StraightFloTM valve with an integral cage that improved the performance of the valve and made it easier and safer to install and/or to remove. They also introduced a removable cage that could be used will all valves, or could be retrofitted on non-integral cage StraightFloTM valves.

In 2016 they introduced the ZVI unloader valve, a new piston-style unloader valve developed by ZVI, as a drop in replacement for finger style or plug style valves, or as a complete package including the valve actuator. In 2016, they introduced the StraightFloTM Stacked valves and Axial-Radial valves using its standard modules to increase the valve effective area beyond the capabilities of the standard StraightFloTMvalve. World Oil. October 2013. Retrieved February 15 2017</ref

Research
The Modular Reed Valve was used in a study by Oregon State University on selectively repurposing one cylinder of an automobile engine running on compressed natural gas (CNG) to be used as a compressor. The ARPA-E MOVE project was headed by Dr. Christopher Hagen and published in ‘Design and Analysis of a Self-Refueling CNG Vehicle to Provide Home Refueling’. This work is continuing through to the second phase with Modular Reed Valves. The Modular Reed Valve technology is also being used by HICOR Technologies, since its prototype phase in 2010, in the development of its rotary isothermal compressor.