FLARE 1

[ZBIGU]

1. Please tell us what kind of experience you have in the matter of reliability in use of ignition units: high voltage and low voltage. Which one of them are preferable taking into account difficult climate conditions – high humidity, rains etc. What is the difference in cost above-mentioned solution?
2. What is the reliability of work for pilots thermocouples used for flame monitoring (statistic life time) in comparison with photocell? What kind of protection is used to secure thermocouples against high flame temperature? What is the difference in cost above-mentioned solution?
PetroTeam

 

[TD2K]

I did a survey of several of the producing facilities on the North slope of Alaska for a previous job (close to 10 as I believe). None of the facilities had any good experience with pilot monitoring or electronic reignition systems. All suffered from wiring damage due to flame lick.

On the other hand, all the pilots in their experience were quite reliable, once you lit them.

 

[Flareman]

Flares are often ignited remotely using Flame front (see my write up at

http://www.geocities.com/flareman_xs/Coi/FFG.html

and previous thread124-40515) For the ignition at that point, inside a pipe, you can have success with all sorts of ignitors from flints, to piezo crystals, to 5 kV auto-spark plugs at 20 Joule Aero spark plugs.

If you are trying to light the flame directly at the flare tip, using electrical ignition, you need a High Energy, Aero style plug rather than a low energy device or a high voltage device. The weather will beat you every time otherwise. It's not a matter of cost.
If you are concerned about a budget, the total installed cost of a direct electrical system depends on the height and diameter of the flare, how many pilots, what electrical code you need, the divisional classification of the boxes etc. From US$ 10,000 to US$ 50,000 ??

You need to put together a real specification for your project and let suppliers bid.

Relative to the monitoring question, see thread127-76015.
The lifetime for thermocouples depends on how they are installed and specified. 3-5 years (or more) if they're done properly but they DO need replacing at your standard turnaround interval. It's not worth trying to "squeeze" another session out of 5 year old thermocouples.

Whatever monitoring system you use, the total installed cost can be up to $20,000.


David

 

[MortenA]

Please note that STATOIL (Norwegian state owned oil company) have developed a flare igition system that is based upon automatix fireing of phosphur bullets (as with a flaregun) but monted on a ramp next to the flare and with a special "receiving trap" that ensures that the burning phospoer remain close to the flarre/pilot tip.

As far as i understands it it both acts as a pilot ignitor and a back-up main flare lighter.

The advantages of having the firing mechanish at ground level is ofcourse that its easy to relaod with a high degree of sucessfull lighting og pilot/flare.

Im not sure who sells it - maybee its ABB or Aker/kvaerner?

Best regards

Morten

 

[phex]

MortenA:

this technology is marketed by ABB Gas Technologies under the market name "ABB GT Ballistic Ignition System". a short abstract about function areas of use is given here:

http://www.argoengineering.com/Brochures/abb_ark_usis_130_ny.pdf

http://www.argoengineering.com/Brochures/abb_ark_usis_2000_quark_ny.pdf

http://www.argoengineering.com/Papers/FlareGasRecovery.pdf

interestingly, ABB itself doesn't provide any web-accessible information about this system.

hth, chris

 

[stigjoh]

You can find information about the "ABB GT Ballistic Ignition System" at

http://www.abbgt.com.

Regards,

Stig

 

[MortenA]

a good link

Theres a very impressive video clip of the system in operation.

Best regards

Morten