Heaters on KO drum
Heaters on KO drum
(OP)
The heaters in the boot of the flare KO drum on "my" platform are currently out of operation.
I have tried to find out if the heaters are defined as a part of the security system (we are discussing weather they can be removed permanently or not). In the Engineering Manual the purpose of the heaters is described as follows: "Electric heaters are located in the boot of the drum to heat cold liquid prior to pumping (maintain minimum temp of 5 deg Celcius). " From this, it seems like the heaters are a pump protection (to protect the drains pump on the KO drum liquid outlet).
On the other hand, what if wax, ice, etc blocks the outlet to the level instrumentation. If this happens, the level will "freeze" and we will no longer be able to detect HH liquid level. This will be a very critical situation.
In my seek for answers I have looked to several other platforms. The size of the heaters vary a lot, from a few kW to 3x50kW on "my" platform.
To summarize:
Does anyone know if the KO drum heaters are defined as a part of the security system?
Does anyone know any sizing rules for KO drum heaters?
I have tried to find out if the heaters are defined as a part of the security system (we are discussing weather they can be removed permanently or not). In the Engineering Manual the purpose of the heaters is described as follows: "Electric heaters are located in the boot of the drum to heat cold liquid prior to pumping (maintain minimum temp of 5 deg Celcius). " From this, it seems like the heaters are a pump protection (to protect the drains pump on the KO drum liquid outlet).
On the other hand, what if wax, ice, etc blocks the outlet to the level instrumentation. If this happens, the level will "freeze" and we will no longer be able to detect HH liquid level. This will be a very critical situation.
In my seek for answers I have looked to several other platforms. The size of the heaters vary a lot, from a few kW to 3x50kW on "my" platform.
To summarize:
Does anyone know if the KO drum heaters are defined as a part of the security system?
Does anyone know any sizing rules for KO drum heaters?





RE: Heaters on KO drum
The sizing basis is to maintain a temperature above the cloud point of your crude (you should have this from crude assays). Since the crude if it enters should already be above the cloud point (or else you wouldnt be processing it properly) you need to know what the ambient worst case temperature is and then just supply sufficient to compensate for heat losses to ambient from say 5C above cloud point. In other words Q=hADT, h is your heat loss coefficient, A the surface area of wetted vessel, DT =(T cloud+5- T ambient)
Note some people use the pour point instead of the wax apearance temperature this is usually much lower and is when the crude basically doesnt flow.
Note if your cloud point or wax apearance temperature is below ambient you dont need any heating
RE: Heaters on KO drum
Best regards
Morten
RE: Heaters on KO drum