Gas flare

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A gas flare at an oil refinery.
A gas flare at an oil refinery.

A gas flare or flare stack is an elevated vertical stack or chimney 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.[1][2][3] In landfills, the primary purpose of this device is to vent and/or burn waste gas which results from the decomposition of materials in the dump.

On oil production rigs, in refineries and chemical plants, its primary purpose is to act as a safety device to protect vessels or pipes from over-pressuring due to unplanned upsets. This acts just like the spout on a tea kettle when it starts whistling as the water in it starts boiling. Whenever plant equipment items are over-pressured, the pressure relief valves on the equipment automatically releases gases (and sometimes liquids as well) which are routed through large piping runs called flare headers to the flare stacks. The released gases and/or liquids are burned as they exit the flare stacks. The size and brightness of the resulting flame depends upon how much flammable material was released. Steam can be injected into the flame to reduce the formation of black smoke. In order to keep the flare system functional, a small amount of gas is continuously burned, like a pilot light, so that the system is always ready for its primary purpose as an over-pressure safety system.

While it may have been true that some flares have been used to burn flammable "waste" gases or by-products that are not economical to retain, the industry is moving to flare-gas recovery systems to decrease waste and reduce emissions.

Flaring and venting of natural gas in oil wells is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Its contribution to greenhouse gases has declined by three-quarters in absolute terms since a peak in the 1970s of approximately 110 million metric tons/year and now accounts for about 1/2 of one percent of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions.[4] The World Bank estimates that 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared or vented annually, an amount equivalent to the combined annual gas consumption of Germany and France, twice the annual gas consumption of Africa, three quarters of Russian gas exports, or enough to supply the entire world with gas for 20 days. This flaring is highly concentrated: 10 countries account for 75% of emissions, and twenty for 90%.[5] The largest flaring operations occur in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The leading contributors to gas flaring are (in declining order): Nigeria, Russia, Iran, Algeria, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, and the United States.[6]


[edit] References

  1. ^ John J McKetta, Editor (1985). Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design. Marcel Dekker, 144. ISBN 0-8247-2491-7. 
  2. ^ Milton R. Beychok (2005). Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion, Fourth edition, self-published. ISBN 0-9644588-0-2.  www.air-dispersion.com See Chapter 11, Flare Stack Plume Rise.
  3. ^ A Proposed Comprehensive Model for Elevated Flare Flames and Plumes, David Shore, Flaregas Corporation, AIChE 40th Loss Prevention Symposium, April 2006.
  4. ^ Global, Regional, and National CO2 Emissions. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change, Marland, G., T.A. Boden, and R. J. Andres, 2005, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
  5. ^ The World Bank, Global Gas Flaring Reduction"
  6. ^ The Climate Law Organization, Friends of the Earth International.

[edit] External links

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