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Concluding Remark
Equation [5] may be used for manual depressuring if a system inventory (initial
mass, M0), depressuring time
(t), initial (P0) and final pressure (P) are are known. One shall check the
assumptions are valid before it is used. This equation may be used as quick method
to determine the depressuring flowrate for quick estimate, however it is not
recommended during detailed design.
Additional Concerns in Controlled Depressuring
Depressuring system is commonly provided in Oil and gas facilities to facilitate
system inventory blowdown
to a safe level within a reasonable time during emergency situation. Detail
requirements may refer to API Std 521 section 5.20.1. Conventionally depressuring
system consist of Blowdown Valve (BDV) with Restriction Orifice (RO) located some
distance (about 600mm) downstream of BDV. Read "Why Restriction Orifice is some
distance from Blowdown valve ?" to understand more the distance requirement.
Beside, there are controlled and non-controlled Type Depressuring. Second type of
non-controlled depressuring is a throttling device with control function into it.
Recently some smart engineers have proposed to use the second type with throttling
device to replace the conventional BDV (ball valve) plus RO type based on following
reasons :
* Ball valve opens too quickly which may cause bending of RO leading to size
changes and higher flow on next use.
* Ball valve does not throttle flow and opening will erode the ball & sealing.
Globe valve, with soft seats, will have minimal damage and can also be used for
pressure control.
* Globe valve with control function will increase the blowdown rate with gradual
opening in later stage Minimium (almost none) reported case in the failure of RO
High flow leading to bending of RO and subsequently cause higher flow and low
temperature issue of
blowdown vessel might be one of the credible concern in conventional BDV plus RO
system. Beside, erosion & cavitation occured at the RO possibily lead to larger RO.
Althought this concern is valid, however there are
minimium (almost none) reported case in the failure of RO in this regard. The could
be credited to a
infrequent use, proper blowdown rate determinination, correct material selection,
properly calcuated RO bore size.
Excessive Flow When Control Function Failure
Conventionally a valve with control function will be sized to open at 75-85%. With
the characteristic of valve
i.e. equal percentage and remaining 15-25% opening would results a flow of 2-3 time
when it is FULLY OPEN. Employing a globe valve with control function, whenever the
control function is failed and derive a
maximum signal to open the glove valve fully, it will results excessive flow to the
downstream disposal
system. Large and costly disposal system is expected.
Difficult Valve Characteristic Selection
If a quick opening valve is selected to reduce the large flow during valve full
open , this will partially cause inefficient control during low flow. Additional
effort is required on valve characteristic selection.
Reliability, Availability & Cost Effective
Reliability and Availability of blowdown with control valve is another concern.
Conventional BDV (ball valve)
is spring to open, double solenoid valves, volume bottle, high SIL Blowdown system
lead to increase safety integrity. Use of control valve may experience
difficultites in meeting the safety integrity or high cost is incurred. Thus, a
proper relaibility, availability and cost effective solution may have to
considered.
Concluding remark
Above proposal certainly a good idea to be investigated in detail as there is a
great potential in assisting system blowdown in shorter time and reduce overall
safety risk. A proper discussion shall be included to address the issue as
highlighted above in order to provide a cost effective but not tolerating any
safety concerns.
Few Recommendation on Manual Blowdown Line
If you have worked on P&ID, you probably have seen an isolation valve with a globe
valve across a pressure relief valve (PRV). See below image.
What is this arrangement and what the purpose of installing them ?
Many engineer may have aware of this purpose of this line. This arrangement is a
manual blowdown line. It is normally used system inerting during start-up and
system purging during shutdown maintenance. As the
source of the inventory is same as PRV i.e. vessel and the discharge location is
same i.e. flare, thus it is generally drawn in P&ID as such. Similarly it also
being arranged in parallel with PRV in actual installation.
Some engineers may understand the main purpose of this arrangement but somehow mis-
called it as PRV
bypass. It is pretty same as the control valve (CV) bypass arrangement. In reality
operator can operate the CV bypass and throttle the flow manually by the bypass
globe valve while operator take out the control valve for maintenance purpose.
However, operator is absolute not allowed to bypass the PRV. When designer write
the operating manual, the correct terms shall be used to avoid any
misunderstanding. This could be a minor error however sometime it is important.
Some recommended features associate with this arrangement are as follow :
* The isolation valve and globe valve shall be arranged such that no low pocket
present as liquid possible present in low pocket promote corrosion
* These arrangement install at high point so that liquid is sloping away from them
* Maintain a distance i.e. 600mm between isolation valve and globe valve to avoid
isolation valve stuck open during manual blowdown. See reasoning in "Why
Restriction Orifice is some distance from Blowdown valve ?"
* The recommended size of the line and valve is 2". If size smaller then 2" is
used, concern of severe vibration of small bore connection (SBC) shall be
addressed.
* The short line downstream of globe valve to connection is recommended to design
to MACH number lower than unity (1) i.e. 0.8 when the globe valve is fully open.
This is to avoid operator inadvertently open the globe valve.
* The downstream piping shall be sufficiently thick to ensure it is failed on
acoustically induced vibration.
* The isolation valve may be Normally Closed (NC). However, losing inventory due to
inadvertently open of this blowdown valve is deem to be a concern, the isolation
valve may be Car Sealed Close (CSC) or Locked Close (LC).
* Prior to any blowdown, the operator may leave the upstream system settle out.
This allow the internal fluid temperature cooled to minimum possible ambient
temperature. Manual blowdown after settled out would lead to very low temperature
downstream of globe valve. Thus the low temperature during manual blowdown shall be
studied to ensure the material will not failed on low temperature embrittlement.
* If the fluid is having high pour point, solidify or crystallize under minimum
ambient temperature, etc, may consider insulating and/or heat trace the line.
Concluding remarks
Although above manual blowdown line is pretty simple, there are still features
associate with it. Above is
non-exhaustive list of features. If you find any special conditions, welcome your
advice and comments.
posted by Webworm, 3:26 AM | link | 0 Comments |
Why Restriction Orifice is some distance from Blowdown valve ?
Very basic does not imply obvious...i really like this statement. Very often the
answer is very fundamental and basic to us, somehow it always does not obvious to
us.
Lets look at the above sketch. It is a typical arrangement for a Blowdown Valve
(BDV) with Restriction Orifice
(RO) , located downstream of the Blowdown valve. This arrangement typically used to
depressurized a system inventory to a safe level within a limited time to minimized
catastrophic scenario. Between the Blowdown valve and Restriction orifice, there
600 mm spool piece between them. What the main purpose of this 600mm spool piece ?
Is this spool for straightening and smooth flow ?
Is this spool to avoid secondary choke ?
Guess what ?
Reasoning...Major pressure drop will take place at Restriction Orifice, downstream
of Blowdown valve during blowdown. Joule-Thompson (JT) effect results fluid
temperature downstream of Restriction Orifice drops below subzero (Less than zero
degree Celsius). Latent heat in the piping will transfer to cold fluid and slowly
approaching this subzero temperature. The "coldness" will travel back to upstream
of Restriction orifice and probably reaches Blowdown valve. It potentially cause
the upstream Blowdown valve body temperature drops below subzero as well. Moisture
from atmosphere will freeze at the Blowdown valve body and potentially cause the
stem stuck at position. Operator may not possible to close the Blowdown valve after
blowdown activities and may potentially lead to back flow. Those "general good
engineering practice is to locate Restriction orifice, 600mm downstream of Blowdown
valve.