Module – 11B Flare System
Training Program on
Basic Process Engineering Practices
By
1
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 Water
Flare K.O Drum seal
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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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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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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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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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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 (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.
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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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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.
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Flare Hardware Components
Steam
Assisted
Flare
Safety Relief and
Flare Header
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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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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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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, 0.15-
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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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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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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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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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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Utility Failure Example – Cooling Water Failure
When there is a sudden failure
of cooling water in overhead
Condenser condensers 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
Reboiler
additional quantity of vapor
Bottom product
generated to flare.
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Control Equipment Failure- Oversupply of Heat
When the control of fuel supply
or steam supply to reboiler
Condenser fails, there could be excessive
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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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.
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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.
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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.
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Flare Stacks
Flare stacks are of three types:
Self Supported Derrick Supported Guy Supported
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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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