PROCESS PIPING SYSTEMS 381 be supplied to the pressure vessels on the process unit for washing out orhydrostatiz testing These comnections should be fiom the cooling-watersystem if the pressure in the system is adequate to supply vater to the top of th: tallest tewer on the unit; otherwise the connections should be to the fire water :ystem, Nonally vessols neod not be permanently counected to 3 source of water. If Permazent connection is made, it shoud be at the bottom ol the vessel and should be blanked off wien the vessel. is in operation. Air Piping. Most process plants have a plant ar system mot oily for use in the procesies but Lo operate tools, equipment, and instruments. ‘Where necesscry, the intakes of air compressor: should be designed to minimize the nobe level. Fiters should be proviced in the intake piping to reciprocating anc rotary air compressors when they take suction fiom the atmosphere. Filters wil sometines be necessary for centrifugal ir compresiors. Whena filter is not providee for a centrifugal air compressor taking suction fom the atnosphere, the intake Piping should be provided with a bird screen. Fiters preferibly should be-of the ; Feplaceable-cartridge type. Such fiers should have an open area not less then three times the area of the intake pipe. The oil-bath-type filter should rot be used with centrifugal air compressors Low points in the discharge line fiom an air compressor should be avoided because it is possible for lube oil to be trapped nd subsequently ignited. If low points are unavoidable, they should be provided vith drains When condensed moisture in air lines is undesirable from a process standpoint (which typically is the case-for instrunent air ccnnections) or the possibilty of moistue freezing exists, consideration should be given to providing an air drier Grum in the supply line near the process unit. The drum should be loccted where it will rot be exposed to heat from other equipment. Based on estimated future air requirements, the size of the drum should be such that (I) the velocity in the drum does not excted 15 fpm (0.08 m/s) during shutdown periods when maintenance equipment is being used and (2) the capacity be equal to at keast 6 percent of the free air requirements per minute during normal operation, In clmates where freezing is possible, the botom 18 in '450 mm) of-the dry drum should be insulated and heat traced. The d-um drain (or blow-cff) should also be traced or insulated. All blow-off connections should be installed pointing downwird so that any rust or scale blova out will aot endanger personel, Air piping should slope downward to dry drums or moistire traps, cr be hori- zontal, Branch cornections to air headers should te to the tcp of the ppe. Block valves siould be provided in all branch lines. Wher an air lin: is connected to process piping, two block valves, a check valve, and a bieeder shotld be provided. A second bleec valve should also be provided upstream of the check valve to test for tackflow th-ough the check. Consideration should be given to also providing a removable secion of line or hose in order to guard against inadvertent opcration Air for operating instruments is normally a sepirate system from the plant air system, and backup compression systems are often provided 1 increase in-service reliability. For process units, a steam-deiven compressor shculd be fumished to supply instrument air in case of failure of the main supply. Where plant air is the primary source, ant! the possibility of a power failure is remot, electrically driven compresiors may te used. In exensive insirument air systems, tre piping siould be a-ranged with header and subjeaders, such that groups of instruments mey be isolated from the systems without affecting tke air supply to all instruments. Block valves should be providede382 DIPING SYSTEMS. atthe instrument air headers in all branch lines to instramenis, Leads to individual instruments should be NPS ¥%4 (DN 15) minimum. As a rule of thumb, headers serving from 1 to 25 instruments thould be NPS 1 (DN 25) pipe size, and headers serving from 26 to 75 instruments should be NPS 2 (DN 50) pipe size. Steam and Condensate Piping. Process plants usually have twe ox more steam systems and an exhaust steam condensate system. One of the stean systems gener- aly operatesin the range of 100 tc 150 psig (690 to 1035 kPa) (low-pressure stzam), and another operates 2t superheated conditions and significantly tigher pressures (tigh-pressuce steam). The exhaust steam system normally operates at a pressure of less than 50 psig (345 kPz). The design problems astociated with these systems aie not all sinilar to those encountered in a central pover station, consequently a biief discussion on process plant steam piping requirenents follovs. The prindpal concern is to supply clean, dry steam to the equipment using it. In accomplishing this, itis desirable to connect all branch lines (except condensate ‘ellection.pcints) to the top of horizontal steam mains. However, if the line to a stam driveris at least one size smaller than the main apd the stesn has a consider able amount of superhzat, it may be permissible 1o make a cente‘line connection to the side of the steam main. With other steam contitiors it probably will be necessary to install a knockout pot or drum or 2 stean separatcr in addition to making the connection to the tor of the main. Pockets should be avoided in the line to the turbine. + Connections to exhiust headers should preferably 2¢ made to the top of the header so that the condensate in the header does not run back into the driver. In the steam line tc a steam criver, a block, valve(:) should be located at the diiver and be easily accessible for aperating purposes. A single gate valve is needed inthe exhaust line from each steam driver that does nct exhaust cirectly to atmo- sphere or ditectly into an individval condenser. However, valves reed not be.pro- viled where iwo or more drivers, which will never be shut down separately, exhaust to the same condenser. This exhasst gate valve should be installed at the driver so that the position ‘of the gate (ie., open or closed) will >e obviousto the operator whenever he is tequired to operace the inlet vaive. ‘Wherever steam is echausted to the atmosphere and could create such personnel hwzards as burns, freeziag of condensate on walkways, o- the blanketing of working area with a heavy fog, the line should be fitted with ar exhaust head and a drain toa sewer. Tae use of asilencer should be considered where noise misance is lkely. The fiexitility of steam piping should be attained through the tse of expansion bends and ebbow fittings. The use of expansion joints is discouraged except where the size and arrangement of exhaust lines prevent th: use of expansion. tends, which may be the case of certain steam exhaust connections to steam condensers. Particular attention shculd be given to the anchorage and support of the cornect- ‘ng piping. . ‘When recuired by the service, means should be available for purging process ecuipment with steam or inert gas. For example, each pressure vesse in hydrocurbon service should be provded with a steam-hose coanecton near the bottom £ not, permanently connected to the source of steam. However, where a permanent con- nection is made, it should be blinsed during operation of the unit ‘The stean supply for smothering, snuffing, service hoses, space heating, and auxiliary of 2rotective heating should be connected tc a source that will not be shut off during unit shatdowns or to a source thet wil not be shut off when the steam to a fiece of equipment sich as a turbine is stut off. For fire protection+ PROCESSPIPING SYSTEMS cata Purpcscs, smothering (or saultfing) steam usually is required for fied heaters and for relief valve cischarge lines Gondensate Renoval and Steam Treps. Concensate shuld preferably be di charged into an oil free drain system, but under no ‘circumstances should it be discherged into 2 sanitary sewer, Corsideration should be given to a condensate collce ion systemin installations whichinvolve a large numberof steam:raps. When Condensate is to 2¢ discharged to a cast iron or concrete sewer of a coreretn sewer box, tae hazard of vaporizing hydrocarbons which may exst in the sewer should pe cossidered. Also, to avoid damage to the coxcrete, the connection should be below the water level. If there is insuficient quantity of water for quenching, the condeasate should be first led to an atmospherepressure dain tank, Steam traps should be provided for the removal of condensate from collection Points in live anc exhaust steam systems, in partcular from condensate drip legs Grains on steam turbines, steam separztors, connectors, unit heaters, and termina fads of companion piping: Ail low points in steam lines, except steam companiot lines and the encs of long headers, shculd be prcvided with drip legs. It may alse be Recsssary to install drip legs at interniediate ponts on headers with long sestions at one elevation (ie., in addition to those low points at the end). When a valve’ installed in steam piping in such a manner that condensate can collect above the valve, a trapped drain should D2 provided above the valve seat Whenever posible, a steam trap siould be installed below end ciose to the cauipment pipelite being drained, but the trap should be easily accessible for Period inspectios. Each trap should serve only onc collection point. Where large Quantities of condensate are expected, cither condensate pots or condensate draive should be provided. : Drans from turbine shaft packing glinds and fom governor valve stem packing slands should preferably be connected to an open drain system. The drain lines and betdors should be of sulfcient size to preven: a backpressure builiup. Also, untrapped drains chould be provided at the lowes: point of the steam ead of each reciprocating pump and compressor. _—— Drains not discharging into a closed drainage system shouilddischarge downward and sheuld be arrenged so that rising stzam does aot create « hazard or condense Sn cauipment, such as a turbine or pump. The condensation of rising steam.on such equipment can create lube oil contamination. One thing that can te done to help eliminate this problem is to quench the.condensate. principal cawe of steam traps freeing is improperly designed discharge lines. Steam tap dischaige lines should be sicped for drainage where possible. In cases where. freezing is likely, no part of the trap discharge header should be at aa clevatioa above that of the trap dischaige. Focke's in the diicharge lines should be avoiced. Long trap-discharge lines, itt in heated enclostres, should be inou Hiet, miaP-dlscharge lines in heated enclcsures needto be insulited only ifyecessary {for burt protection, To decrease further the posibility of teezing, stam trap bodies shoulé not be insulated unless the followng circumstances make doing s0 advisable: * The trap is installed downstream of auiomatic steim control: that coule shut the steam off for long periods of time. * The trap is installed in a location where operators might be burned by the bare metal surfaces, * The trap is part of a heat recovery system where retention cf heat is important,cm PIPING SYSTEMS + The trap is installed tohandle exkaust steam condensate that comains quantities cf cylinder oi Inverted-backet and -hermodymmic steam traps, whch are conmonly used in prccess plants, are generally installed without strainers. Steam taps should be selected for 2 continucus discharze rate, which is the actual condensate rate muitiplied by a safety factor. A safely factor of at least 3 siould be used for inverted bucket type traps and thermodynanic traps. A larger safety facto: is needed for ‘xaos draining jacketed :quipment, and trap manufacturers shoule be consuited. In borderline cases offering 2 choixe between two traps sizes; the smaller trep is ustally preferred ‘Steam Compenion Pipisg for Auxillary Heating. The most commonly encoun- tered situatioas requiring auxiliary heating are as follows: 1. Piping in waich the fluid temperaxure could drop below the pour point or freezing point, and piping in which the fitid is subject to coagulation, excessive viscosity, or salting cut 2. Hydrocarbon vapor ad ges pipng where condensate formatior and icing will affect the safety and operation of the equipment, such as might be caused by che reduction in pressure that tekes place through’a control, throttle, or relief valve and 3, Liibe and «eal-oil eysioms for compressors and turbines Auxiliary heating is a6rmally not needed for freeze preventios and viscesity maintenance a equiprrent in intermittent service if tie equipment is draixed, Aushed, blows, or steamed out when there is no flowing steam, or ifthe equipment is for enough unidergromd to provent freezing. When required, auxiliary heating is wsually furnished by external steam companion piping (steam tracing). Other acceptable methods of heating piping and other equipment are internal stam trasing, steamjacketing, hot-water tracing and jacketing, md electric!racing. Details of tarious hea: tracing techniques are covered in detail in Chap. B6 ofthis handbook. Ic is desirable that each steam compenion line be coatinuous from the header to a trap at the end of the line without any vents, drains, branches, or deadend extensions at intermediate points. Each companion line should hav» a block valve at the upstream end and be arranged so that flow is generally downward, avoiding pockets as mich as posible arid kaving no section of the companion line at a greater elevation than te companion header. Live steam is preferred for steam companion piping in colier climates unless a lower temperature is required. In the design of the companion piping system, provisions shoud be made for the differentis] expansion between the traced line and the tracer. When the piece of equipment which is tc he kept hot is irregular in shape (such as ‘Taps, strainers, valves, and pamps), tubing must te used. The item should be sprally wrap2ed, stacting at the top and working toward the bottom. Several lines tobe traced nay be grouped irside a single covering of insulation if ther are to be maintained at the same temperature. CASE HISTORIES: CHALLENGES/SOLUTIONS © Process plantsofferthe pping desigaer some uniqite challengesnot feund elsewtere. ‘The combinations of denanding service requirements. end mechasical needs willPROCESS PIPING SYSTEMS 6.385 necessitate innlovaiive designs and soluions. Included herein are a fev practical approaches to proslem resolution: Challenge Installed Type 304, stainless steel piping and mating vessel nozzle NPS 8 (DN 200) Class 300 flanges were found to be inadequate for the specified 750°F (400°C) design tempersture and 440 psig (2760 kPa) design pressure hydrofining reactor service. ‘The reactor shell material and its other principal nozzles were constructed from low-alloy material weld overlayed with Type 304L stuinless sted. The reaccor flanges were allspecified with Class 300 flanges, vhichis acceptable forthe low-alloy flanges but not for the solid alloy Type 304L Manges. ASME B16.5 maximum working pressure for Type 304L SS Class 300 flanges is only 335 psig et 750°F (2510 kPa at 400°C) and clearly inadequate for the specified resctor design pressure. Solution ASME B16.5 downrates flanges in Type 304L miterial in elevated temperature service in comparison to the low-chrome ‘eactor Ranges and otter non-low tempera- ture grates of stainless steel. Attempts te rerate theinstalled Class 300 fiange based on the provisions of B31.3 for 10 percemt metal design temperature reductions for ‘uninsulzted flanges and the design procedures of ASME BPX&V Code Sec. VIII, Divisior 1 proved to be unsuccessful. It was ultimately decided to replace the existing Type 3041, flanges with Type 347 stainless steel Class 300 flanges, which permit ¢ maximum working pressure of 490 psig (6380 kPa), and as such, clearly acceptable for, the specified system design pressure Challenge ‘Two recent experisnees with installed spiral-wound gaskets with flexible graphite filler hare led to different but related ins ability proslems with these gaskets, which raised questions atout the standard ASME B16.20 covering these gaskets. The first experience involved Class 1500 and 250 spiral-wound (SW) gaskets fitted with inner retaining rings that suffered severe inward buckling at initial beltup. The second experience pertains to the gross iaward buckling of the inner spirals of Class 600 and ower rating gaskets supplied without inner “ings. Everts led to the ultimate removalof some 2(00 gaskets supplied bs 3 different manufactarers, which revealed that severe inward buckling bad occurred on about 12 percen: of installed gaskets actoss a wide rang: of sizes, Solutior Geskets supplied in both cases complied fully with ASME 516.20 requirements, which hghlighted inadequacies in this tandard fo: spiral wound gaskess. Efforts have betn initiated to work with manufacturers in their assessment of furdamental design considerations and with appropriate code committees to address apparent deficiencies discovered with this type of gasket. The buckling in both experiences386 >IPING SYSTEMS had occurred during the initial compression of the gasket, before :he flanges were pit into service While the root cause of the problem has yet to be identified, the buckling plenomenor is clearly related 1 the incompressible progertics of the flexible gaphite andthe tightness of the sriral windings. The experiences heve also revealed tnt the inner ring wieths specifizcd by ASME B16.20 for many gasket sizes are inadequate t> effective y resist buckling. Interim meastres have teen adopted by ASME B16.20, and it is recommended that users specify inner rings for all NPS 6 (DN 150) and larger SW gaskets with flexible graphite filer until more definitive measures ate identified to resolve the root cause of the bisckling phenonena Reference 1' provides more information on this industrywide coneern and overall cansiderations for gasket performance testing protocol: Challenge ‘Severe acoustically induced piping vibrations generated by high-caoacity presure- Jekdown valves have ledto fatigue failures at downstream piping braich conneaions wihin days o' their initial operation. One suck experienes involved « safety le control valve within an LNG treet gas unit to a flare reader sysem. The initial operation of this system ed to cracks at an NPS 10 (DN 250) branch connextion toan NPS 28 (DN 700) fiare header. The failure occurred after about 5 to 10 hours ofits inital startup and eventually kd to the branch connection completely brecking ‘axay from the run header. The Ietdowa valve was designed for amass flow rate ‘of about 383,000 Ib/r (-75,000 kar), with an upstream pressure of 620 psia (4278 KPa) letting cown to 30 psia (207 kPa) flare header back-pressure, ‘This and other experiences in the gas production, petrochemical, and other industries have demonsxrated that acoustic energy in high-capacity, gas pressure- reducing systems can case severe piping vibrations thatin extreme cases have led topiping fatigue failures within a few hours of commencing operation. ‘Sdlution Based on a statistical approach, criteria were generated to reflect maximum levels of acoustic power genezated by the pressure letdown valve before fatigue falure ‘was experienced (see Ref. 5). The ultituate solution involved the -eplacement of the installed pressure letdown valves with low-noise producing valves with labyrinth multistaged pressure reducing trimto avoid choked sonieflow condiions generated by the valve. Challenge Screre vibrations were found with the initial start-up of an NPS 2 (EN 50) nitrogen utiity line comected to an NPS 10 (DN 250) suction line cf a reciprocating compres- sor in make-gas service The nitrogen line was relatively flexible, and had ong lengths of supported piping. Detailed acoustical analyses were concucted with the man suction and discharge piping of this reciprocating compresscr, but this did not include the subject utility connection.