Optimising sweep gas flow in a flare

header
How to calculate the minimum flow of flare header sweep gas needed to
maintain safe conditions

SATISH MATHUR
Bechtel India

T
he purging of flare practice of using rule-of-thumb specified by the seal supplier.
systems prevents the flare header sweeping gas In addition, the unit area
ingress of air through the rates could lead to substantial flare headers and sub-headers
open stack, which can create an annual utility costs in large are provided with a sweeping
inflammable mixture of hydro- flare networks and is therefore gas supply in most installa-
carbons and oxygen inside the not a desirable practice. tions, although some flare
system. Stack purge, together A typical flare network systems with a water seal and
with purge reduction seals, is consists of several sub-headers stack designed for internal
generally used to prevent this, that collect the discharge gases explosion may not require
in addition to a make-up gas from relief valves, process flar- continuous header purge.3 This
for sweeping the flare headers. ing control valves, emergency is to compensate for a shrink-
Some estimates of header depressurising systems and age effect due to ambient
sweep gas quantities are equipment depressurising for cooling or rapid cooling of the
suggested by Duggan, Simpson shutdown purposes. In large gases after a hot gas release in
and others.1 complexes, the sub-headers the flare header network.
With rising energy costs, may terminate in unit knockout This article deals with header
there is a need to minimise the drums for liquid removal sweeping gas quantity, which
amount of gas used for sweep- before joining the main header is independent of the stack
ing without compromising the leading to the common flare purge flow due to their differ-
safety aspect, which is that stack. ent objectives, as explained
there should be no air ingress The flare stack can have a above. Natural gas available
in the system. This article water seal to prevent any flash- from the plant fuel gas system
develops the correlations for back from the stack to headers is often used for purging, both
estimating the header sweep- (except in cryogenic applica- at the stack as well as in the sub-
ing gas requirement needed to tions), a seal on the stack to headers, with a backup gas
compensate for the shrinkage prevent infiltration of air and a supply source for ensuring
effect due to ambient cooling dedicated continuous flare uninterrupted gas availability.
or rapid cooling of the gases stack purge. The quantity of
after a hot gas release. It also stack purge gas required is Basis
provides guidelines to facili- dependent on the size of the Under normal operation, when
tate a decision on investing in flare tip, the composition of the the plant is in steady condition
instrumented intermittent purge gas, the composition of and if the valves are not pass-
purge systems, which can the waste gases and the design ing, there should be no flow of
provide further savings in the of the seal.2 In most cases, the waste gas into the flare head-
quantity of sweep gas. The seal purge gas quantity is ers. In this condition, the

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000653 PTQ Q4 2012 1

 Nusselt number for the hori-
zontal pipe of diameter D is
(BT 1JQF "JS given by Churchill and Chu5 as
follows:
2
 
 0.387× Ra1D/ 6 
Nun, D = 0.06 +
5JNF

/ 27 
88/27


1+ (0.559 / Pr) 9 / 16
 ]] 


Where RaD = g.β.ρ.cp(∆t)D3/(ν.

kf) = Rayleigh number.
The overall Nusselt number
Figure 1 Temperature gradients from flaring condition to ambient temperature Nu is computed using j = 4 and
δ = 0.3. Once the Nusselt
stagnant gases in the flare NNu = hiL/k = Nusselt number number is computed, the heat
headers can be subjected to NGr = L3ρ2Gβ∆t/µ2 = Grashof transfer coefficient external to
volume shrinkage due to cool- number the pipe is computed as:
ing. The factors influencing NPr = cµ/k = Prandtl number.
shrinkage are: The factors “a” and “m” for h = NuD. kf / D
• Temperature of gas in the horizontal cylinders are given
header after stoppage of flaring in the reference. Using these, hi, The radiation heat transfer
• Ambient temperature the heat transfer coefficient for coefficient outside the pipe is
• Wind speed natural convection inside the computed using the Stefan
• Flare pipe surface area pipe, is computed. Boltzmann Law:
• Heat capacity of flare pipe When a heated flare pipe
metal surface is exposed to flowing hr =
(
σε Ts4 −T04 )
• Thermal conductivity, viscos- air, the convective heat transfer Ts −T0
ity and density of gas. outside the pipe is a combina-
tion of forced and free with ε = 0.95
Method convection. For this mixed
Heat transfer from the hot flare convection condition, Churchill The overall outside heat
gases to ambient is by the recommends the following transfer coefficient will be:
following means: equation for computing the
• Inside the pipe: by natural heat transfer coefficient h:5 ho = h + hr
convection (gases inside the
pipe are considered stagnant (Nu - δ)j = (Nuf - δ)j + (Nun - δ)j Neglecting the heat transfer
when not flaring) resistance of the pipe and
• Across the pipe wall: by The forced convection difference of pipe inside and
conduction Nusselt number for the hori- outside diameters, the overall
• Outside the pipe: by natural zontal pipe of diameter D is heat transfer coefficient “U”
convection, forced convection given by Incropera and Dewitt5 from gas to air is given by:
and radiation. as follows:
Theoretical analysis of natu-  4/5
1/U = 1/hi + 1/ho
0.62×Re1D/ 2 Pr1 / 3   Re D  
5/8
ral convection heat transfer Nu f , D = 0.3 + × 1+  
inside enclosed surfaces is  ]] / 4   282000
1+ (0.4 / Pr) 2 / 3 11/4

  
The heat transferred out of
provided in the Nusselt flare gas and the pipe metal to
equation:4 ambient can be computed as:

NNu = a (NGr NPr)m Where ReD = VD/ν = Reynolds Q = U x A x (Tgas - Tambient)

number.
where The natural convection The heat transferred to the

2 PTQ Q4 2012 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000653

ambient state results in a lower-
ing of the temperature of the 60000
pipe and the gas inside. Based 3 ft
on computations of heat trans- 50000 2 ft

US Dollars per year

fer coefficients, it can be seen 1.5 ft
1 ft
that the external heat transfer 40000
coefficient (due to convection
and radiation from pipe to the 30000
ambient) is higher as compared
20000
to the heat transfer coefficient
inside the pipe in the stagnant
10000
gas, with the difference being
greater at higher ambient air
0
velocities and in rainstorm 50 100 150 200 250 300
conditions. However, during Flare temperature, °C
flaring (prior to the stagnant
condition), the gas velocity Figure 2 Continuous header purging with a fuel gas quantity needed to
inside the pipe is usually high compensate shrinkage
and it can be assumed that the
inside pipe heat transfer coeffi- temperatures, as follows:6 Q = Qgas + Qpipe = mgas x cpgas x ∆Tgas +
cient is also high. The pipe mpipe x cppipe x ∆Tgas x ho/(ho + hi)
temperature in this period will Tpipe = (Tgas-Tambient) x (ho/(ho + hi))
be closer to the gas tempera- Rearranging we get:
ture, with the temperature Differentiating above and
dropping sharply to ambient at considering the ratio ho/(ho + ∆Tgas = Q / (mgas x cpgas + mpipe x cppipe x
the air film outside the pipe hi) and Tambient as constant, we ho/(ho + hi))
(the thin profile shown in get: At constant pressure, the
Figure 1). The analysis volume shrinkage is directly
provided here assumes flaring ∆Tpipe / ∆Tgas = ho/(ho + hi) related to the temperature fall
for the duration so that entire computed above. The sweeping
pipe length is heated evenly. The drop in gas enthalpy due gas compensates for the flare
On stoppage of flaring, as the to heat loss can be computed gas shrinkage, thereby ensuring
inside heat transfer coefficient as: the constant pressure condition
reduces to even lower than the in the headers:
outside (and becomes the Qgas = mgas x cpgas x ∆Tgas
controlling heat transfer resist-
ance), the average pipe The drop in pipe enthalpy due ∆Vshrinkage = Vflare header x ∆Tgas / Tgas-abs
temperature reaches closer to to heat loss can be calculated
ambient temperature. The as: Results
temperature gradients, starting Calculations to estimate sweep-
from the flaring condition to Qpipe = mpipe x cppipe x ∆Tpipe ing gas were performed for a
when the stagnant gas inside 500m flare header for different
the flare pipe finally reaches Substituting for ∆Tpipe we get: pipe diameters and gas temper-
ambient temperature, are atures during flaring. Wind
depicted in Figure 1. The bold Qpipe = mpipe x cppipe x ∆Tgas x ho/(ho + hi) velocity was considered as 2
profiles are the time-dependent m/s, the fuel gas price was
temperature gradients after the $3.0/thousand ft3 and 10 mm-
stoppage of flaring. Summing up the equations thick steel pipe was used.
The pipe temperature can be for pipe and gas enthalpy Calculations were performed
estimated, based on the inside changes and equating to the for 1ft, 1.5ft, 2ft and 3ft-diame-
and outside heat transfer coef- total heat loss to ambient, we ter flare pipes based on ethane
ficients and the respective bulk get: gas in the flare pipe as well as

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000653 PTQ Q4 2012 3

 instrumentation shown in
0.04 Figure 4 is $20 000, then, refer-
Sweeping gas velocity, m/s 3 ft
2 ft
ring to Figure 2, the
1.5 ft instrumented purge system
0.03
1 ft becomes attractive only above a
200°C flare gas temperature for
0.02 a 2ft-diameter pipe and above
110°C for a 3ft-diameter pipe in
the above case, with a payback
0.01 period of one year. For cases
with a lower sweeping gas
requirement, the orifice plate
0 system for continuous sweeping
50 100 150 200 250 300 gas can be more economical.
Flare temperature, °C The cost of sweep gas in
intermittent purge systems is
Figure 3 Sweeping gas velocity required for different pipe diameters expected to be small, consider-
ing it is used for a short
duration, which is only after a
flaring incident. For rainstorm
conditions, the sweeping gas
requirement can be marginally
higher (about 1% more is esti-
PI TI mated) since the stagnant gases
in the pipe remain heat transfer
controlling.
Flare header The estimation of flare gas
shrinkage shown above is based
on a horizontal layout of the
Figure 4 Scheme to provide sweep gas to the flare header intermittently flare pipe, which is true for
designs where the flare header
ethane gas as the sweeping gas. flare pressure, divided by flare terminates into a water seal
The results are plotted in pipe area) for different pipe drum, since the stack is purged
Figures 2 and 3. diameters for the example case separately to meet the purge
Figure 2 shows continuous is shown in Figure 3. requirement of the seal near the
header purging with a fuel gas flare tip. Where there is no
quantity needed to compensate Instrumented purge systems water seal drum, the header
shrinkage, thereby avoiding The scheme indicated in Figure extends to the vertical section of
any negative pressure in the 4 is often used to provide sweep the flare header, which is the
header. The annual cost of gas to the flare header intermit- stack. The length of the vertical
sweeping gas is shown. As tently, depending on pressure pipe is to be added in this case;
Figure 2 illustrates, a higher and temperature measurements however, there is not a major
sweeping gas flow is required in the header. Since flaring is difference in the overall sweep
when the initial flare gas not expected to be frequent, the gas estimate if that height is
temperature and flare pipe use of this scheme avoids treated as equivalent horizontal
diameter are high. If the pipe continuous header purge. run of pipe, together with the
length is more than 500m, the However, the scheme is more rest of the flare horizontal
sweeping gas requirement also expensive than installing a pipework.
increases proportionately. The simple orifice plate required for
required sweeping gas velocity a continuous sweeping gas flow Conclusion
(volume of sweeping gas at the system. If, for example, the cost Flare header sweeping gas flow
sweeping gas temperature and of a control valve and other is dependent on gas shrinkage

4 PTQ Q4 2012 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000653

due to the ambient cooling
effect. The minimum quantity 150

Rate of temperature change,

3 ft
to maintain safe conditions in 2 ft
the headers can be estimated 1.5 ft
according to the method shown 1 ft
100
in this article. The equivalent
cooling rates (see Figure 5) for

°C/hr
different temperature flare
gases for the case described 50
have been found to be slightly
lower than Simpson’s rates.1
Sweeping gas flow systems
can be either continuous or 0
intermittent. Intermittent 0 100 200 300
systems can provide economy Temperature, °C
in gas consumption over the
continuous systems; their Figure 5 Cooling rates for different temperature flare gases
higher capital cost becomes
justifiable in large networks Estimate of the Heat Gain or Loss and the σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant
and/or high-temperature flare Surface Temperatures of Insulated Flat, ν Kinematic viscosity
systems. Cylindrical, and Spherical Systems by Use

of Computer Programs. Satish Mathur is a Supervising Engineer in
Acknowledgements 6 Kern, D Q, Process Heat Transfer. the Process Department of Bechtel India
The author wishes to thank Bechtel (India) Pvt Ltd. He has over 36 years’ experience in
Pvt Ltd for their support in completing the oil, gas, petrochemicals and synthetic
this study. Key fibre industry, from conceptual design
T, t Temperature through to commissioning. He holds a
Pr Prandtl number BTech degree in chemical engineering
References U Overall heat transfer coefficient from Indian Institute of Technology, New
1 CCPS/AIChE Guideline for Pressure Relief D Diameter Delhi, India.
and Effluent Handling Systems, Ch 5. V Volume Email: [email protected]
2 Bader A, Baukal C E, Jr, Bussman W, A Area
Selecting the Proper Flare Systems, CEP Jul k Thermal conductivity Links
2011. g Acceleration due to gravity
3 Pressure-relieving and Depressuring β Volumetric coefficient of thermal
Systems, API Standard 521 (ISO 23251), expansion More articles from the following
5th ed. ρ Density categories:
4 Perry’s Handbook, 7th ed, Ch 5, Heat ε Effective surface emittance between Emissions Control
and Mass Transfer. outside surface and the ambient Process Modelling & Simulation
5 ASTM C680-10, Standard Practice for surroundings

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