Blowdown drum pumpout

Four skimming connections with trycocks are normally provided at the outlet end of the drum, at the normal liquid level, and at 150 mm, 450 mm, and 500 mm below the normal level. Liquid hydrocarbon skimmed from these connections can be pumped to a suitable slop system. A coimection to the suction of a blowdown drum pumpout pump, if available, is adequate for this purpose. 

Closed drain headers are normally provided for safe drainage of equipment containing severely toxic, corrosive, pollutant or high cost chemicals (e.g., phenol, sulfuric acid, monoethanolamine, sulfur dioxide, catacarb) where there is an appreciable inventory in a number of processing vessels in a plant. The header should be at least 50 mm in diameter, and should be tied into the major vessels and equipment with 25 mm minimum size connections (20 mm is considered adequate for pumps). The header may be routed to a gravity drain drum (with recovery to the process by pump or gas pressurization), or to a pumpout pump returning to the process, or in the case of sulfuric acid, to an acid blowdown drum. 

Usually, the closed liquid drain header is run as a separate line to the drum and provided with a high level cut-off valve with local manual reset. In some cases the closed drain system is segregated into a number of subheaders, as described earlier. Hydrocarbon liquids may be bypassed around the drum through a connection from the closed drain header directly to the pumpout pump suction, provided that the liquid can be routed to a safe disposal location, considering its vapor pressure and temperature. Emergency liquid pulldown connections, if provided, are routed to the blowdown drum via the closed drain header. 

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