OIL & GAS / REFINERY

Valve programme for India

Safety relief valves for the worlds largest single location refinery

In completing the state-of-the-art,

globally competitive refinery at
Jamnagar, India within 36
months, from concept to
commissioning during December
2008, Reliance Petroleum Limited
has set a new global benchmark
for building a grass-root refinery.
Tyco Sanmar Limited, a Joint
Venture between Tyco
International Limited, USA the
world leader in fluid control
products and Sanmar
Engineering Corporation, India
one of the largest manufacturers
of engineered valves in India - ,
was the preferred supplier chosen
by Reliance for the complete
package of safety relief valves for
both the existing and new refinery
at Jamnagar.

What is a safety relief (Pressure Relief) valve?

A safety relief valve is a pressure relieving device designed
to protect a pressurized vessel or system during an
overpressure event. An overpressure event refers to any
condition, which would cause pressure in a vessel or
system to increase beyond its maximum allowable
working pressure (MAWP).
The basic spring operated safety relief valve(SOSRV) has
been developed to meet the need for a simple, reliable,
system actuated device to provide overpressure
protection.The picture shows the construction of a
conventional SOSRV.The valve consists of a valve inlet or
nozzle mounted on the pressurized system, a disc held
against the nozzle to prevent flow under normal system
operating conditions, a spring to hold the disc closed, and
a body/bonnet to contain the operating elements.The
spring force is adjustable within its design range to vary
the pressure at which the valve will open.

testing and supply of around 3,500 safety

relief valves for the 580,000 barrels per
stream day (BPSD) refinery project.

Application engineering of safety

relief valves
Senior project managers and application
engineers from Tyco Sanmar worked closely
with the technical consultants of the JERP
project in the UK, USA, Canada and India to

ASME-Sec-VIII
Conventional Valve

offer the optimal solution for the varied

applications in the refinery.This activity was
complex considering that we were working on
multiple sizing and selection options for 3,500
safety relief valve installations. Given the size,
scale and complexity of the refinery, there were
many unique selections of safety relief valves.
Here we would like to highlight some specific
selections that resulted in better performance
and significant cost savings for the customer.

Courtesy: Reliance Petroleum Limited website

What is a Pilot Operated Pressure Relief Valve ?

By Deepesh Nanda and Nilesh Doshi,
Tyco Sanmar Ltd.

he relationship between Reliance and

Tyco Sanmar dates back to Reliances
initial projects in the petrochemical
sector. From Reliances first Jamnagar
refinery in 1997 to the recent Jamnagar
Export Refinery Project (JERP) Tyco
Sanmar has supplied a whole range of safety
relief valves to Reliance Refineries. Work on
JERP started in 2006, and with it started an
exciting journey of technical selection in
coordination with the worlds major
engineering consultants, manufacturing,
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March 2009

A Pilot Operated Pressure Relief Valve (POSRV) is a Pressure Relief Valve in which
the major relieving device is combined with and is controlled by a self actuated
auxiliary Pressure Relief Valve(Pilot).
Pilot operated pressure relief valve replace the spring with a small sophisticated
controller or pilot which reacts to
pressure similar to a conventional
valve and controls the opening and
re-closing of main valve. With this
combination, premium performance
can be obtained. Generally, POSRVs,
when compared to direct spring
operated valves, will be more resistant
to leakage (tighter), available in a
wider range of sizes and pressure
ratings, appropriate for solving many
difficult applications.
ASME-Sec-VIII Pilot Operated Safety Relief Valves

www.valve-world.net

OIL & GAS / REFINERY

1. Pilot Operated Safety Relief Valves
Keeping in view the stringent emission
regulation requirements and to achieve zero
flare, a large number of Pilot Operated
Safety Valves have been selected for JERP.
These valves have also offered the flexibility
of operating the equipment at greater than
90% (and less than 95%) of the set pressure
of the equipment thus enhancing the
operating efficiency of the plant.
2. Dual Active Pilot Operated Relief Valves
In the Power Recovery System of the
Fluidized Catalytic Cracker (FCC) unit, the
challenge was to design a Dual Active Pilot
Operated Safety valve that would use one
main valve with two pilots operating
simultaneously. The main valve is installed on
the air blower line. While the main valve is
common, the two pilots are set at different
set pressures to safe guard the FCC
Regenerator and the FCC Orifice Chamber.
The pilot pick-up sense line was isolated
from the FCC catalyst through instrument
air purge thus preventing clogging of the
pick-up and malfunctioning of the valve. The
advantages include substantial reduction of
costs for both the equipments (FCC
Regenerator and the FCC Orifice
Chamber). Furthermore, a common pilot
valve eliminates costs associated with
corresponding inlet, outlet piping and other
related structural costs.
3. Over-T Valves
In the Coker plant, Tyco Sanmar has
manufactured and supplied valves larger
than the API orifice for the Coker Drum
and Fractionator. The inlet size of this springoperated safety relief valve is 18 with an
24 outlet. The advantage of this large size
valve includes optimization of number of
installations, and associated cost saving of
inlet and outlet piping and overall structure.

18 x 24 Over-T valves manufactured by Tyco

Sanmar Ltd for JERP
www.valve-world.net

ASME for Conventional Sec VIII & Pilot

Valves with UV code stamp. The plant also
has the Certification of Authorization from
PED for Conventional Sec VIII, Sec-I and
Pilot Valves with CE marking and IBR (Indian
Boiler Regulation) certification for all
Conventional Sec-I & Sec-VIII valves. Testing
capabilities include PMI, DP, MPI,
Radiography, Hydro & Pneumatic up to
6000 psig, helium leak test, impact test. All
tests were also done with complete
traceability.
Dual Active Pilot Operated Safety Relief Valves

Manufacturing and supply

Given the magnitude of the supply
requirements we expanded our
manufacturing capacity to 1,200 safety
valves per month. The assembly and testing
facilities were ramped up to manufacture
the large size valves like 18 AA 24 spring
operated safety relief valves. The supplies
were made on time to meet the aggressive
commissioning schedule of the customer,
thanks to the expanded plant capacity and
to Sanmars 30,000 tons per annum (tpa)
sand and investment casting steel foundry
located in the same campus. The foundrys
advantage to deliver a range of body
materials of construction (MOC) like
carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel and
other special materials like Monel, Hast-C,
HVD-1, C12, C12A, C5 and Inconel
strengthened the ability of Tyco Sanmar to
be a full portfolio supplier for the entire
range of safety relief valves. The
manufacturing plant is ISO 9001 certified
with Certification of Authorization from

Installation and commissioning

During the establishment of the first
refinery at Reliance Jamnagar, Sanmar
Engineering Corporation entered into a
service agreement with Reliance by which a
team of trained and dedicated engineers
would maintain the products at the Refinery
complex on a round-the-clock basis. This
model has been successful and has been
extended for installation, commissioning and
maintenance services for Reliances JERP
refinery. On-site testing of the safety relief
valves were done on a test bench supplied
by Tyco Sanmar for the JERP project before
field installation and commissioning.

Spare parts programme

The final task was to set up an optimal
spares parts inventory programme based
on the interchangeability that a large install
base of safety relief valves from a single
vendor would offer. Tyco Sanmar worked in
close coordination with Reliance to create
this spares parts interchangeability
programme to help optimize the spares
inventory at the customer site and to
provide preventive maintenance.

About the authors

Deepesh Nanda is currently the marketing manager at Tyco Sanmar Limited. He is a
mechanical engineer and has been working for fourteen years in application, sales and
marketing of valves and related products at Sanmar Engineering Corporation. Nilesh Doshi
is currently the Key Account Manager for Reliance Petroleum Ltd at Tyco Sanmar Limited.
He is a mechanical engineer with 24 years of experience in the application and specification
of valves for petrochemical and other process industry customers. Tyco Sanmar Ltd., is a
constituent of Sanmar Engineering Corporation (SEC). SEC is one of the largest
manufacturer of engineered valves (Joint ventures with Crane, Fisher, Tyco), sealing systems
(JV with Flowserve) and safety systems (JV with BS&B) serving the energy and process
industries in the Indian market. SEC is part of the Sanmar Group which includes Sanmar
Metals Corporation and operates one of the largest steel foundries in India with other steel
foundries located in Mexico and USA and iron foundries in India and Germany.

March 2009

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