Flare Stacks bent
Flare Stacks bent
(OP)
Two flare stacks were reported bent at the same time at an Oil&Gas plant, most probably cause "High Temp degradation", is strenghtening them good idea as a temporary mitigation measure?
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RE: Flare Stacks bent
"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek
RE: Flare Stacks bent
RE: Flare Stacks bent
What sort of backflow preventer do you have on that flare stack? What about assist gas for smokeless combustion?
We had a vertical flare stack where I noticed one night the metal was red-hot at the base of the mol seal, turns out we had the center assist steam coming on first when it was supposed to come on last, apparently resulting in combustion below the tip. Changed around the order and that was the end of the problem. I heard of another 45 degree inclined flare tip up on the North Slope that had internal burning (never heard just why) until the whole thing just laid over on its side. It looks like for some reason you've had internal burning down in the flare stack.
RE: Flare Stacks bent
Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04
All answers are personal opinions only and are in no way connected with any employer.
RE: Flare Stacks bent
We are also suspecting internal burning due to problems on separators.
What about shorter the flare stacks, to remove the more affected portion of them?
RE: Flare Stacks bent
RE: Flare Stacks bent
Assuming you won't be able to get near it while it's flaring, I am inclined to go out there with UT apparatus and see what metal you have available to work with. If it's in any way salvageable, cut below and above the kink and weld a 2 foot piece into the middle, and remove the guy wires.
Otherwise, by visual observation of the facility in the background, I don't think I would be devoting a lot of time to coming up with a low cost fix for this somewhat toasted piece of pipe.
If shutdown outage is the issue, then in my opinion the best thing you can do at this point is take the guy wires down and let the thing last as long as it lasts. The minute you are forced to work on it, it looks like replacement is the best option.
RE: Flare Stacks bent
"People will work for you with blood and sweat and tears if they work for what they believe in......" - Simon Sinek
RE: Flare Stacks bent
PLease have a look in the attached photo taken from the down section of the "flare stacks", it is a casing pipe 16" covering the flare pipe inside it, it seems to be more a burner than a flare stack.
RE: Flare Stacks bent
RE: Flare Stacks bent
RE: Flare Stacks bent
@evaristo10: Do you know if it is a bunsenburner - and have you been around when you turn it off?
Best regards
Morten
RE: Flare Stacks bent
I'm planning a close visit to check about three pipes coming inside the stack.