Module – 11B Flare System
Training Program on
Basic Process Engineering Practices
By
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Wed May 15
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.
Flare Tip
Process Equipment
Flare Header
Process Equipment Water
Flare K.O Drum seal
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
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
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Wed May 15
Flare Network Components
Pilot
Flare Tip Burner
Process (Unit – 1)
Mol Seal
Fuel Gas
Unit Flare HDR
PC
Main
Flare
HDR
Flare
Stack
Air
Process (Unit – 2)
Flare
Fuel Gas
Unit Flare HDR Ignition
System
Flare K.O Drum Water
seal
Incinerator
Fuel Gas (2”) Pump
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Wed May 15
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., steam-
assisted, 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 (APIRP 521)
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
Flare Types, Contd...
Assisted flares
• In assisted flares, induction of air for combustion and mixing are
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
Pressure assisted flares
•Gas pressure is kept high at the battery limit of the flare to promote
mixing at the burner tip.
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Wed May 15
Flare Hardware Components
Steam
Assisted
Flare
Safety Relief and
Flare Header
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Wed May 15
Steps on Designing Flare System
Identify Systems
For Relief
Protection
Determine
Identify Cases Select Set
Controlling Load
For Over-pressure Pressures
For Each Relief
Select Stack Select Type Of Estimate
Height, Diameter Flare Tip, Worst Scenario
And Distance Seals For the Plant
Line Sizing &
Equipment
P&ID Piping Layout
Specification
For Flare System
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Wed May 15
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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Wed May 15
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.
APIRP-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, 0.15-0.3 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)
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Wed May 15
Examples of Safety Valve Sizing Cases
Blocked Flow- inadvertently closed block valve, failed-
shut 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.
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
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
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Wed May 15
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 Shell Side
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Wed May 15
Utility Failure Example – Cooling Water Failure
When there is a sudden failure
of cooling water in overhead
condensers of distillation
Condenser
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
Reboiler additional quantity of vapor
Bottom product generated to flare.
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Wed May 15
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 over-
pressurization.
Feed Distillation
Column
To overcome this, a relief valve
is required that can vent the
Reboiler additional quantity of vapor
Bottom product generated to flare.
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Wed May 15
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 API520.
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
Flare Stacks
Flare stacks are of three types:
Self Supported Derrick Supported Guy Supported
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Wed May 15
Stack Height
The height and distance of a flare is determined by the ground
level limitations of:
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Wed May 15
Stack Height Contd..
Solar Radiation
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Wed May 15
Stack Height Contd..
• Flare height may also be determined by the need to safely disperse
the vent gas in case of flameout.
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Wed May 15
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.
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Wed May 15
Flaring from Atmospheric Tanks
• Atmospheric Storage Tank designed as per API650 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.
Refri
gerated
Atmospheri c
Storage tank
Fl
are stack
Atmospheric
storage tank
Vent stack
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Wed May 15
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.
APIRP 521 Guide for pressure-relieving and depressuring
systems, 1997.
API RP 526 Flanged Steel Safety Relief Valves, Fourth
Edition, 1995.
APIRP 527 Seat Tightness of Pressure Relief Valves, Third
Edition, 1991.
APIStd 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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Wed May 15
