Chemical & Process Technology

- Subscribe FREE - Power Engineering

Flare is commonly installed in oil and gas process plant to burn hydrocarbon and/or toxic gas to avoid formation of combustible mixture, to minimize green house effect (GHE), to minimize health hazards to personnel on site, etc. There are several earlier posts related to Flare :

Flare collection header is normally "NO flow" as most (if not all) devices connected to flare header are non-discharging fluid into flare system. Among all are pressure relief valve (PRV), blowdown valve (BDV), overpressure dump valve (PCV), etc. All these devices are kept as close position during normal plant operation and will only open in the event of overpressure, emergency situation i.e. fire, runaway reaction, plant shutdown/blowdown for maintenance.

On the flare tip end, it is open to atmosphere. it is very likely that atmosphere air contain oxygen ingress and stay into flare collection header. PRV/BDV/PCV passing and open on demand will discharge large quantity of hydrocarbon gas into flare collector header filled with air and create combustible mixture, as this combustible mixture travel along flare header and reach flare tip which equipped with flare pilot, combustible mixture will be ignited and potentially created flash back to the flare header and flare knock-out drum (KOD). Subject to flare header capacity and mechanical integrity, large flash back lead to severe internal pressure act on the piping & vessel and vapor wave results severe vibration and movement of structure, this potential lead to catastrophe failure of flare collection system. Therefore a flare header is sweep or purge with fuel gas or inert gas i.e. Nitrogen.

Advantages using inert gas compare to fuel gas as purge gas

i) Environment & Green House Effect (GHE)
IG : Inert gas has NO impact to environment
FG : Burn fuel gas in atmosphere generate Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which contributes to increase of Co2 content in atmosphere and increases Green House Effect (GHE)

ii) Burn back damage flare tip - reduce life span of flare tip
IG : Inert gas do not burn. NO burn back and potential damage of flare tip.
FG : Potential FG burn back damage flare and shorten flare tip life span.

iii) High OPEX avoid Burn back
IG : NO burn back. Minimum purge rate and low OPEX.
FG : Potential burn back lead to high purge rate (potential 10 times higher than purge rate of IG) and high OPEX

iv) Visible Flame
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No flame present.
FG : FG continuous burn and continuous visible flare at flare tip. Potential create uneasy situation in environment sensitive area.

v) Smoke Flaring
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No smoke flaring issue.
FG : Burning heavy FG lead to smoke flaring. Potential create uneasy situation in environment sensitive area. Increase likelihood of unburnt component and impact on environment.

vi) Steam injection for smokeless flaring
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No smoke flaring issue.
FG : Burning heavy FG lead to smoke flaring. Steam injection to reduce/eliminate smoke flaring. This increases CAPEX (additional steam injection facilities) and OPEX (steam loss).

vii) Radiation
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No additional radiation.
FG : Fuel gas burn lead to increase of radiation level (on top of solar radiation) to personnel working near flare stack.

Disadvantages using inert gas compare to fuel gas as purge gas

a) Fuel Gas Readily Available in Plant
IG : Required Nitrogen generator or use of Liquid Nitrogen and evaporator. Additional CAPEX and OPEX.
FG : Fuel gas readily available in plant. Minimum CAPEX and OPEX. Some plant generate hydrocarbon gas which shall be disposed off. This gas is readily serve as purge gas and inccur NO cost.

b) Inert Gas Cloud
IG : Flare system purge with inert gas, entire flare system is filled with IG gas (which potential heavier than air). Once any PSV/BDV open and release large amount of gas into flare header, it will "push" IG release through the flare tip. Heavy IG (compare to air) will sink create a IG gas cloud near plant. This is potential fatal thread (suffocation) to personnel on site.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no potential of gas present in atmosphere

c) Unburnt hydrocarbon gas emission
IG : PRV/BDV/PCV leak or passing lead to low heating value mixure (less than 200 btu/ft3) which is non-combustible. Release of hydrocarbon gas into atmosphere directly has more GHE impact than burning it. For example 1 mol of methane create 1 mol of CO2 if it is burnt. 1 mol of methane create 20-21 mol of equivalent CO2 if it unburnt.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no unburnt gas in atmosphere

d) Combustible Cloud lead to Instant Ignition
IG : Slowly hydrocarbon gas emission to atmosphere and built-up of combustible mixture in the plant, once the heating value for auto-ignition is reached, the combustible mixture potentially ignited. Its impact is just like a explosion and potential thread to personnel and surrounding facilities.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no unburnt gas in atmosphere

Concluding remark
Inert gas purging is normally understood as clean, low CAPEX, low OPEX, etc and regards as most likely candidate for flare purging. However, the associated SAFETY related issue may needs additional attention and focus. All...use inert gas wisely...

Related Topic

• Flare related topics...
  
• CO2 related topics...
  
• Personnel Exposure Time For Heat Radiation
• Heat Radiation For Pain & Blistering Threshold
• Simplified Equation for Wind Speed Estimation At Different Height
• Estimate Wind Speed At Flare Tip At Different Height
• Assess AIV with "D/t-method" with Polynomial PWL Limit Line
• Model Fix Pressure Drop Device in FLARENET