blowdown flare

[hurtadoParticipant]

WE ARE NOW IN STEADY STATE AND WE ARE TOLD TO MINIMISE THE FLARE FROM BLOWDOWN TOWER OVHEAD RECEIVER.IT IS OBSERVED WHILE VAPOR HEATING THE LIGHTER GASES ESCAPE TO FLARE FRMO BD OVERHEAD RECEIVER .IS THERE ANY OPERATING PARAMETER CHANGES CAN BE DONE TO AVOID THIS FLARING .OUR VAPOR HEATING OF DRUM DURATION IS 4 TO 6 HOURS.AND ALSO PLEASE SUGGEST ME THE BLOWDOWN OPERATING PRESSURE DURING THIS TIME.NORMAL WE OPERATE AT 0.4 KG/CM2.

[Anonymous]

DEAR,
  du u have FGRS ( flare gas recovery system) system in your plant ? that will help to recover gas from which  is going to flare and reduce the flaring of lighter gas
 

[Anonymous]

Mayur, as u said this FGRS system was specially designed by RIL & FW.. other refineries are not having such facilities for minimizing flare

[ashok singhParticipant]

Karthik,
Lummus design Cokers having same problem i.e. flaring from Blowdown overhead receiver during vapor heating as well as water quenching. I believe there are three PVs in your B/D overhead receiver i.e. one to flare,second for FG make-up and third to Fractionator O/H system for recovery.
To avoide above problem you can try the following options which are drastically reduce your flare losses:
1- Check the line throughness of Blowdown overhead receiver to u/p of fractionator O/H   condensers.  Also check for any loop formation in that line which cause the water seal and restrict the flow towards Fractionator O/H system.
2- Increase the B/D pressure slightly higher say 0.7 Kg/cm2 than Fractionator O/H, it facilitate all gases goes to Fractionator O/H rather than flare and it does not affect your vapor heating as you have sufficient time for vapor heating.
   
Best Regards
Ashok singh

[Anonymous]

Dear Ashok
 
Thanks for your reply.Yes as you rightly said we had a water seal in the line going from BD ovhd to Frac ovhd,later we drained that line and there was zero flaring and flow was going through that line.
 

[Author]

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