Industrial-Scale Flare Testing

Today’s process industries expect more from flare systems than ever before. Chemical and petroleum processing plants depend on flares to burn hydrocarbons, such as propane, propylene, ethylene, butadiene, butane and natural gas, found in waste gases. Landfills and wastewater treatment plants, oil-and-gas exploration and production facilities, and loading terminals also use flares to destroy potentially harmful gases. In each case, the flare system must separate the gases from any liquids present, ignite the gases, and provide the stable combustion necessary for destruction, while minimizing smoke, thermal radiation and noise. And, it must operate reliably and safely under a wide range of operating conditions, including weather extremes. With a greater demand for increased smokeless capacities, higher turndown and more-efficient plant production, a flare failure can carry a big price tag. Factor in the essential role flares play in the safe and environmentally acceptable disposal of waste gases produced from industrial operations (1, 2), and it’s easy to understand why processing industries can benefit from flare testing as a safeguard against unexpected problems in the field. Testing a flare before installation is a proactive measure to minimize the uncertainty of flare performance, emission levels, and the expense of repairs in the event of a problem. But testing flares in the field is generally difficult or impossible for several reasons. Operating flares usually do not have the instrumentation required for assessing performance. Operating conditions are not easily modified or controlled, and taking the plant off-line to test the flare is impractical. In addition, flares are nearly impossible to test under critical design conditions once installed. Characterizing flare performance for reliability and safety requires comprehensive, accurate testing at full-scale and under controlled conditions to collect and analyze critical data. Although flare performance might be estimated based Industrial-Scale Flare Testing