Module – 11B Flare System

Training Program on
Basic Process Engineering Practices

By

February 6, 2022 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

February 6, 2022 2
 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 6, 2022 3
 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 6, 2022 4
 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 6, 2022 5
 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

February 6, 2022 6
 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.

February 6, 2022 7
 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 6, 2022 8
 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 6, 2022 9
 Flare Hardware Components

Steam
Assisted

Flare

Safety Relief and

Flare Header

February 6, 2022 10
 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

February 6, 2022 11
 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
February 6, 2022 12
 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)
February 6, 2022 13
 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.

February 6, 2022 14
 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 6, 2022 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

February 6, 2022 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 Shell Side

February 6, 2022 17
 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.

February 6, 2022 18
 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.

February 6, 2022 19
 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 6, 2022 20
 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 6, 2022 21
 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 6, 2022 22
 Flare Stacks

Flare stacks are of three types:

Self Supported Derrick Supported Guy Supported

February 6, 2022 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 6, 2022 24
 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 6, 2022 25
 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 6, 2022 26
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 6, 2022 27
 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 6, 2022 28
 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.
February 6, 2022 29