Refinery piping specifications

The measurement of a crude oil s viscosity at different temperatures is particularly important for the calculation of pressure drop in pipelines and refinery piping systems, as well as for the specification of pumps and exchangers. 

Extracted from the Chemical Plant and Petroleum Refinery Piping Code, ANSI B31.3—1980, with permission of the publisher, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York. Individual compounds may vary from the values in the table by as much as 10 percent. Consult manufacturers for specific values for their products. 

Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section II, Materials (Part A, Ferrous Material Specifications, and Part D, Properties ), Section ID, Rules for Construction of Nuclear Power Plant Components, and Section VIII, Pressure Vessels, Divisions 1 and 2. Code for Pressure Piping, ASME/ANSI B31.3, Chemical Plant and Petroleum Refinery Piping ... 

B31.3 Chemical Plant and Petroleum Refinery Piping For all piping within the property limits of facilities engaged in the processing or handling of chemical, petroleum, or related products unless specifically excluded by the code Latest issue 1980... 

The piping specifications for a refinery or petrochemical plant will often give the allowable sizes permitted for screwed pipe branch connections. For usual piping services, the 2,000-pound or 3,000-pound F.S.S.E. fitting will be specified. 

In selecting a suitable piping specification for refinery or process plant service, the average engineer rarely needs more than a superficial understanding of what the specifications cover. If the chemical composition is of the desired type and the strength characteristics and dimensions are known, the purchaser relies on the specification... 

Specification for arc welding of carbon and carbon manganese steels Section VIII Division 1 1992 ASME Boiler and pressure vessel code Petroleum refinery piping Structural welding code - steel... 

ANSI/ASME B31.1 - Power Piping Code and ANSI/ASME B31.3 -Chemical Plant and Petroleum Refinery Piping Code. These codes list some of the acceptable ASTM, AWWA, and API fiberglass pipe specifications for use along with the code to establish criteria for their installation and use. 

The refinery operators were in the process of switching feed from the D drum to the C drum when a 45-degree elbow in the feed line ruptured. Investigators later determined that the 6-inch-diameter elbow was made of carbon steel instead of the 5-percent chrome alloy steel required by specifications. It seems that this section of piping was fabricated and installed in 1963. The mistake in piping fabrication was discovered 20 years later. The extent of the fire damage was such that the central unit was down for a period approaching a year and the adjacent units were each down for a few weeks. [21]... 

For refineries and production equipment, pipe is purchased according to an ASTM(3) or API specification, and supplementary requirements are vary rarely added. Supplementary requirements for pipelines are almost always included because pipelines consist of miles of identical material specifications can thus be tailored to the job needs in dimensions, chemistry, and mechanical properties. When the pipeline is to be purchased in large tonnages, supplementing the API specification usually entails little or no cost penalty when using competitive bidding. 

Four appendixes are included. Appendix A contains standard materials selection used by many refiners and contractors in petroleum processing equipment. Appendix B contains a rules of thumb overview of refinery materials of construction. Appendix C contains background information on hydrogen diffusion through vessel walls, and Appendix D contains a standard specification for steel line pipe. 

Instead, government regulatory systems—such as those established by the Clean Water Act or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)—require refineries and other facilities to monitor and measure releases from a few specific points, such as the end of a discharge pipe, or in specific media, such as ground-water. As a result, monitoring resources are typically allocated to meet permit requirements rather than to measure releases at the point of generation. 

The considered plant (Fig.l) involves 13 areas (nodes), including 4 refineries (nodes Nl, N3, N9, and Nil) and 2 harbours (NIO and N13), which receive or send products through 7 distribution terminals. In addition, it includes 29 multiproduct pipelines with particular volumes e.g. pipe 1 has more than 42000 m ). Nodes are connected through pipes (e.g. pipes 3, 4, and 5 connect nodes N2 and N3). A product can take many hours to reach its final destination. A batch can remain in a pipe imtil another one pushes it. Many pipes can have their flow direction inverted due to operational procedines e.g. pipes 5, 7, and 15). Each product has to be stored in a specific tankfarm within a node. More than 14 oil derivatives can be transported in this network. Adjacent products can share an imdesirable interface, e.g. alcohol pumped just after diesel. In this case, it is necessary to piunp another product between them e.g. gasoline). Typical transfer tasks can involve pumping a batch through many areas. For instance, a batch can be pumped from node N3 to N7 through nodes N2, N5, and N8. In that case, the batch uses pipes 4, 8, 12, and 14. 

Tracing a particular shipment from a refinery to its delivery point involves knowing the speed of flow and point-to-point distance from pumping station data. The travel time is then calculated. Shortly before the expected arrival time, samples are drawn and tested. In the case of crude oil the specific gravity is checked. This continues until the expected product arrives. A shipment of 250,000 barrels represents a stream over 300 miles long in a 16-inch pipe and takes 4 days and nights of pumping to deliver. 

Piping systems connect all equipment involved in the process, transferring fluids within the plant (Figure 6a) as mentioned before, in a large refinery, himdreds kilometers of pipes of different size are installed they are mainly realized with steel, but in some cases also with ceramics, glass, concrete, etc., if a specific performance against corrosion is required. 

Another large handheld application segment is in positive material identification (PMI) where, similar to scrap sorting, the sample is identified as a specific alloy or material. PMI ensures that, for example, the repair of a crucial pipe in a hazardous material-containing process is only performed using the correct and certified material. After a catastrophic accident in a Texas refinery, PMI inspection of components carrying hazardous products was made mandatory. This mandate is easily accomplished on site using HH XRF instrumentation. 

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