Strategies to boost performance

How is John Crane’s innovation strategy evolving to help customers meet both performance demands and increasingly aggressive sustainability targets?

Industrial operators are no longer balancing performance and sustainability as separate priorities. Today, they are expected to deliver both simultaneously, higher throughput and lower emissions, often from assets that have been in operation for decades. This shift is fundamentally changing how engineering innovation is approached.

At John Crane, we see innovation not as improving individual components, but as optimising the performance of the entire rotating system. Seals, power transmission couplings, filtration systems and digital monitoring all influence how efficiently a pump or compressor operates.

When these elements are engineered and managed together, incremental gains in efficiency, reliability and leakage control compound into meaningful operational and environmental improvements.

Energy use is a good example. Pumps and compressors account for a large share of industrial electricity demand globally. Even modest improvements in friction, leakage control or power transmission can reduce energy consumption across thousands of operating hours.

Sustainability targets have accelerated this thinking. Operators are increasingly seeking solutions that improve reliability and reduce emissions without requiring a complete redesign of their assets. That means engineering innovations, which remove inefficiency from systems already operating in the field, often delivered through integrated service frameworks such as John Crane Performance Plus.

One of the most important enablers of this approach is the insight we gain from our global engineering footprint. The company has reliability and service engineers embedded with customers worldwide, working directly on rotating equipment in real operating environments. That proximity gives us a deeper understanding not just of the seal, but of the entire system in which it operates.

Those real-world insights feed directly into our innovation process, helping us develop solutions that are grounded in operational reality. It also strengthens our product development pipeline, ensuring both new and existing technologies continue to evolve in line with customer needs.

Many operators are under pressure to decarbonise quickly. How significant is the sustainability impact of retrofitting existing equipment with modern sealing technologies compared to full system replacements?

Retrofitting is often the fastest route to measurable emissions reductions. Large industrial plants rely on equipment designed to operate for decades and replacing entire compressor systems can take years of planning and investment.

Sealing upgrades can deliver impact far more quickly. Older wet seal systems rely on oil lubrication and complex support infrastructure. Modern dry gas seals operate using a thin gas film between the seal faces, which significantly reduces leakage and removes the need for oil systems.

In many compressor applications, replacing wet seals with dry gas seals can cut methane and fugitive emissions by up to 95%. Across large installations, this can translate into major reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year.

For example, in LNG operations, upgrading legacy sealing systems to modern dry gas seal technology has helped operators significantly reduce methane emissions while improving compressor reliability and eliminating the need for complex oil support systems.

This principle extends beyond compressors. Improvements in pump sealing technology across chemical processing, refining and water infrastructure can reduce leakage, extend equipment life and lower maintenance demands. When these upgrades are deployed across large installed bases, the cumulative environmental benefits are significant.

How are digital diagnostics changing the way customers manage reliability, emissions and energy efficiency across industrial operations?

For decades, industrial reliability depended largely on scheduled inspections and maintenance intervals. However, mechanical systems rarely fail according to a timetable.

Digital diagnostics enable operators to understand how equipment behaves continuously during operation. Sensors embedded within sealing systems can monitor parameters such as temperature, pressure, vibration and acoustic signatures. Over time, that data reveals patterns that indicate developing issues before failure occurs.

This is where predictive maintenance becomes valuable. Instead of discovering a problem after a failure occurs, operators can identify abnormal conditions early and intervene during planned maintenance windows.

The benefits extend beyond reliability. Equipment operating outside its optimal range often consumes more energy and may allow increased leakage. Early detection helps maintain efficiency and reduce emissions events.

This is why we have invested heavily in developing digital solutions such as John Crane Sense Turbo, which provide that level of visibility. In LNG and gas compression applications, these systems have enabled operators to detect abnormal behaviour early in their assets and manage reliability, energy use and environmental performance with far greater precision.

What role do advanced and smart materials play in extending equipment life while reducing leakage, waste and overall environmental footprint?

Material science is often the hidden driver behind improvements in industrial reliability. Seals operate in environments defined by high pressures and extreme temperatures. The materials used at the sealing interface determine how long equipment can run without degradation.

Over the past few decades, there have been major advances in carbon composites, ceramics and specialised alloys. These materials maintain dimensional stability under demanding conditions, reducing wear and improving leakage control.

The environmental implications are straightforward. A seal that lasts longer requires fewer replacements and fewer maintenance interventions. That, in turn, reduces material consumption, manufacturing demand and operational downtime.

Advanced materials also allow equipment to operate in environments that were historically difficult to manage. Compressors in modern LNG and hydrogen applications run across wide temperature and pressure ranges that demand extremely stable sealing surfaces.

Many of the reliability gains seen in rotating equipment over the past 20 years have been enabled by progress in materials engineering.

At John Crane, this remains a major area of focus. We are continuing to invest in advanced research, including PhD programmes focused on developing new materials and optimising the tribological behaviour of seal face surfaces. These efforts are helping to further improve wear resistance, reduce friction and extend operating life in increasingly demanding applications.

This work in advanced materials naturally extends into emerging applications such as hydrogen, where material performance under extreme conditions becomes even more critical.



Hydrogen and carbon capture pose unique sealing challenges. How is John Crane engineering solutions that enable these technologies to scale safely and economically?

Hydrogen molecules are extremely small, which inherently increases leakage risk. Carbon capture processes introduce high pressures and rapidly changing thermodynamic conditions. Both demand sealing technologies purpose-built for their environments.

In hydrogen compressors, sealing systems must manage high rotational speeds while maintaining extremely tight leakage control. Material compatibility is equally critical because hydrogen can cause embrittlement in certain metals, degrading their mechanical properties.

To address this, we have been actively testing and evaluating materials for their resistance to hydrogen embrittlement, particularly in high-stress applications. This is a key technical challenge in enabling hydrogen infrastructure to scale safely and reliably.

Carbon capture introduces a different set of challenges. Compressors handling dense phase carbon dioxide must perform reliably across fluctuating pressure and temperature conditions while maintaining containment.

Addressing these challenges requires rigorous testing and close collaboration with equipment manufacturers and operators. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure sealing technology supports the safe and efficient scaling of emerging energy infrastructure. As hydrogen and carbon capture scale globally, reliable rotating equipment will be an essential enabler.



Looking ahead, what do you see as the most transformative engineering innovation John Crane will deliver in the next decade to support a low-carbon industrial world?

One of the most important developments will be the integration of mechanical engineering with real operational data. Industrial equipment is becoming increasingly connected, creating a continuous feedback loop between how equipment performs in the field and how it is designed and improved.

Data from sensors embedded in seals, couplings and filtration systems can reveal how equipment behaves across thousands of operating hours. When that information feeds back into engineering design, it accelerates the pace of improvement.

Another area of focus is lifecycle engineering. Operators want solutions that improve reliability and efficiency across the full life of an asset rather than optimising for initial performance alone. That approach combines product development, digital monitoring and global service capability.

Improving the efficiency and reliability of these components may seem incremental. Yet, across global industrial infrastructure, those improvements deliver substantial reductions in energy consumption and emissions.



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