PLANT SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
Eid a ie
Calculating settle-out pressure
in compressor loops
Simple procedure can be used to help determine piping
and equipment design pressures into process loops
A. HEYDARI GORJI* and H. KALAT JARI, Sazeh Consultants, Tehran, Iran
en.a compressor compresses gas from one system at P,
and T; to another system at Py and T; and stops during
‘the maximum pressure drop case, a differential pressure
is developed. After a compressor shutdown, the gas is trapped
beeween the upstream and downstream discharge check valve and
the pressure is equalized out. This equalized pressure throughout
compressor loops is called settle-oue pressure. The maximum
sertle-out pressure is calculated from coincident high-trip pres-
sures on both suction and discharge sides of che compressor
In some situations, a single pressure safety valve is desirable ro
procect equipment in a process loop. In this regard, and also to
«establish the design pressure for piping and equipment installed
in the process loop, the setele-out pressure is required, Therefore,
ics desired to reduce the settle-out pressure as much as possible.
Settle-oue pressure will decrease ifthe discharge-side volume of
centrifugal compressors is minimized, for instance gas precooling
is preferable ro compressor discharge cooling
‘A simple procedure has been developed to determine the set-
tle-out pressure inco compressor loops (For instance, a reaction
ecycle-gas loop in which a compressor continuously recycles the
process gas) oF centrifugal compressor stations including knock-
‘out drums, inter coolers and antisurg lines.
Calculation procedure. 1o calculate the setle-out pressure
isobar sections of the system should be identified. The system vol-
ume and confined masses need to be determined and the lumped
rmassanel enthalpy should be distributed in che setcle-out situation
to calculate che Final pressure
A settle-out pressure, there is still the same mass of gas and
system rotal volume equals the initial mass of gas. If some sys-
tem components are filled with liquid and their volume doesn't
change, then liquid volume is not considered. The calculation,
procedure is summarized as:
1. Estimate the equipment volume at each pressure level. Oper-
acing pressure and temperature are used to estimate che mas. In
this regard, the following assumptions can be considered asa rule
of thumb if there are not enough data
+ Assume 60% occupation of catalyst/adsorbent inside
+ Assume 40% and 90% vapor phase inside separator and
knock-out drums, respectively
+ Assume 50% vapor phase inside piping, heaters and exchang
cs for two-phase services
* conaporing ar
Finns hyeaath cai T: 8821 512558821 W750
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+The compressor intemal volume normally wouldnic be con-
sidered.
2. Settle-out temperature should be calculated based on the
volume of each isothermal section, since it will change at more
locations than pressure. In this regard, all gas masses in the system
at the various pressures and temperatures are added to estimate the
total system mass and finally, equalized temperature.
3. Then, settl-out pressure is calculated based on
BY, _ BV
o
where: Ps = Settle-out pressure, bara
V5 Toral actual volume, m>
rs = Settle-our temperature, °K
Atmosphere pressure, bara
Toral normal volume, Nm?
273,°K
To derermine the sertle-out pressure ofthe compressor trains
for which there are not enough data to calculate the system mass
or the temperature difference throughout compressor loop is
not significant, a rough estimation procedure is proposed. In
this procedure, the sertle-out pressure is calculated based on the
average value of system volumes and operating pressures. This
estimation method is further explained in ease study 2.
Sectle-our pressure in compressor trains is used as a basis
for determining equipment and piping design pressures. In
this regard, design pressure of the lowest-pressure part should
be calculated as 1.05 times the settle-out pressure to minimize
unnecessary flaring during compressor trips or shutdowns. This
will provide an adequate basis for calculating design pressure of
higher-pressure parts. Thus, design pressure of other equipment
is obtained by summation of this base design pressure plus oper-
ating pressure difference between each picee of equipment and
the lowest operating pressure in che system.
Case study 1: Reaction recycle-gas loop. A sample
reaction loop (Fig. 1) is considered for calculating sete-out pres
sure. Reactor liquid feed, after combination with the recycled
gas feed, is preheated by the reactor feed/effluent exchanger and
further heated by the Fired heater up to the reaction temperature
and supplied co the reactor. The reactor effluent gas is cooled by
a feed/effluent exchanger and two coolers. The cooled effluentSPECIALREPOR
Settle-out pressure calculation for a reaction recycle-gas loop
setieouttempaatreT, 25% a186¢ Setteout pemne:s,PNISEAEES 13 asasterg
enters the product separator and sepa
ced gas is recycled ro the
reactor by the recycle gas compressor:
Settle-out pressure should bs
culated when the compressor
ee Ae Se Dey
eee
Se ee eee
ee ent eet ner
Settle-out pressure calculation for a
two-stage compressor
item Volume, Pressure, Volume x pressure, Design pressure, '
are Mage “elma Peon
ot ar 3
mi ae aE om
ine’ ea 13 as
inaxpie e7 337 ms
band arn me
et a
a a
insane 03 a3
ee m3
ica es
1,065.3,
Settle-out pressure: ,
e 35.7
~1.013=28.8 bargLines
Reactor Separator
‘um,
Fi heater
Fre exchanger
Centrituga
‘compressor
een ea
id teea
‘out pressure. The example in Table 2 illustrates a sevte-out pres
sure calculation for a wo-stage centrifugal compressor station to
explain the rough estimation procedure more clearly. HP
LITERATURE CITED
21, American Petroleum Insnute (AP), Washington. DC, 197
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like wo hank the board of decors and process division
her spor,
‘Aliakbar Heydari Gorjt «=
a and etal de
Hamid Reza Kalat Jari
ey
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