What are flare towers?
Flare stacks are refinery security equipment that is used to burn off excessive hydrocarbons wealthy gases.
How do they operate?
This pressure is reduced by releasing these gases over a pressure release valve which reduces the pressure by routing the surplus gas to the flare stack. Instead of releasing these volatile and toxic gases into the atmosphere, it's burnt completely to provide steam and CO2, which can be less dangerous gases. This steam is the white smoke you see coming from those towers. Many times, steam is injected into the fuel-air mix to stop the creation of black (soot rich) smoke. The thunder-like sound you hear is that the nozzle injection and mixing of steam, gas, and air.It's to be mentioned that even if safety is the principal aim of flaring, it might also be done to remove unwanted gases eg. during the extraction of crude oil, natural gas is discharged because of a drop in pressure. Even though it is typically stored and shipped as"Methane", in areas that lack the infrastructure or transportability, they're flared off.
What's the fire continuously burning?
A small pilot flame is always maintained busy, even during shutdown and startup so that the tower can come of immediate use during crises.
1. Flaring is the previous security alternative that's approached for depressurization of flow gas.
2. In some cases, the gas released is large enough (and easy enough) and therefore can be sent to electricity purification columns and reactors.
3. Also it functions as an emergency safety equipment. Throughout unit startups or abrupt over-pressurization, a large amount of gas is discharged. An individual cannot necessarily expect this and maintain a storage unit to cater to these situations as they may fall short. Whereas the flare tower may burn together and eventually eliminate the life-threatening gas.
4. During extraction of crude one can come across gases happening with it. These are known as dissolved gases'. Liquification of those gases may be too costly or might not be of value. Hence they're destroyed completely.
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