Maha Kamel
Engineering for Petroleum and Process Industries (ENPPI)
Cairo, Egypt
E-mail: mahafergany@enppi.com.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN FLARE DESIGN
Flaring has become more complicated than just lighting up waste gas.
Tighter regulations on both safety and emissions have aroused recently for environmental protection. These regulations have resulted in higher levels of concern and involvement in safety and emissions matters, not to mention smoke, noise, glare and odor.
As the flare is the most visible sign of wasted resources and pollution from oil, gas and petrochemical plants, flare system design has been greatly developed to respect environmental regulations and safety concerns.
A gas flare, (flare stack), is a gas combustion device used in industrial plants for burning off flammable gas. The role of the flare system is to provide a means of safe disposal of the vapor streams from its facilities, by burning them under controlled conditions so that adjacent equipment or personnel are not exposed to hazards, and at the same time obeying the environmental regulation of pollution control and public relations requirements.
Flare tip designs have developed significantly in recent decades and although many suppliers offer proprietary flare technologies, the basic design types available can be generally categorized as follows:
- Ground Flares
- Elevated flares
- Vent Tips