Technical Paper February 2013

Did You Know Why the stuffing box seal pressure in a High Pressure Reciprocating Ammonia pump is set to 4,5 barg ?
A High Pressure reciprocating ammonia pump has a seal-type stuffing box, which

implies that no ammonia leak is allowed to the atmosphere. Please find below a typical set up of an oil seal. The yellow blocks represent sealing rings Oil or H2O typically made of PTFE. + oil Oil or H2O The arrows represent the flow direction of oil or oil and NH3 mixtures and the length of the arrow represents the flow amount. LE= Liquid End (high pressure process side)

Oil or H2O

Oil or H2O

Oil or H2O

The stuffing box has a low (LP) and a high-pressure (HP) part, which assures that no ammonia can escape to the atmosphere. Between these two parts either oil or water is provided, the pressure of this seal liquid is set to 4,5 barg. Why 4.5 barg pressure ? This pressure level is not chosen to prevent that ammonia passes from the process side through the high pressure part. But to prevent that ice formation will occur in the stuffing box due to flashing ammonia. This means the pressure should be high enough to prevent that temperature can become lower than 0 oC.

What are the consequences when the stuffing box will ice-up ?