Module 11B Flare System

Training Program on
Basic Process Engineering Practices
For
Technip India Ltd.
By
The Technomanage Group
And Mr. S.N.Mitra

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

What is Flaring?
Flaring is a combustion control process in which waste gases are
piped to a remote, usually elevated location and burned in an open
flame in the open air.
A specially designed burner tip, auxiliary fuel, and steam or air are
used to promote mixing for nearly complete combustion (>98 %).
The flaring process can produce undesirable by-products, including
noise, smoke, heat radiation, light, SOx, NOx, CO, and an undesired
source of ignition. However, proper design can minimize these.
Flare Tip

Process Equipment
Flare Header

Process Equipment

February 5, 2016

Flare K.O Drum

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Water
seal

Purpose of Flare System

Process plant can be subjected to excessive overpressure or
under-pressure due to process upset conditions.
Safety Valves or Rupture Discs prevent the equipment from
reaching overpressure condition i.e. protects it from exceeding
design pressure by releasing the excess gases.
The gases released in a process plant is generally hazardous.
Primary purpose of flare system is to safely take the released
gases to a flare stack and burn it.
Flare system is also used for burning gases due to emergency
venting. Example of emergency venting- Gas flaring when a
consumer shuts down.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Causes of Over-pressure
External fire
Blocked Valve
Process abnormality or mal-operation
Equipment or service / utility failure
Changes in ambient conditions
Runaway chemical reaction
Flare system is used to destroy flammable, toxic or corrosive
vapors, from relief valves or emergency venting.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare System Design Factors

Key design factors to ensure flare safety and performance
include:
Smokeless operation
Flame stability
Flare size, capacity, stack diameter
Thermal radiation
Noise level
Reliable pilot and ignition system
Flashback protection
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare Network Components

Flare Tip
Mol Seal

Process (Unit 1)
Fuel Gas

Pilot
Burner

Unit Flare HDR

PC

Main
Flare
HDR

Flare
Stack

Air

Process (Unit 2)
Fuel Gas

Unit Flare HDR

Flare
Ignition
System

Flare K.O Drum

Water
seal

Incinerator
Fuel Gas (2)

February 5, 2016

Pump

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare Types

Flares are generally categorized in two ways:

1) by the height of the flare tip (i.e., ground or elevated) and

2) by the method of enhancing mixing at the flare tip (i.e., steamassisted, air-assisted, pressure-assisted, or non- assisted).
Elevating the flare can prevent potentially dangerous
conditions of high radiation at ground level or operating area of
a process unit. The distance and height of the flare stack is set
by radiation calculations (API RP 521)
Further, the products of combustion can be dispersed above
working areas to reduce the effects of noise, heat, smoke, and
objectionable odors. Dispersion and ground level concentration
of pollutants from flare also may set the height of the flare
stack.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare Types, Contd...

Smoke problem
Cracking can occur with the formation of small hot particles of
carbon that give the flame its characteristic luminosity. If there is an
oxygen deficiency and if the carbon particles are cooled to below
their ignition temperature, smoking occurs.Non-assisted flares are
more prone to smoking.

Non- assisted flares

The non-assisted flare is just a flare tip without an auxiliary
provision for enhancing the mixing of air into its flame. Its use is
generally
limited to gas streams that burn readily without
producing smoke.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare Types, Contd...

Assisted flares
In assisted flares, induction of air for combustion and mixing are
enhanced by various means described below.

Steam assisted flares

Steam is injected into the combustion zone to promote turbulence
for mixing and to induce air into the flame.

Air assisted flares

Some flares use forced air to provide the combustion air and the
mixing required for smokeless operation.

Pressure assisted flares

Gas pressure is kept high at the battery limit of the flare to promote
mixing at the burner tip.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

Flare Hardware Components

Steam
Assisted
Flare

Safety Relief and

Flare Header

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Steps on Designing Flare System

Identify Systems
For Relief
Protection

Identify Cases
For Over-pressure

Select Set
Pressures

Determine
Controlling Load
For Each Relief

Select Stack
Height, Diameter
And Distance

Select Type Of
Flare Tip,
Seals

Estimate
Worst Scenario
For the Plant

Line Sizing &

P&ID
For Flare System

Piping Layout

Equipment
Specification

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Determining Flare Load in a Plant

The first step is to analyze the causes of overpressure in
various equipment and systems and calculate the loads due
to safety valve popping.
External fire
Process abnormality or mal-operation
Equipment or service / utility failure
Changes in ambient conditions
Runaway chemical reaction

Once the loads are calculated, they are systematically

tabulated under above heads.
The chances of simultaneously occurring failures dictate the
flare load
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Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Examples of Safety Valve Sizing Cases

Fire Case- required to be estimated for vessels 25 feet from

ground. Heat flux due to fire is taken as 21 or 34.5 MBtu/Hr/Sq. ft.

Surface up to 25 ft x heat flux x absorption factor x insulation

factor.

API RP-521 (1993) gives the equation-

Q= 21,000 x F x A 0.82 Where - Q= Heat absorption in wetted area.

A= Wetted area in sq. ft.
F= Environment Factor
(F=1 for bare surface, 0.150.3 for
insulated surface)
NFPA

Q= 21,000 x F x A

0.84

Where (F=0.3 for bare water sprayed,

buried or insulated surface)

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Examples of Safety Valve Sizing Cases

Blocked Flow- inadvertently closed block valve, failedshut control valve, power failure, pump failure with
upstream vessel level affected.
Tube rupture-differential pressure between shell side and
tube side to be evaluated.
Control valve failure- due to air failure or other causes.
Power failure resulting pump failure, instrument air
failure, failure of agitator in vessel etc.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Examples of Safety Valve Sizing Cases

Steam related failure- can cause excessive steam
pressure due to fail open valve, stoppage of steam supply
with low vaporization and rising levels, high vapor load
due to excess steam.
Reflux failure- causes vapor overload. Since column is at
ground level fire case usually controls.
Thermal relief- Blocked liquid line with heat load like
steam tracing or solar radiation.

Runaway chemical reaction- should be specially

evaluated from licensor information. Usually this case or
fire case controls the PSV sizing.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Over-pressure: Blocked Discharge Case

This can happen when there is a sudden closure of valve in
any flowing pipeline. In this case, the safety valves provided
on pipeline or equipment need to be designed on full flow
rate

Block
discharge
from well
head

Oil manifold

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

16

Heat Exchanger Tube Failure

When there is a wide difference in design pressure between
the two exchanger sides and the low pressure side is
designed at a pressure less than two-third of design
pressure of high pressure side, a relief valve is required at
the low pressure side

Tube Side

February 5, 2016

Shell Side

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Utility Failure Example Cooling Water Failure

When there is a sudden failure

of cooling water in overhead
condensers

Condenser

of

distillation

column, the column pressure

Top product

starts increasing due to loss of

reflux after 5-10 minutes.

Feed

Distillation
Column

To overcome this, a relief valve

is required that can vent the
additional quantity of vapor

Reboiler
Bottom product

February 5, 2016

generated to flare.

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Control Equipment Failure- Oversupply of Heat

When the control of fuel supply

or steam supply to reboiler
fails, there could be excessive

Condenser

heating resulting in rise in

Top product

column temperature and overpressurization.

Feed

Distillation
Column

To overcome this, a relief valve

is required that can vent the
additional quantity of vapor

Reboiler
Bottom product

February 5, 2016

generated to flare.

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Selecting the Set Pressure

Depending on temperature rating of the equipment and

material of construction, design pressure or maximum
allowable working pressure (MAWP) is decided.
The set pressure of safety valve is to be equal or lower
than design pressure. It is guided by codes like API 520.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Relief Line Sizing- Guidelines

No PSV inlet line pressure drop should be greater than 3%
of the set pressure.
PSV discharge side should be at least one size higher
than the inlet side.
PSV discharge side pressure drop should not be more
than 10% of the set pressure.
Back pressure on safety valve should not exceed 10% of
set pressure. For bellows type safety valve it can be
higher.
There should be no restriction on relief lines full bore LO
valves, no Restriction orifice, no flame arrestor etc.
Be aware of limitations of sonic flow. Sonic flow limits
maximum possible flow in a line. Do not exceed 50% of
sonic velocity.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Flare System Hardware and Network Design

After completing the design of process systems, a final flare
and relief analysis of process system should be done.
A comparative study of flare and relief loads should be
determined and the worst scenario foreseen.
Based on the worst conditions, flare load is designed.
Based on the controlling flare load, the flare equipment and
system hardware are designed Network of relief lines from numerous equipment with
main flare header
Flare k o drum
Liquid transfer pumps
Flare stack are designed.
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Flare Stacks
Flare stacks are of three types:
Self Supported

February 5, 2016

Derrick Supported

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Guy Supported

23

Stack Height
The height and distance of a flare is determined by the ground
level limitations of:
thermal radiation intensity,
luminosity,
noise,
height of surrounding structures, and
the dispersion of the exhaust gases.
API RP 521 sets the guidelines for radiation and dispersion
calculations.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Stack Height Contd..

Solar Radiation
API RP 521 provides guidelines for radiation limits for
estimating stack height.
An industrial flare is normally sized for a maximum heat
intensity of 1,500-2,000 Btu/hr-sq ft when flaring at its maximum
design rate. At this heat intensity level, workers can remain in
the area of the flare for a limited period only.
If, however, operating personnel are required to remain in the
unit area, the recommended design flare radiation level
excluding solar radiation is 500 Btu/hr-sq ft.
The solar radiation is in the range of 250-330 Btu/hr-sq ft.)
February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Stack Height Contd..

Flare height may also be determined by the need to safely disperse

the vent gas in case of flameout.
The height in these cases would be based on dispersion modeling
for the particular installation conditions.
The minimum flare height normally used is 30 feet.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Cold Vent
In cases where the safety relief valves are small in number and
venting possibilities are minimal, cold venting of natural gas
can be carried out in stead of flaring.
The gas should be mainly methane (much lighter than air) so
that it goes up and disperses in the air much above operating
level.
Cold venting is also done for atmospheric storage tanks or
where adequate back pressure for flare system is not available.

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Flaring from Atmospheric Tanks

Atmospheric Storage Tank designed as per API 650 can
not tolerate back pressure of flare system. They need to
be vented.
Atmospheric Storage Tanks for refrigerated liquids
designed as per API 620 (500 mm water) can be
connected to flare.

Refrigerated
Atmospheric
Storage tank
Flare stack

Atmospheric
storage tank
Vent stack

February 5, 2016

Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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Codes and Guidelines

API RP 520 Sizing, selection, and installation of pressure
relieving devices in refineries
Part I Sizing and Selection, 1993.
Part II Installation, 1994.
API RP 521 Guide for pressure-relieving and depressuring
systems, 1997.
API RP 526 Flanged Steel Safety Relief Valves, Fourth
Edition, 1995.
API RP 527 Seat Tightness of Pressure Relief Valves, Third
Edition, 1991.
API Std 2000 Venting atmospheric and low pressure storage
tanks: Non-refrigerated and refrigerated, 1998.
API RP 2521 Use of pressure-vacuum vent valves for
atmospheric Loss, First Edition, 1966.
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Technomanage / UKD & SNM

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