Flares Systems

Gas flaring in offshore installations and oil refineries represents a source of loss of energy making it important to operators and authorities to monitor the amounts of flared gas. In some countries the flare gas is subject to CO2 tax. Flow metering systems are installed on some but not all flare systems. 

The production of ketene by this method has no significant environmental impact. The off-gases from the ketene furnace are either circulated to the furnace and burned to save energy or led to a flare system. The reaction can also be carried out at 350—550°C in the presence of alkaH-exchanged zeoHte catalysts (54). Small quantities of ketene are prepared by pyrolysis of acetone [67-64-1] at 500—700°C in a commercially available ketene lamp (55,56). 

Gas and Leachate Movement and Control Under ideal conditions, the gases generated from a landfill should be either vented to the atmosphere or, in larger landfills, collected for the production of energy. Landfills with >2.5 miUion cubic meters of waste or >50 Mg/y NMOC (nonmethane organic compounds) emissions may require landfill-gas collection and flare systems, per EPA support WWW, CFR 60 Regulations. The leachate should be either contained within the landfill or removed for treatment. 

Safety Systems. Major expenditures here include the flare system (the flare structures and large lines extending throughout the plant) and the iirevvater system (high-capacity pumps and extensive piping). Safety systems, fortunately, are usually given particular attention. At this study phase, the main thrust should be to check the completeness of licensor equipment lists for cost estimation purposes. 

Flare Systems. There is a good chance that the operating company will not have anyone experienced in flare system design. For feasibility cost estimates, rough estimates can be made by comparison with existing plants or a vendor can be contacted for budget cost estimates for the flare stacks and associated knockout drum, burner tip, igniter, and molecular seal. 

If in-house, personnel are required to provide a flare system piping layout, many good literature articles are available. Reference 2 has simplified the procedure by allowing the calculations to begin with the outlet (atmospheric pressure) and work back towards the source thus overcoming tedious trial and eiTor required by methods that require beginning at the source. 

Safety relief systems are verified as part of PSM. This includes the PS Vs themselves and also flare system piping networks. Safety relief valves are covered in Section I—Fluid Flow. A good procedure for sizing the flare system piping is found in Section 19—Safety-Relief Manifolds. This method, first published in the Oil and Gas Journal, has been adopted by APl. I have also used... 

Improper venting to atmosphere, i.e. other than via vents with flame arresters or serubbers, or via a knoekout drum, or to the eoiieet flare systems. 

Restriction Orifice - In general a restriction orifice should not be used as a means of limiting the capacity of a pressurization path. In special cases, where large incentives apply (such as reducing die size of a flare system), a restriction orifice may be used, provided that all the following conditions are satisfied ... 

Conventional Flare System - The majority of pressure relief valve discharges which must be routed to a closed system are manifolded into a conventional blowdown drum and flare system. The blowdown drum serves to separate liquid and vapor so that the vapor portion can be safely flared, and the separated liquid is pumped to appropriate disposal facilities. The blowdown drum may be of the condensible or noncondensible type, according to the characteristics of the streams entering the system. Selection criteria, as well as the design basis for each type of blowdown drum, are detailed later in this volume. The design of flares, including seal drums and other means of flashback protection, is described later. 

Sizing of Flare System and Other Closed Release Systems... 

Maximum Flow to be Handled - The flare system must be sized to handle... 

Pressure Available and Component Pressure Drops through the Flare System - Pressure drop through the flare system is made up of component pressure drops through the following ... 

Flare system designs must also include means of preventing freezing of seal water in the flare seal drum, if entering vapors may be below 0°C. 

Overall sizing and pressure drop in flare systems are covered in a later chapter,... 

The vapor outlet should preferably be connected to the flare system. However, when the safety valve releases and other streams tied into the drum contain only a small quantity of noncondensible hydrocarbons or inerts, and where no pollution problems are anticipated, then an atmospheric vent is acceptable, subject to the following conditions ... 

Three types of flare systems are commonly used the elevated flare, the ground flare, and the burning-pit flare. Although the three basic designs differ considerably in required capital and operating costs, selection is based primarily on pollution/public relations considerations such as smoke, luminosity, air pollution, noise and spacing factors. Table 1 summarizes the advantages and... 

Flare sizing is covered in some detail under a later section in this chapter, as well as sizing of the overall flare system. 

Flare systems are subject to potential flashback and internal explosion since flammable vapor/air mixtures may be formed in the stack or inlet piping by the entry of air, and the pilot constitutes a continuous ignition source. Flares are therefore always provided with flashback protection, which prevents a flame front from travelling back to the upstream piping and equipment. Design details are described later. 

We shall first consider the design of elevated flare systems. Sizing of flare systems is a function of maximum allowable back pressure on safety valves and other sources of release into the emergency systems. 

V = Flare design capacity, m /h (for a flare system, actual and standard cubic meters are virtually equivalent). 

The reader should note that flame arresters are not permitted as a means of flashbaek proteetion in flare systems. 

A major cause of pulsing in flare systems is flow surging in the water seal drum. One of several reasons why it is important to eliminate pulsing is to reduce flare noise. Combustion flare noise has been shown to increase as the steam rate increases. Since the amount of steam required to suppress smoke in a flare is set by the flaring rate, flow surges will require a higher steam rate than for a steady flow. 

Continuous releases of concentrated HjS streams must be segregated in a separate flare system to limit the extent of fouling and plugging problems. Releases of HjS such as diversion of sour gas product to flares during shutdown or upset of a downstream sulfur recovery unit are considered to be continuous, but safety valve releases are not included in this category. However, if a special HjS flare system is provided for continuous releases, the concentrated HjS safety valve releases should be tied into it rather than into the regular flare system. Due to the nature of HjS one should plan on frequent inspection and flushing of HjS flares to remove scale and corrosion products. 

Preferably, the HjS flare system should consist of a segregated header and separate line routed up the side of a conventional elevated flare stack, sharing the same structure, pilots and igniters. However, the HjS header may be tied into the regular flare seal drum if there are special mechanical design problems associated with the separate stack e.g., in the case of a flare which is to be dismantled for overhaul. Flare elevation must be sufficient to meet atmospheric pollution and ground level concentration requirements for the sulfur dioxide produced. 

Odor and pollution problems are often experienced due to incomplete combustion when concentrated HjS is flared. When such considerations are expected to be critical, flare system designs should include a fuel gas connection and equipment sizing sufficient to handle an equal volume of fuel gas when flaring H2S at design rate. Where flaring of HjS is intermittent and the fuel gas diluent is continuous then steam injection at the base of the flare may be needed to reduce smoking. 

Flashback protection is required for H2S flaring systems, either by water seal or continuous gas purge. If a water seal is used, special requirements apply to the disposal of the effluent seal water. In the case of an HjS flaring system handling a flow of HjS which in uninterrupted throughout the period that a plant is in operation, and which stops only when the producing plant is shutdown, then flashback protection is not required. However, steam or inert gas connections are required to permit purging the flare line startup and shutdown. 

Flare systems must be protected against any possibility of partial or complete blockage by ice, hydrates, solidification, etc. Seal Drums and Y-seals requiring winterizing should be provided with temperature-controlled steam injection to maintain the seal water temperature at 4 to 10 C. This limits the quantity of water vapor entering the flare stack. 

This section provides a detailed example of flare system specification. This is an example of a formal design document that would be provided by the plant designer to a flare system vendor. The reader should consider this section as an example of the types of information and level of detail needed in specifying the system, however the format and organization might certainly be changed to suit the particular needs of the plant operations. 

This specification covers the minimum requirements for the process, mechanical and structural design, materials, fabrication, shop inspection testing and supply for a flare system. The knock-out drum will be by N P Refinery. 

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