Vent line

Most small Hquid helium containers are unpressurized heat leak slowly bods away the Hquid, and the vapor is vented to the atmosphere. To prevent plugging of the vent lines with solidified air, check valves of some sort are included in the vent system. Containers used for air transportation are equipped with automatic venting valves that maintain a constant absolute pressure with the helium container in order to prevent Hquid flash losses at the lower pressures of flight altitudes and to prevent the inhalation of air as the pressure increases during the aircraft s descent. Improved super insulation has removed the need for Hquid nitrogen shielding from almost all small containers. 

A potential problem for rotary valve usage is that they tend to pull material preferentially from the upside of the valve, which can affect the mass flow pattern. Another problem is that once soHd drops from the vane, the air or gas that replaces it is often pumped back up into the bin. In addition, air can leak around the valve rotor. Such air flows can decrease the soflds flow rates and/or cause flooding problems. A vertical section shown in Figure 13 can alleviate the preferential flow problem because the flow channel expands in this area, usually opening up to the full outlet. To rectify the countercurrent air flow problem, a vent line helps to take the air away to a dust collector or at least back into the top of the bin. 

Although the ethyleneamines ate water soluble, soHd amine hydrates may form at certain concentrations that may plug processing equipment, vent lines, and safety devices. Hydrate formation usually can be avoided by insulating and heat tracing equipment to maintain a temperature of at least 50°C. Water cleanup of ethyleneamine equipment can result in hydrate formation even in areas where routine processing is nonaqueous. Use of warm water can reduce the extent of the problem. 

Multireactor Knockout Drum/Catch Tank This interesting system, depic ted in Fig. 26-22, is sometimes used as the containment vessel for a series of closely spaced reac tors (Speechly et al., Trinci-ples of Total Containment System Design, presented at I. Chem. E Noith West Branch Meeting, 1979). By locating the drum as shown in Fig. 26-22, minimum-length vent lines can be routed direc tly to the vessel without any bends. 

Design vent lines to prevent low point traps (pockets)... 

Design and maintain drainage system for trapped sections of vent lines... 

Problem A knockback condenser mounted on a C3 splitter reflux drum exhibited liquid carryover (as evidenced by the vent line icing-up). This indicated product loss from liquid caixying over rather than dripping back into the reflux drum. Also the vent line metallurgy would not withstand the cold temperatures produced. 

For the tandem arrangement gas seal, a primary seal vent must be pro vided to vent the leakage across the process side seal. This vent ma> lie to flare or other suitable gas disposal point. The back pressure under nor mal conditions should be kept to a low value. A small amount of back pressure is recommended to keep a positive differential across the see ondaiy seal. Leakage measurement may be provided in the vent line to provide health monitoring of the primary seal. Unfortunately, the rotameter, which would be the obvious choice, should not be used because of its lack o reliability. If an orifice or needle valve is used to set the back pressure to the seal vent, pressure upstream of the restriction can be measured for a relative flow measurement. This type of reading does provide trend data that may be used to judge the seal s performance. 

The vent line must comply with safe practices to prevent flashback and snuffing requirements. 

The method includes the mass unit vent flow capacity per unit area. G. This allows using any applicable vent capacity calculation method. The method incorporates the equilibrium rate model (ERM) for vent flow capacity when friction is negligible. Additionally, a coiTection factor is used for longer vent lines of constant diameter and with negligible static head change. ... 

An 800-gal reaetor eontaining a styrene mixture with a speeifie heat of 0.6 eal/gm °C has a 10-in. rupture disk and a vent line with equivalent length = 400. The vessel MAWP is 100 psig and the rupture disk set pressure is 20 psig. The styrene mixture had a self-heat rate of 60°C/min at 170°C as it is tempered in a DIERS venting test. Determine the allowable reaetor mixture eharge to limit the overpressure to 10% over the set pressure. 

Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS) Institute under the auspiees of the Ameriean Institute of Chemieal Engineers funded to investigate design requirements for vent lines in the ease of two-phase venting. 

If the vent line forms part of a blowdown system, it will have to be blanked to prevent air being sucked in. Make sure the blank is put on the flare side of the disconnection, not on the tank side (Figure 1-4). Note that if the tank is to be entered, the joint nearest the tank should be broken. 

If a vent line has to be slip-plated because the line is too rigid to be moved, then the vents should be slip-plated last and de-slip-plated first. If all slip-plates inserted are listed on a register, they are less likely to be overlooked. 

Figure 1-4. The tight and wrong ways to isolate a vent line.

While drain valves are installed to get rid of unwanted liquid, vent lines get rid of unwanted gas or vapor. They should be located so that the vapor is unlikely to ignite, so that damage is minimal if it does ignite, and so that people are not affected by the gas or vapor discharged. One fire destroyed a small plant. It started because the vent on a distillation column condenser discharged into the control room, possibly to prevent pollution of the surroundings, which had given rise to complaints about the smell [1] (see Section 2.11.3). 

Actually the air was not vented. The 1-in. vent line on the air supply was choked by a wasp nest. Whenever possible we should measure directly what we need to know and not some other parameter from which it can be inferred [1]. 

Vent Line Bock-pressure Fs = Force of Valve Spring An= Nozzle Seat Area Ap= Piston Face Area Ab= Bellows Area Aq= Valve Disc Area... 

Install Disk with Pressure Membrone up. When inverted, the Disk Bursts ot obout 65% Increase in Pressure. Disk Must be Positioned True Center of Vent Line ond Nozzle. If Eccentric, Burst Characteristics Might Not Hold True. 

Figure 4-501 shows a typical diverter system setup. The components of the system are the annular preventer, vent lines, the control system, and the conductor or structural casing. 

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