Ground Flare

G ro u n d F l a re s

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEMS DECLARATION OF THE QUALITY POLICY OF THE COMPANY The first engagement for THERMOENGINEERING The main principal which inspires the activity of THERMOENGINEERING is to provide the clients with solutions, products and services which are coherent to the market maximum standards and in full respect to all the defined characteristics and the foreseen periods. In order to assure that our responses are aligned with the quality expectation of the customers, THERMOENGINEERING has determined a quality management system which intend to incorporate the quality itself in all processes which represent the base of the activity and the company life: from the preliminary definition of the specifications up to the delivery of the products, the offered services, and the supply control. Throughout the measurements and the monitoring of the processes, it is intended to obtain a continuous improvement of the own performance, following always a major quality. Quality, for THERMOENGINEERING, means involving all the management in such a way that all are quite engaged to reach the un-renounced targets of safety, reliability, and maintainability of the proposed solutions. The clients of THERMOENGINEERING will find in the Manual of the Quality Management System of the company a reference point which, in addition to testifying our concrete involvement for providing the required quality level through well-defined processes, confirm our target of “satisfy the client” as well. Making use of methodologies validated by the market, applying controlled processes, defining formally the responsibilities, the roles and the necessary skills, THERMOENGINEERING quality could be considered a guarantee for whoever have the necessity to obtain for himself an advanced combustion system to get rid of the gas of the hydrocarbons. The Management

since 1979 is a company specialized in the combustion technology field. Our company is capable to deliver complete package consisting of design, fabrication, field installation and start up of the supplied equipment. Thermoengineering is basically an engineering company that is capable to design combustion systems to meet clients’ specific requests. In the design of all our equipment, very special attention is brought to matters as air pollution, Nox, noise, safety and energy conservation. Flares, originally used in the oil and petrochemical industries, from initial oil and gas exploration, through transport, storage, refining, processing and distribution, are also applied in coal gasification plants, steel production mills, nuclear power plants, sewage treatment installations, chemical plants and offshore. Besides, computerized programs are available to help our customers in finding out the best solutions they are looking for, in a very short time. The performance of our products is the most modern and technologically advanced you can find today on the market and our equipment are generally realized to meet all European and American rules. The ability to develop, test, demonstrate and prove burners, flares, boilers and incineration systems alleviates many customers concerns regarding new equipment or applications. A worldwide organization of our agents and representatives is at our customers’ disposal for the quickest and best service or assistance that might be required.

Ground Flare Systems - State of the art EGF’s are a proven technology which is increasingly being used to address issues such as thermal radiation, smoke and noise (API (2001)). As shown in Figure 1, it is made of a high number of small burners, installed at ground level and distributed on a set of stages.

Enclosed Ground Flares (EGF) are increasingly in use, especially in proximity of densely populated areas, in order to reduce the unlikable impact of flaring in terms of noise, pollution, smoke and flame visibility. Industrial installations utilize elevated flares to dispose the hydrocarbons from overpressure protection devices such as relief valves, rupture discs and depressurizing valves. The main undesired effects caused by elevated flares are smoke, noise and high thermal flux to the surrounding areas.

The burners on the first stage are in continuous operation, whilst the other stages are activated when required if the flare gas load is increased during an emergency scenario. The set of burners is enclosed within a cylindrical shield internally lined of refractory or other thermal insulations. A typical large size EGF may have a height of approximately 30-40 m and a wind fence of approximately 15 m diameter.

Smoke can be reduced by improving air/hydrocarbons mixture by means of utility fluids addition (e.g. air, steam or atomized water).

The main advantages of these installations are no visual impact of the flame, smokeless flaring, reduced utility fluid usage and no thermal radiation toward the surrounding.

These solutions, though, do nothing to improve the other undesired effects – in fact, the level of noise is often increased – also, it is hard to meet the utility fluid requirements (for instance, a ratio of approximately 0.5 kg steam/kg of hydrocarbons is required to guarantee complete smokeless flaring, as indicated by API (1997)). Another drawback of elevated flares is the visual impact of the flame, in case of upsets. This effect is becoming one of the most critical in case of plants surrounded by inhabited areas, as often occurs in existing installations in Western Europe.

Figure 1: Graphical representation of a Typical Enclosed/Open Ground Flare and

Ist. Stage

6as headers and Bumers

Distribution ops system

IInd. Stage Bumers

IIInd. Stage Bumers

Protection walls

Ignition and control pannel

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEMS

has a wide range of advanced Ground Flare Systems products. Such products could be classified as per the following scheme The two basic typology systems are: • Enclosed • Opened

GROUND FLARE SYSTEM

Ground Flares

The Open Ground Flare have the Opened following main characteristics: • Suitable for elevated quantity of emergency gas discharge • Opened Smokeless functionality at any instant flow rate • Modular and versatile functionality

Enclosed

FPSO

A particular application of the Enclosed Ground Flare is the installation on FPSO (ships for gas/oil extraction and treatment). This Provides the particular configuration of the equipment and adapt the limited impact with the external area.

The Enclosed Ground Flares are equipped with a vertical combustion chamber suitable for the natural air draft functioning and used for gas, liquid or combined emergency combustion. The combustion chambers are designed for the working temperature using the internals thermal protections suitable for the scope: • Ceramic fiber with different density, for flue gas low exit velocity • Refractory cement, for flue gas high exit velocity • Refractory bricks, for high flue gas exit velocity and particular corrosion situation.

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEMS

Enclosed Ground Flare The Enclosed Ground Flare main characteristics are: • Suitable for managed low and medium flared gas flow rates. The Ground Flares are sized selecting a specific residence time allowing to reach very elevated levels of combustion efficiency under any atmospheric conditions.

Indifferently proper for the installation of both natural draught or forced draught burners

The Ground Flares are sized selecting a specific residence time allowing to reach very elevated levels of combustion efficiency under any atmospheric conditions.

In case handling and transportation permits, Combustion Chamber could be supplied in circular sectors completely pre-assembled. In case not, it should be supplied in prefabricated panels ready to be simply assembled through bolted connections.

The flame is completely contained inside the combustion chamber, therefore there is no need for external areas of respect

Enclosed Ground Flare

Some example or ground flare combined with elevated flare

Multi-stages ground flare burners.

Single ground flare burner.

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEMS

Open Ground Flare OGF System philosophy and applicability When it is necessary to comply with the following requisitions:

and meanwhile the plant has the following characteristics : PLANT CHARACTERISTICS

REQUISITION High gas flow rate capacity

Sufficient opened space area

Smokeless functionality

Sufficient available pressure

Flexible functionality

Acknowledgement of the main flared gas discharged scenarios

Low utilities consumption

It is suggested the installation of an Open Ground Flare (OGF) single or multi stages type.

System description External Gas distribution system The flared gas distribution system to the different flare stages is composed of a set of automatic and manual valves complete with the safety system (burst disc or pin valves) with relevant block valves. This components are located outside the flare protection shield in a free access area.

Internal Gas distribution system The internal gas distributor is composed of a set of underground or protected gas header distributors Burners For each stage, there should be a set of burners and their relative ignition and continuous pilots The internal burners and relevant ignition and continuous pilots are strategically located in the center of the dedicated and protected area in order to optimize the system functionality.

Protection shield or embankment. All around the ground flare area it should be erected a protection shield or an embankment that contains completely the flame.

Open Ground Flare

OGF Functioning - Lybia

OGF Installation - Nigeria

OGF Installation - Terni Italy

OGF Functioning - Ist stage air assisted burner - Terni Italy

The configuration of the OGF systems resulting from some design criteria that can be resumed as follow: Total flare burner number and burner disposal, consequently the dedicated ground flare area.

Function of the gas composition.

Number of gas stages.

Funtion of the different waste gas discharge scenarios and the allowable pressure drop at the flare battery limit.

Type of Ist stage burner (normally realized with a burner air or steam assisted) for the low pressure stream.

Function of the available type of utility.

Selection of ON/OF valve type and relevant safety device (pin, valve,burst disc).

In function of the safety level required.

Number of ignition and continuous pilots, typology (electrical ignition, flame front ignition) and location.

In function of stage quantity and safety level required (normal one pilot for each stage as minimum).

Purge gas quantity and functionality (constant flow, instantaneous and temporary flow, automatic, manual, etc)

In function of utility type available and safety level required.

Drainage systems and functionality (automatic, manual, etc.)

In function of system configuration and safety level required.

FLAME FRONT GENERATOR CONTROL PANEL This panel can be adapted to specific area classification requirements and is suitable for ignition and control of one or more pilots. The pilots are ignited through an ignition tube alongside the flare riser. The tube is filled with a mixture of gas and air, which is spark-ignited to generate a flame front, that rises through the ignition tube to the pilot. The Thermoengineering FFGCP panel can be supplied with automatic system of ignition and re-ignition of pilots.

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEMS

OUR GROUP is an international group which deals with a wide range of advanced combustion systems for all the applications needed in the petrochemical field. On the basis of a turnkey concept, our supply includes the design, engineering, fabrication, and quality control of the different systems. Our specialization and constantly improving know-how permits us to satisfy even the most particular request of our Clients. Since the foundation of Thermoengineering on 1979 at Milan (Italy), our main philosophy is to spare no efforts to satisfy Clients requirements and try continuously to achieve the Quality/Cost magic formula for international market. Maintaining this policy, Thermoengineering succeed to obtain the absolute confidence of the most major petrochemical firms all over the world operating in this sector. Aiming always for high-technology innovations and laboratory researches, we can always guarantee the utmost degree of efficiency and reliability of our various products. Our organization includes : main managing functions for the whole group technical office, technical and engineering services, mechanical and structural calculations technical and engineering office for our group where all detailed and workshop drawings to be elaborated. associated mechanical and steelwork workshop for the fabrication of all the special items of our group. is the associated electrical and instrumental workshop for the supply, mounting, and assembling of all the control panels and instrumental skids of Thermoengineering group. associated company which is strictly specialized on all plants based on biogas concept. burners and fittings for industrial plants

OUR MAIN PRODUCTS Having an elevated and vast experience in designing, fabricating, and supplying a wide range of liquid and gaseous fuel combustion systems worldwide, Thermoengineering products can be classified as follows:

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEM

G ro u n d F l a re

Safety Systems

E l e v a t e d F l a re

ADVANCED COMBUSTION SYSTEM

Incinerator Systems

• Elevated Flare Systems • Ground Flare Systems • Incinerators • Burning Pits • Burners & Combustors • Flame Arrestors • Snuffing Systems • Molecular Gas Seals • Water Seals • Knock-Out Drums • Silencers • Coal Gasification Units • Venting Systems • Inert Gas Generators • Fuel and utilities supply line systems • Oil pumping and heating units • Indirect Heater

Imp. Grafica L. THEVENET - TV - ITALY - Printed in Italy by ARTI GRAFICHE CONEGLIANO

A D VA N C E D C O M B U S T I O N S Y S T E M

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