Flare Reduction

Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, World Bank Issue Brief, The World Bank, 2006. 

Keywords Flaring, Flare Reduction, LNG trains. Purge, Operations, Oil and Gas, Engineering Projects... 

Qatargas multi-faceted drivers for flare reduction and their interlinkages are described in Figure 2 below. 

Flare reduction during process events through optimization of trip, shutdown and restart scenarios and incorporation of improvements in... 

Flaring reductions at Qatargas mega-trains have been characterized by optimization of operational procedures, particularly during train trips, shutdowns and restarts. This sub-section describes how these improvements... 

Figure 6. New Flare Reduction Practice - Mega-Train Cold Section Trip.

A feasibility study completed in 2011 identified a range of shut-down/start-up and other flare reduction opportunities for the QG2 and QG3 4 LNG mega-trains. A dedicated Flare Reduction Project was subsequently initiated in 2013 to implement these opportunities and study others identified by Asset Operations. The Flare Reduction Project is progressing to the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) phase and is tentatively eiqiected to become operational in the end of 4th Quarter 2015. 

Table 1. QG2, QG3 4 Flare Reduction Project - Main Opportunities Flare...

Against this background of global warming and CQ2 emissions reduction initiatives, this paper presents a flare reduction option for an existing ethylene plant during plant start up and shutdown. This study is conducted at Qatar Chemical Company in the Ras Laffan Olefins Company, ethylene cracker with a capacity of 1.3 MTPA production which was started up in April 2010. 

Flare Reduction Options and Simulation for the Qatari Oil and Gas Industry... 

Flare Reduction - Industrial Case Study 3.1 Normal Procedure ... 

Prior to discussing the flare reduction case study, it is important to introduce the plant shut-down and start up procedures as these accounts for a significant extent to the overall flaring in the ethylene plant. The Normal shut down procedure involved initially the reduction of all equipment operating levels. 

This case study demonstrated that significant flare reduction in the petrochemical industry is achievable. With modification to the startup and shutdown procedure, it was demonstrated that the procedure developed for the Methane Run showed a significant reduction in the flared volumes when compared to the Normal startup and shutdown procedures. A two-week reduction in the planned shutdown time was also achieved with a 93% reduction in cost. Furthermore, Methane Run requires 74% less costs than the Normal procedure, which makes it preferable by a new operated plant such as QChem. The required cost of process modification is negligible. 

This flare reduction applications in this petrochemical industry provided good environmental stewardship and conservation of valuable resources with excellent project payback. There are numerous advantages to flare gas recovery including improved public relations, reduced plant fuel gas consumption and reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the facility reducing the CO2 emissions by a minimum of 67%. 

Tom, M. (2006). Facility Flare Reduction. Best management practices. Retrieved on December 2009, from http //www.capp.ca/getdoc.aspx Docld=114231 DT=NTV... 

Global Gas Flaring Reduction. (2011). Retrieved from http //www.worldbank.org/ on Nov. 15... 

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