Compressor knockout drum

A vessel handling large amounts of liquid or a large liquid surge volume will usually be horizontal. Also, where water must be separated from hydrocarbon liquid, the vessel will be horizontal. A vessel with small surge volume such as a compressor knockout drum will usually be vertical. 

In a typical gas oil design, the lighter products overhead from the quench tower/primary fractionator are compressed to 210 psi, and cooled to about 100°F. Some Q plus material is recovered from the compressor knockout drums. The gases are ethanolamine and caustic washed to remove acid gases sulfur compounds and carbon dioxide, and then desiccant dried to remove last traces of water. This is to prevent ice and hydrate formation in the low temperamre section downstream. 

An i/8-inch thick compressed asbestos gasket failed on a 20-inch (50.8 cm) Class 6(X) ASM flange after a regular semiannual turnaround. About 66 pounds (30 Kg) of hydrogen leaked from the manway flange on a compressor knockout drum, ignited, and exploded. Two employees died and two other employees were injured in this incident in a Canadian styrene plant. [15]... 

Excessive amounts of foam in a vessel can result in a host of operating and production problems, including reduced product throughput, level control problems, excessive liquid entrainment out the vapor outlet piping, excessive vapor out the liquid underflow piping, and underflow pump cavitation problems. If foaming occurs in a compressor knockout drum it can easily flood a mesh pad or vane (chevron) separator. When this occurs, the foam carryover from the drum can severely damage the gas compressor downstream. 

Fuel systems can cause many problems, and fuel nozzles are especially susceptible to trouble. A gaseous fuel system consists of fuel filters, regulators, and gauges. Fuel is injected at a pressure of about 60 psi (4 Bar) above the compressor discharge pressure for which a gas compression system is needed. Knockout drums or centrifuges are recommended, and should be implemented to ensure no liquid carry-overs in the gaseous system. 

The fuel. skid. This could contain a gas compressor if the fuel gas pressure is low and a knockout drum for any liquid contamination that the gas may have. The requirement of fuel gas pressure is that it should be operated at a minimum of 50-70 psi (3.5-4.83 Bar) above the compressor discharge pressure. The compressor and its motor drive fall under the drive level hierarchy. In the case of liquid fuels, the skid may also contain a fuel treatment plant, which would have centrifuges, electrostatic precipitators, fuel additive pumps, and other equipment. These could be directly controlled by the D-CS system, which would then report its readiness to the gas turbine controller. 

A PR valve is not required for protection against fire on any vessel which normally contains little or no liquid, since failure of the shell from overheating would occur even if a PR valve where provided. Examples are fuel gas knockout drums and compressor suction knockout drums. (Note Some local codes require pressure relief valve protection for "dry drum" situations.)... 

In adxlition to handling PR valve releases, the flare header is also used to route certain other emergency releases to the blowdown drum. These include drainage from fuel gas, compressor and absorber knockout drums. 

Consideration of All Releases into the System - All releases tied into the closed system must be considered. In addition to PR valve discharges, these may include fuel gas compressor and absorber knockout drum drainage, vapors vented from water disengaging drums, feed diversion streams, closed drainage from equipment, vapor blowdowns and liquid pulldowns. 

Liquid loads are considered from all safety valves that discharge as a result of a single contingency, plus in each case an allowance for knockout drum liquids (fuel gas knockout drums, absorber overhead knockout drums, and compressor suction and interstage knockout drums) equal to the inventory of all drums which discharge to the blowdown drum, at their LHA point. 

Knockout drums ahead of compressors should hold no less than 10 times the liquid volume passing through per minute. 

Normal vertical knockout drums are designed for a K value of about 0.20 to 0.25. If we are installing a KO drum ahead of a reciprocating compressor—and they really hate liquids in their feed—a K value of 0.14 might be selected. If we really do not care very much about entrainment, a K value of 0.4 might be selected. An example of this would be venting waste gas to the flare from a sour-water stripper reflux drum. 

Compressors are also served by high-liquid-level trips in their upstream knockout drums. These high-liquid-level trips work in the same way as the low-level boiler trips discussed above, except that the mercuroid switch is activated by a rising, rather than a falling, liquid level so as to protect the compressor from a slug of liquid. 

Atmospheric air at the rate of 6.1 million SCFD is compressed to 160 psig in a two-stage compressor JJ-1 that is provided with an intercooler and a knockout drum. Then it proceeds to a packed tower T-l where it is scrubbed with recirculating caustic soda solution. Overhead from T-l is cooled to 14°F in a refrigerated exchanger. After removal of the condensate, this stream proceeds to a dryer system that consists principally of two vessels F-l and F-2 packed with solid desiccant. 

Bottoms of T-3 proceeds to the top of stripper T-4. Vapor overhead from T-4 is recycled to the middle of T-3. The bottoms product (containing 99.5% oxygen) is sent partly to liquid storage and the remainder to precooler E-l where it is vaporized. Then it is compressed to 150 psig in a two-stage compressor JJ-2 and sent to the battery limits. Compressor JJ-2 has inter- and aftercoolers and knockout drums for condensate. 

Compressor feed liquid knockout drum which is made large enough to hold 10-20 min of liquid flow, with a minimum volume of 10 min worth of gas flow rate. 

Space needs to be provided for the auxiliaries, including the lube oil and seal systems, lube oil cooler, intercoolers, and pulsation dampeners. A control panel or console is usually provided as part of the local console. This panel contains instruments that provide the necessary information for start-up and shutdown, and should also include warning and trouble lights. Access must be provided for motor repair and ultimate replacement needs to be considered. If a steam turbine is used, a surface condenser is probably required with a vacuum system to increase the efficiency. All these additional systems need to be considered in the layout and spacing. In addition, room for pulsation dampeners required between stages has to be included. Aftercoolers may also be required with knockout drums. Reference 8 describes the requirements of compressor layouts and provides many useful piping hints. 

A gas stream having the composition given in Table 6.2.1 flows into a conpressor suction. Size the knockout drum to prevent Uquid from entering the compressor. The gas enters the drum at 105 F (40.6 "C) and 150 psig (10.3 bar). 

Efficiencies of 95% for collection of 5 m droplets can be achieved by proper design of cyclone separators. For applications such as knockout drums on the suction of compressors, however, it is sufficient to remove only droplets greater than 40-50 m. 

---