PLANT SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT Eid a ie Calculating settle-out pressure in compressor loops Simple procedure can be used to help determine piping and equipment design pressures into process loops A. HEYDARI GORJI* and H. KALAT JARI, Sazeh Consultants, Tehran, Iran en.a compressor compresses gas from one system at P, and T; to another system at Py and T; and stops during ‘the maximum pressure drop case, a differential pressure is developed. After a compressor shutdown, the gas is trapped beeween the upstream and downstream discharge check valve and the pressure is equalized out. This equalized pressure throughout compressor loops is called settle-oue pressure. The maximum sertle-out pressure is calculated from coincident high-trip pres- sures on both suction and discharge sides of che compressor In some situations, a single pressure safety valve is desirable ro procect equipment in a process loop. In this regard, and also to «establish the design pressure for piping and equipment installed in the process loop, the setele-out pressure is required, Therefore, ics desired to reduce the settle-out pressure as much as possible. Settle-oue pressure will decrease ifthe discharge-side volume of centrifugal compressors is minimized, for instance gas precooling is preferable ro compressor discharge cooling ‘A simple procedure has been developed to determine the set- tle-out pressure inco compressor loops (For instance, a reaction ecycle-gas loop in which a compressor continuously recycles the process gas) oF centrifugal compressor stations including knock- ‘out drums, inter coolers and antisurg lines. Calculation procedure. 1o calculate the setle-out pressure isobar sections of the system should be identified. The system vol- ume and confined masses need to be determined and the lumped rmassanel enthalpy should be distributed in che setcle-out situation to calculate che Final pressure A settle-out pressure, there is still the same mass of gas and system rotal volume equals the initial mass of gas. If some sys- tem components are filled with liquid and their volume doesn't change, then liquid volume is not considered. The calculation, procedure is summarized as: 1. Estimate the equipment volume at each pressure level. Oper- acing pressure and temperature are used to estimate che mas. In this regard, the following assumptions can be considered asa rule of thumb if there are not enough data + Assume 60% occupation of catalyst/adsorbent inside + Assume 40% and 90% vapor phase inside separator and knock-out drums, respectively + Assume 50% vapor phase inside piping, heaters and exchang cs for two-phase services * conaporing ar Finns hyeaath cai T: 8821 512558821 W750 nn +The compressor intemal volume normally wouldnic be con- sidered. 2. Settle-out temperature should be calculated based on the volume of each isothermal section, since it will change at more locations than pressure. In this regard, all gas masses in the system at the various pressures and temperatures are added to estimate the total system mass and finally, equalized temperature. 3. Then, settl-out pressure is calculated based on BY, _ BV o where: Ps = Settle-out pressure, bara V5 Toral actual volume, m> rs = Settle-our temperature, °K Atmosphere pressure, bara Toral normal volume, Nm? 273,°K To derermine the sertle-out pressure ofthe compressor trains for which there are not enough data to calculate the system mass or the temperature difference throughout compressor loop is not significant, a rough estimation procedure is proposed. In this procedure, the sertle-out pressure is calculated based on the average value of system volumes and operating pressures. This estimation method is further explained in ease study 2. Sectle-our pressure in compressor trains is used as a basis for determining equipment and piping design pressures. In this regard, design pressure of the lowest-pressure part should be calculated as 1.05 times the settle-out pressure to minimize unnecessary flaring during compressor trips or shutdowns. This will provide an adequate basis for calculating design pressure of higher-pressure parts. Thus, design pressure of other equipment is obtained by summation of this base design pressure plus oper- ating pressure difference between each picee of equipment and the lowest operating pressure in che system. Case study 1: Reaction recycle-gas loop. A sample reaction loop (Fig. 1) is considered for calculating sete-out pres sure. Reactor liquid feed, after combination with the recycled gas feed, is preheated by the reactor feed/effluent exchanger and further heated by the Fired heater up to the reaction temperature and supplied co the reactor. The reactor effluent gas is cooled by a feed/effluent exchanger and two coolers. The cooled effluentSPECIALREPOR Settle-out pressure calculation for a reaction recycle-gas loop setieouttempaatreT, 25% a186¢ Setteout pemne:s,PNISEAEES 13 asasterg enters the product separator and sepa ced gas is recycled ro the reactor by the recycle gas compressor: Settle-out pressure should bs culated when the compressor ee Ae Se Dey eee Se ee eee ee ent eet ner Settle-out pressure calculation for a two-stage compressor item Volume, Pressure, Volume x pressure, Design pressure, ' are Mage “elma Peon ot ar 3 mi ae aE om ine’ ea 13 as inaxpie e7 337 ms band arn me et a a a insane 03 a3 ee m3 ica es 1,065.3, Settle-out pressure: , e 35.7 ~1.013=28.8 bargLines Reactor Separator ‘um, Fi heater Fre exchanger Centrituga ‘compressor een ea id teea ‘out pressure. The example in Table 2 illustrates a sevte-out pres sure calculation for a wo-stage centrifugal compressor station to explain the rough estimation procedure more clearly. HP LITERATURE CITED 21, American Petroleum Insnute (AP), Washington. DC, 197 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like wo hank the board of decors and process division her spor, ‘Aliakbar Heydari Gorjt «= a and etal de Hamid Reza Kalat Jari ey From the Most Respected Name in eT em TTI | “4 ! — FLOWSERVE SS Worthington” AutoShitt™ Combination Decoking Cutting Tool Pacitic® ‘With more than 100 years 3 deci BS of decoking experience Flowserve is continuing to transform decoking into an Increasingly safe, efficient and automated process. AutoShift elves benefits that protect operators and increase profitability * Completely automated shiting between cuting modes eliminates manual shitting + First step in removing operators from dock + Reduced cutting time returns vessel to operation sooner To learn more visit: ‘ntp:/autoshit Nowserve.com. 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