Facilities Engineering

CGE 665

Relief System, Knockout Drums

& Flaring

Relief Systems
Individual pressure relief devices
Flare piping system
Flare Separator Drum
Flare
Compliance to appropriate ASME vessel codes, API and local
regulatory requirements

Relief System
Flare tip

Drain

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Objective of protecting piping and equipment against excessive
over pressure
Proper selection, use, location and maintenance essential in
complying with relevant codes and laws
Sequence of events in an emergency situation should be given
priority in the design and location of these items

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Events requiring pressure relief:
Block Discharge
Fire Exposure
Tube Rapture
Control Valve Failure
Thermal Expansion
Utility Failure

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Certified and approved under Section VII ( ASME Boiler and
Pressure Vessel Code for unfired pressure vessels)
devices covered: spring loaded direct acting relief valve, pilot
operated relief valve and rapture disks
When governing codes are ANSI B31.3 and B31.8,
Other relief devices, monitoring regulators, series regulators,
weight loaded relief valves, liquid seals, etc are permitted

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Type of Relief Valves:
Conventional Relief Valves
P valve where pressure to the
valve is directly opposed by a
spring and valve is shut under
normal operating pressures.
Ad > An

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Type of Relief Valves:
Balanced Relief Valve
piston/bellow type
minimizes the effects of
back pressure on
performance characteristics
Ad = An

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Type of Relief Valves:
Pilot Operated Relief Valve
No shaft
Utilizes the line pressure to
balance the opening and
closing of the valve
More surface area exposed to
the pressure on the top
compared to the bottom

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Type of Relief Valves:
Rapture Disk

Pressure Relief Valve Design

Type of Relief Valves:
Resilient Seat Relief Valve

Relief System Piping Design

Non flammable and non toxic materials ( air, steam CO2 ) are
discharged directly to the atmosphere precautions are
necessary
Hydrocarbons or other flammable discharged to the atmosphere
requires serious hazard considerations: formation of flammable
fixtures at grade level or on elevated structures, exposure to
personnel to toxic or suffocation atmosphere, ignition of relief
streams at the point of emission, noise levels, corrosion levels
or air pollution.
Depending on the plant layout, range of equipment design
pressures, desirability to isolate certain flow streams, two or
more flare systems are employed ie. High or low pressure
headers.

Relief System Piping Design

Load Determination:
Tabulate the relief loads discharged to each header system at
the conditions expected to exist in the system
Details are in API 521

Relief System Piping Design

Back Pressure Consideration
Necessary to decide on location of flares, size of the headers
and flare lines after load determination.
Location and height must consider the radiation heat and
emission effects
Involve fixing the maximum back pressure for the system and
choosing between conventional, balanced or pilot operated
safety valves
Other factors to be considered include high flare header back
pressure and economic line sizing criteria

Relief System Piping Design

Sizing Methods
Start at flare tip and work backwards toward individual relief
Valves. Typical tip pressure drop is 55 water and flare tip
velocity may vary from March 0.2 0.5
Establish equivalent pipe lengths considering fittings,
expansion, etc.
Estimate properties of gases in the header
Calculate the maximum allowable back pressure (MABP) at the
relief valve (10 40 % of set pressure)

Knockout Drums
Relief gas are mostly at dew point
Designed to effectively remove hydrocarbon liquids from the
main flare relief gas to prevent the possibility of liquid carry over
and flaming rain from the flare tip.
Knockout drums (KOD) are located near flare base to recover
liquid hydrocarbons and to remove large (300-600 micron) liquid
particles
All flare lines should be sloped toward the KOD
Location of KOD also takes into account radiation effect of
flaring

Knockout Drums
Sizing
Diameter of a vertical KOD is calculated from the maximum
allowable vapor velocity using,

gD ( l v )
Ud = (1 .15 )
vC
in ft/sec.
The values of C (drag coefficient can be found from the Drag vs.
CRe figure)
Velocity value calculated here is then used with the vertical
separator equations to find the diameter of the KOD

Flare Systems
Sizing and safety in designing s flare facility involve
consideration of thermal radiation, explosion hazards, liquid
carry over, noise and ground level concentration of toxic
material.
Offshore flares are specifically designed to ensure smokeless
flaring of both high and low volumes of flare gas.
Types
Pipe vertical or horizontal
Smokeless multiple burners for complete combustion
Endothermic- for use on low stream waste heat (below 115
BTU/scf)

Flare Systems
Thermal radiation
calculation to ensure safe levels for personnel and surrounding
environment
Spherical radiation intensity can be estimate using:

(Wf )( NHV )( )
I =
4 r 2

NHV net heating value of flare gas

emmissivity of flare gas

Wf flare gas flow rate, Ib/sec
r - Distance from the center of flare to pint x, ft

results are accurate at a distance of 1 flare length

Flare Systems
Some emissivity values of flare gas
Gas
Carbon Monoxide
Hydrogen
Hydrogen Sulfide
Ammonia
Methane
Propane
Butane
Ethylene
Propylene

0.075
0.075
0.07
0.07
0.1
0.11
0.12
0.12
0.13

To calculate the intensity of radiation at different locations, it is

necessary to determine the length of the flame and its angle in
relation to the stack

Flare Systems
A convenient expression to determine the length of flame, Lf is
done using,
Pw
Lf = 10 ( d )
55
Or from API RP 521

Lf = 3 . 94 [( Qr )( 10
Pw pressure drop, in water
d flare tip diameter, inches
Qr heat released, Btu/hr

)] 0 . 474

Flare Systems
For conventional open pipe flares, an estimate of total flare
pressure drop is 1.5 velocity heads based on nominal flare tip
diameter
V 2
Pw =
2 g (144 )

Pw pressure drop, in water

d flare tip diameter, inches
Qr heat released, Btu/hr

Flare Systems
Tip diameter can be estimated using

.
T + 460

3
m
2
.
72

10
(
flaregas )

MW
d =
Pw

1/ 2

Common to use Mach 0.5 for short term emergency flows and
Mach 0.3 for maximum continuous flow
The gas sonic velocity can be estimated by

a = 223

T
k
MW

Flare Systems
The angle of the flame can be estimated using

= tan
and

Vwind

Vgas

P
V gas = 550

55
The coordinates of the flame center wrt the tip are:
Xc = ( Lf/3) sin
Yc = ( Lf/3) cos
The distance from any point on the ground to the flame center
R =

( X Xc ) 2 + ( Hs + Yc ) 2