Flare Selection and Sizing (Engineering Design Guideline) : KLM Technology Group

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KLM Technology
Group Rev: 01
Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing July 2007
Plant Solutions www.klmtechgroup.com
Author:
A L Ling
KLM Technology Group
Unit 23-04
Menara Landmark
FLARE SELECTION AND SIZING Checked by:
12 Jalan Ngee Heng (ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE) Karl Kolmetz
80000 Johor Bahru,
Malaysia
TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION 5
Scope 5
Flare 6
Flare Type 6
I) Elevated Flare 6
II) Ground Flare 8
Flare System 9
Design Factors 9
I) Flow Rate 9
II) Gas composition 10
III) Gas Temperature 10
IV) Gas Pressure Available 10
V) Utility Costs and Availability 10
VI) Environmental Requirements 11
VII) Safety Requirements 11
VIII) Social Requirements 11

KLM Technology Page 2 of 54
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Guidelines for Processing Plant FLARE SELECTION AND SIZING
Solutions
( ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE) July 2007
Design Consideration 12
DEFINITIONS 13
NOMENCLATURE 15
THEORY
Elevated Flare Tips Sizing 16
Stack Support 17
Flare Stack Diameter 18
Vent Stack 19
Flame Length 19
Flame Distortion Caused by Wind Velocity 20
Flare Stack Height 22
Ground Flare Sizing 24
Thermal Radiation 25
Smokeless Operation 26
Steam Assist 27
High/Low Pressure Air Assist 27
Self assisted high pressure flares gas 28
High pressure water assist 28
Flare Pilots and Igniters 28
These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases.
They were designed for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always
be guaranteed for the service selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up
front engineering hours that are required to develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or
a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced
or in any way communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.
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Knockout Drum & Flash back Protection 29
Knockout Drum 29
Seal Drum 31
Diffusion Type Seal 32
Reducing Flare Pulsing and Noise 32
Selection of Flares 33
APPLICATION
Example 1: Sizing of Elevation Vent Stack 34
Example 2: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack (simple approach method) 36
Example 3: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack

( Brzustowski’s and Sommer’s Approach) 43
REFEREENCES 48
SPECIFICATION DATA SHEET
Flare System Data Sheet

49
CALCULATION SPREADSHEET
Flare Sizing by Using Simple Approach 50
Flare Sizing by Using Brzustowski's and Sommer's Approach 51
Flare Sizing by Using Simple Approach -Example 2 52
Flare Sizing by Using Brzustowski's and Sommer's Approach -Example 3 53
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: Emissivity values for flared gases 25
Table 2: Effect of Thermal Radiation 25
Table 3: Recommended Design Total Radiation 26
Table 4: Comparison between Elevated Flare and Multijet Flare 33
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System 7
Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare 8
Figure 3: Common Type of Stack Support 17
Figure 4: Ratio of Σ∆X/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion 21
Figure 5: Ratio of Σ∆Y/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion 21
Figure 6: Dimension of Flare Stack 23
Figure 7: Flare Knockout Drum 29
Figure 8: Determination of Drag Coefficient 30
Figure 9: Flame Center for Flares and Ignited Vents: Horizontal Distance Xc 45
Figure 10: Flame Center for Flares and Ignited Vents: Vertical Distance Yc 46
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INTRODUCTION
Scope
This design guideline covers the sizing and selection methods of a flare system used in the
typical process industries. It helps engineers understand the basic design of different types
of flare systems and gain their knowledge in selection and sizing.
The selection section contains the explanation for the suitability of types of flare system
used in processing industries, which are based on the environmental regulations, location,
and process materials involved.
All the important parameters used in this guideline are well explained in the definition
section which helps the reader understand the meaning of the parameters and the terms
used.
The theory section includes sizing theory and formulations for the flare systems design. It
includes explanation of using the Simple Approach and the Brzustowski's and Sommer's
Approach methods for determination of the flare stack dimensions and others important
parameters.
In the application section, three cases examples are included by guiding the reader step by
step to do flare sizing by using Simple Approach or Brzustowski’s and Sommer’s Approach
methods.
In the end of this guideline, example specification data sheets for the flare system are
included which is created based on an industrial example. Calculation spreadsheet is
included as well and to aid user more understand and to apply the theory for calculations.
Flare
The flare is a last line of defense in the safe emergency release system in a refinery or
chemical plant. It uses to dispose of purged and wasted products from refineries,
unrecoverable gases emerging with oil from oil wells, vented gases from blast furnaces,
unused gases from coke ovens, and gaseous water from chemical industries. Flares are
also used for burning waste gases from sewage digesters process, coal gasification, rocket
engine testing, nuclear power plants with sodium, water heat exchangers, heavy water
plants, and ammonia fertilizer plants.
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The flare provides a means of safe disposal of the vapor streams from its facilities, by
burning them under controlled conditions such 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.
The chemical process used for flaring is a high temperature oxidation reaction to burn
combustible components, mostly hydrocarbons, or waste gases from industrial operations.
In combustion, the gaseous hydrocarbon (natural gas, propane, ethylene, propylene,
butadiene, butane and etc) reacts with atmospheric oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2)
and water. Several by products formed will be carbon monoxide, hydrogen and others
dependent upon what is being burned. Efficiency of hydrocarbon conversion is generally
over 98%.
Flare Type
In industrial, the most common utilized flare systems are elevated flares and ground flares.
Selection of the type of flare is influenced by several factors, such as availability of space;
the characteristics of the flare gas (composition, quantity and pressure); economics;
investment and operating costs; public relations and regulation.
I) Elevated Flare
Elevated flare (refer Figure 1) is the most commonly used type in refineries and chemical
plants. Have larger capacities than ground flares. The waste gas stream is fed through a
stack from 32ft to over 320 ft tall and is combusted at the tip of the stack.
The elevated flare, can be steam assisted, air assisted or non-assisted. Elevated can utilize
steam injection / air injection to made smokeless burning and with low luminosity up to
about 20% of maximum flaring load. The disadvantage of steam injection / air injection is it
introduces a source of noise and cause noise pollution. If adequately elevated, this type of
flare has the best dispersion characteristics for malodorous and toxic combustion products.
Capital costs are relatively high, and an appreciable plant area may be rendered
unavailable for plant equipment, because of radiant heat considerations.
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Flare Tip Pilot Burners
Steam
Nozzles
Steam
Line
Gas Barrier
Flare Stack
Gas Collection
Header and Ignition Device
Transfer Line Purge
Gas
Air Line
Water Gas Line

knock-out
Drum Sear
Drain
Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System
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II) Ground Flare
A ground flare is where the combustion takes place at ground level. It varies in complexity,
and may consist either of conventional flare burners discharging horizontally with no
enclosure or of multiple burners in refractory-lined steel enclosures. The type, which has
been used almost exclusively, is the multijet flare (enclosed type).
Compare to elevated flare, ground flare can achieved smokeless operation as well, but with
essentially no noise or luminosity problems, provided that the design gas rate to the flare is
not exceeded. However, it have poor dispersion of combustion product because it stack is
near to ground, this may result in severe air pollution or hazard if the combustion products
are toxic or in the event of flame-out. Capital, operating and maintenance requirements
cost are high.
Because of poor dispersion, multijet flare is suitable for "clean burning" gases when noise
and visual pollution factors are critical. Generally, it is not practical to install multijet flares
large enough to burn the maximum release load, because the usual arrangement of multijet
flare system is a combination with an elevated over-capacity flare.
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Exhaust Gas
o
(1500 F) 63,179 scfm)
Thermocouple
UV Flame Scanner
Enclosed flare Sight Port
Combustion
Chamber
Burner
Landfill Gas
Inlet
Burner Arrangement
Landfill gas
From collection UV Flame Scanner Air Inlet
Wells and header 5 to 10”
system Sight Port Refractory
Lining (2”)
Air Damper (2) UV Flame Scanner
Landfill Gas
1,000scfm Inlet Sight Port
Concrete Base on
Pad sources to
flare Air Inlet
Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare

Flare System
Typical flare system consists of:-
i) gas collection header and piping for collecting gases from processing units,
ii) a knockout drum to remove and store condensable and entrained liquids,
iii) a proprietary seal, water seal, or purge gas supply to prevent flash-back
iv) a single or multiple burner unit and a flare stack,
v) gas pilots and an ignitor to ignite the mixture of waste gas and air and
vi) a provision for external momentum force (steam injection or forced air) for
smokeless flaring.
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Design Factors
Is very important for the flare designer to understand several factors which can affect his
flaring system design, the major factors influencing flare system design are:
¾ Flow rate;
¾ Gas composition;
Depends on the gas stream released
¾ Gas temperature;
¾ Gas pressure available;
¾ Utility costs and availability;
¾ Safety requirements;
¾ Environmental requirements; Related to regulatory mandates
¾ Social requirements.
I) Flow Rate
How flow rate will affect the design of flare system? Normally the designer of the flare
system will follow exactly the flow data provided, therefore overstated of the flows will lead
to oversized of flare equipment which lead to more expensive capital and operating costs
and can lead to short service life as well. Understated the flow can result in a design of an
unsafe system.
Flow rate obviously affects the mechanical size of flare equipment, increased flow will
results increase of thermal radiation from an elevated flare flame, which have direct impact
on the height and location of a flare stack.
II) Gas composition
The combustion gas products are depend on the feed gas composition, by studying the
feed gas composition the potential combustion product can be determined and burning
characteristic can be identified. It enables the design company to shown the weight ratio of
hydrogen to carbon in gas which indicates the smoking tendency of the gas. Some gas as
hydrogen sulfide it need special design for metallurgies, therefore detail of the feed gas
compositions to design the flare system is very important and should be determined
accurately.
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III) Gas Temperature
Gas temperature has direct impact on thermal expansion, gas volume and metallurgical
requirements for pipe & vessels. Beside this the more important impact of gas temperature
to flare design is the potential of substance / components of the gas to condense, because
condensation or two-phase flow will cause a greater smoking tendency and / or the
possibility of a burning liquid rain. This can be solve by add a liquid removal equipment
(knockout drum).
IV) Gas Pressure Available
The gas pressure available for the flare is determined by hydraulic analysis of the complete
pressure relief system from the pressure relieving devices to the flare burner. This
parameter is a factor for smokeless burning design of flare. Some flare design companies
have proved that smokeless burning can be enhanced by converting as much of the gas
pressure available as possible into gas momentum. With the higher pressure drop across
the flare burner it can reduce the gas volume, which can lead to a smaller flare header size
& reduced cost and finally allows a reduction in purge gas requirements.
V) Utility Costs and Availability
To achieve smokeless operation, it is necessary to add an assist medium to increase the

overall momentum to the smokeless burning level. The common medium is steam which is
injected into nozzles of the flare system. In order to achieve this objective, local energy
costs, availability and reliability must be taken into account in selecting the smoke-
suppression medium.
Other utilities are needed to be in place are purge gas and pilot. The quantity required is
depending on the size of the flare system. The purge gas requirement can be influenced by
the composition of the purge gas and / or the composition of the waste gas. Pilot gas
consumption will also be influenced by the combustion characteristics of the waste gases.
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VI) Environmental Requirements
The primary environmental requirement is the need for smokeless burning to protect the
environment from pollution, it is necessary to inject an assist medium such as steam in
order to achieve smokeless burning. Unfortunately the injection of the steam and the
turbulence created by the mixing of steam to solve the smoke burning problem causes the
emission of sound. The sound level at inside and outside the plant boundary is often limited
by regulation.
VII) Safety Requirements
The main safety concern for the flaring system is thermal radiation issues. The allowable
radiation from the flare flame to a given point is frequently specified based on the owner's
safety practices by following the safety regulation. Special consideration should be given to
radiation limits for flares located close to the plant boundary.
VIII) Social Requirements
Although the plant operation has complied with the environmental regulation, sometime the
outcome resulting flare system may not meet the expectations of the plant's neighbors.
Example: A smokeless flame may meet the regulatory requirements, but the neighbours
may complaint due to light and noise from flare system.
Design Consideration
When design the flare system, several important parameters have to be consider, there are
flare head design, flare exit velocity, VOC heating value, and whether the flame is assisted
by steam or air.
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Beside that, the design should be base on consideration bellow as well,
1. Flare Spacing, Location, and Height
¾ radiant heat
¾ burning liquid fall out
¾ pollution limitations
2. Flare Capacity and Sizing
¾ Flare design capacity is design to handle largest vapor release from pressure
relief valve, vapor blow down and other emergency system
3. Flashback Seals -flashback protection, which prevents a flame front from traveling
back to the upstream piping and equipment. Sizing of flare systems is a function of
maximum allowable back pressure on pressure relief valves and other sources of
release into the emergency systems.
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DEFINITION
Back Pressure- Back pressure is the sum of the superimposed and build-up back
pressures. The pressure that exists at the outlet of a pressure relief device is as a result of
the pressure in the discharge system.
Gas Blower - Device for blowing air to flare system.
Blowdown - The difference between the set pressure and the closing pressure of a
pressure relief valve, expressed as a % of the set pressure of in pressure units.
Closed Disposal System- Disposal system which is capable of containing pressure that
is different from atmospheric pressure.
Flare System – A system that safely disposing of waste gases through the use of
combustion.
Flare Stack- is an elevated vertical stack found on oil wells or oil rigs, and in refineries,
chemical plants and landfills used for burning off unusable waste gas or flammable gas and
liquids released by pressure relief valves during unplanned over-pressuring of plant
equipment.
Flame Arrestors- A crimped ribbon aluminum or stainless steel flame cell to protect
against rapid burn backs in low-pressure situations. These passive safety devices are
guaranteed to prevent flame fronts from propagating back through lines, destroying
facilities, and causing injuries.
Flare Tips- Structure at top of the flare play the role to keep an optimum burn and control
over all flow rates, which results in a cleaner combustion. The design of the tip makes sure
that the tip does not come into contacting with the flame making the tips reliable and long
lasting.
Ignitions system – Is a system use to ignite the flare of flare systems. Normally this
system designed to ignite the flare quickly the first time, maintain combustion and re-ignite
rapidly to prevent industrial hazards and personal injury while protecting the environment.
Knockout Drum – Is a drum installed near the flare base, and serves to recover liquid
hydrocarbons, prevent liquid slugs, and remove large liquid particles from the gas streams
released from relief system.
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Open Disposal System- A disposal system that discharges directly from relief system to
atmosphere without other devices.
Overpressure- Pressure value increase more that the set point pressure of the relieving
device, expressed in percent.
Pressure Relieving System- An arrangement of a pressure-relieving device, piping and a

means of disposal intended for the safe relief, conveyance, and disposal of fluids in a
vapour, liquid, or gaseous phase. It can be consist of only one pressure relief valve or
rupture disk, either with or without discharge pipe, on a single vessel or line.
Relief Valve – A spring-loaded pressure relief valve is actuated by the static pressure
upstream of the valve. The valve opens normally in proportion to the pressure increase
over the opening pressure. A relief valve is used primarily with incompressible fluids.
Rupture Disk Device- A nonreclosing differential pressure relief device actuated by inlet
static pressure and designed to function by bursting the pressure containing rupture disk.
A rupture disk device includes a rupture disk and a rupture disk holder.
Support Structure – Structure which designed to withstand local wind condition for flares.
Three types available self-supported, Guy-wire supported and Derrick supported.
Windbreaker - A windbreaker is structure uses to prevent the wind from extinguishing the
flames which located at flare tip. It serves also to hide the flames.
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NOMENCLATURE
At Flare tip area, ft2

C Drag coefficient (Dimensionless)
dj Pipe/Tip inside diameter, ft
D Particle diameter, in
g Acceleration due to gravity, 32.2 ft/s2
H Heat of combustion gases, Btu/Ib
h Distance, in feet
k Ratio of specific heats (Cp/Cv)
Lf Flame length, ft
Mach Mach number at pipe outlet
Mj Gas molecular weight
m Mass flow rate, Ib/s
P Maximum header exit pressure, in Ib/in2g
Pj Pipe outlet pressure, in Ib/in2 (absolute)
Qf Heat release, Btu/hr
qf Heat intensity (Btu/hr/ft2)
R Gas constant, 10.7 (British unit)
Rf Distance from the midpoint flame (ft)
Tj Absolute temperature, in oR
Ud Maximum allowable vapor velocity for vertical vessel, ft/s
U∞ Design wind velocity
V Volumetric flowrate, ft3/s
W Gas flow rate, in Ib/hr
Wstm Mass flow rate of steam, Ib/hr
Z Compressibility factor, dimensionless
Greek letters
ε Emissivity, (dimensionless)
ρ Sealing liquid density, in Ib/ft3
ρL Density of liquid, Ib/ft3
ρV Density of vapor, Ib/ft3
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THEORY
Elevated Flare Tips Sizing
The elevated flare tips normally are sized as below:
i) Flare tip with steam assisted: steam injection nozzles are sized for a
velocity of 400 ft/s (120 m/s) at maximum flow with considering the
limitation of noise emission.
ii) Velocity is sized at least 250 ft/s (75 m/s) to insure good dispersion. But the
flare tips consisted with a simple open-ended pipe and a single pilot, this
will subjected to flame lift-off and noise problems at high velocities,
therefore it should be designed for a maximum velocity of 160 ft/s (50 m/s).
iii) The flare height should be at least as high as any platform or building within
500 ft (150 m) horizontally, and in no case less than 50ft (15 m) high.
iv) Any source of ignitable/ flammable hydrocarbons should be at least 200 ft

(60 m) from the base of the flare stack, assuming the potential for liquid fall-
out from the flare is minimal.
v) To prevent probability of liquid entrainment to the flare, knockout drum

should be included reduce the potential for and/or reduce the impact of
burning liquid fall-out.
vi) Drift distances of burning liquid droplets from an inadequately designed

flare system can be considerably greater than 200 ft (60 m).
vii) Flares should be located to limit the maximum ground level heat density to
500 Btu/hr/ft2 (1.6 kW/m2) at any property line. The minimum distance from
the base of the flare stack to the property line should be 200 ft (60 m).
viii) Flare elevation and spacing must be such that permissible radiant heat
densities for personnel at grade and on elevated structural platforms are
not exceeded under conditions of maximum heat release. In some special
cases, flare elevation and spacing may be governed by radiant heat
exposure of certain vulnerable items of equipment, rather than personnel.
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ix) Flare location and height must be such as to meet all applicable regulatory
standards of noise level
The diameter of the flare must be suitable to maintain a stable flame and prevent a blowout
(when vapor velocities are greater than 20% of the sonic velocity).
Stack Support
Three type of stack support available, there is self supported, guy-wire supported and
derrick supported. (Figure 3: Stack Support).
(a) Self-Supported (b) Guy-wire Supported (c) Derrick Supported
Figure 3: Common Type of Stack Support

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Self-supported stacks are normally use for flare system. However, it cost more expensive
than other design, because it need greater material to ensure structural integrity over the
anticipated condition. Normally the stack height for the self-supported design was range
from 200 to 300ft.
Guy-wire supported is less expensive but it need the largest land are due to the guy wire
radius requirements. The radius of guy-wire is equal to 1.5 of the overall stack height.
Guyed stacks heights from 600 to 800 feet have been used.
Derrick supported only used when the stack is large (self-supported not practical) and
available land area is limited (guy-wire supported not suitable).Advantage of derrick design
it allow the flare stack and tip to be lowered to grade on movable trolleys for inspection and
maintenance.

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II) Ground Flare 8

II) Gas composition 10

III) Gas Temperature 10

IV) Gas Pressure Available 10

V) Utility Costs and Availability 10

VI) Environmental Requirements 11

VII) Safety Requirements 11

VIII) Social Requirements 11

Elevated Flare Tips Sizing 16

Flare Stack Diameter 18

Flame Distortion Caused by Wind Velocity 20

Flare Stack Height 22

Ground Flare Sizing 24

High/Low Pressure Air Assist 27

Self assisted high pressure flares gas 28

High pressure water assist 28

Flare Pilots and Igniters 28

Knockout Drum & Flash back Protection 29

Diffusion Type Seal 32

Reducing Flare Pulsing and Noise 32

Example 1: Sizing of Elevation Vent Stack 34

Example 2: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack (simple approach method) 36

Example 3: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack

SPECIFICATION DATA SHEET

Flare System Data Sheet

Flare Sizing by Using Simple Approach 50

Flare Sizing by Using Brzustowski's and Sommer's Approach 51

Flare Sizing by Using Simple Approach -Example 2 52

Flare Sizing by Using Brzustowski's and Sommer's Approach -Example 3 53

Table 1: Emissivity values for flared gases 25

Table 2: Effect of Thermal Radiation 25

Table 3: Recommended Design Total Radiation 26

Table 4: Comparison between Elevated Flare and Multijet Flare 33

Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System 7

Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare 8

Figure 3: Common Type of Stack Support 17

Figure 4: Ratio of Σ∆X/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion 21

Figure 5: Ratio of Σ∆Y/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion 21

Figure 6: Dimension of Flare Stack 23

Figure 7: Flare Knockout Drum 29

Figure 8: Determination of Drag Coefficient 30

Flare Tip Pilot Burners

Water Gas Line

Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System

II) Ground Flare

Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare

Typical flare system consists of:-

II) Gas composition

III) Gas Temperature

IV) Gas Pressure Available

V) Utility Costs and Availability

To achieve smokeless operation, it is necessary to add an assist medium to increase the

VI) Environmental Requirements

VII) Safety Requirements

VIII) Social Requirements

Beside that, the design should be base on consideration bellow as well,

1. Flare Spacing, Location, and Height

2. Flare Capacity and Sizing