Inert Gas or Fuel Gas For Flare Purge ?

Flare is commonly installed in oil and gas process plant to burn hydrocarbon
and/or toxic gas to avoid formation of combustible mixture, to minimize green house effect (GHE), to minimize health
hazards to personnel on site, etc. There are several earlier posts related to Flare :

 Quick Estimate Flare Stack Diameter

 Estimate Subsonic Flare Tip Pressure Drop With Graph Derived Correlation
 Quick Estimate Flare Tip Pressure Drop
 Flare Tip Type Quick Selection Chart
 Guideline on Quick Determination of Flare Stack Support Type
 Flare Smokeless Ringlemann Chart
 FLARE combustion efficiency
 Quick Estimate Ground Level Unburnt Flammable Gas For Vent Pipe or Flame-out Flare Stack

Flare collection header is normally "NO flow" as most (if not all) devices connected to flare header are non-discharging
fluid into flare system. Among all are pressure relief valve (PRV), blowdown valve (BDV), overpressure dump valve
(PCV), etc. All these devices are kept as close position during normal plant operation and will only open in the
event of overpressure, emergency situation i.e. fire, runaway reaction, plant shutdown/blowdown for
maintenance.

On the flare tip end, it is open to atmosphere. it is very likely that atmosphere air contain oxygen ingress and stay
into flare collection header. PRV/BDV/PCV passing and open on demand will discharge large quantity of hydrocarbon
gas into flare collector header filled with air and create combustible mixture, as this combustible mixture travel along
flare header and reach flare tip which equipped with flare pilot, combustible mixture will be ignited and potentially
created flash back to the flare header and flare knock-out drum (KOD). Subject to flare header capacity and mechanical
integrity, large flash back lead to severe internal pressure act on the piping & vessel and vapor wave results severe
vibration and movement of structure, this potential lead to catastrophe failure of flare collection system. Therefore a
flare header is sweep or purge with fuel gas or inert gas i.e. Nitrogen.

Advantages using inert gas compare to fuel gas as purge gas

i) Environment & Green House Effect (GHE)

IG : Inert gas has NO impact to environment
FG : Burn fuel gas in atmosphere generate Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which contributes to increase of Co2 content in
atmosphere and increases Green House Effect (GHE)

ii) Burn back damage flare tip - reduce life span of flare tip
IG : Inert gas do not burn. NO burn back and potential damage of flare tip.
FG : Potential FG burn back damage flare and shorten flare tip life span.

iii) High OPEX avoid Burn back

IG : NO burn back. Minimum purge rate and low OPEX.
FG : Potential burn back lead to high purge rate (potential 10 times higher than purge rate of IG) and high OPEX

iv) Visible Flame

IG : Inert gas do not burn. No flame present.
FG : FG continuous burn and continuous visible flare at flare tip. Potential create uneasy situation in environment
sensitive area.

v) Smoke Flaring
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No smoke flaring issue.
FG : Burning heavy FG lead to smoke flaring. Potential create uneasy situation in environment sensitive area. Increase
likelihood of unburnt component and impact on environment.

vi) Steam injection for smokeless flaring

IG : Inert gas do not burn. No smoke flaring issue.
FG : Burning heavy FG lead to smoke flaring. Steam injection to reduce/eliminate smoke flaring. This increases CAPEX
(additional steam injection facilities) and OPEX (steam loss).
vii) Radiation
IG : Inert gas do not burn. No additional radiation.
FG : Fuel gas burn lead to increase of radiation level (on top of solar radiation) to personnel working near flare stack.

Disadvantages using inert gas compare to fuel gas as purge gas

a) Fuel Gas Readily Available in Plant

IG : Required Nitrogen generator or use of Liquid Nitrogen and evaporator. Additional CAPEX and OPEX.
FG : Fuel gas readily available in plant. Minimum CAPEX and OPEX. Some plant generate hydrocarbon gas which
shall be disposed off. This gas is readily serve as purge gas and inccur NO cost.

b) Inert Gas Cloud

IG : Flare system purge with inert gas, entire flare system is filled with IG gas (which potential heavier than air). Once
any PSV/BDV open and release large amount of gas into flare header, it will "push" IG release through the flare tip.
Heavy IG (compare to air) will sink create a IG gas cloud near plant. This is potential fatal thread (suffocation) to
personnel on site.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no potential of gas present in atmosphere

c) Unburnt hydrocarbon gas emission

IG : PRV/BDV/PCV leak or passing lead to low heating value mixure (less than 200 btu/ft3) which is non-combustible.
Release of hydrocarbon gas into atmosphere directly has more GHE impact than burning it. For example 1 mol of
methane create 1 mol of CO2 if it is burnt. 1 mol of methane create 20-21 mol of equivalent CO2 if it unburnt.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no unburnt gas in atmosphere

d) Combustible Cloud lead to Instant Ignition

IG : Slowly hydrocarbon gas emission to atmosphere and built-up of combustible mixture in the plant, once the heating
value for auto-ignition is reached, the combustible mixture potentially ignited. Its impact is just like a explosion and
potential thread to personnel and surrounding facilities.
FG : Continuous flaring lead to no or nearly no unburnt gas in atmosphere

Concluding remark
Inert gas purging is normally understood as clean, low CAPEX, low OPEX, etc and regards as most likely candidate
for flare purging. However, the associated SAFETY related issue may needs additional attention and focus. All...use
inert gas wisely...

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Presently flare header is purge from ends are provided from fuel gas
header. Whether Nitrogen can be given as the purge? Which is beneficial
and why?
Yes nitrogen can be given for purging the flare header, but in this case, you have to entirely depend upon the pilot
burner to ignite the flare when hydrocarbon gas is released during upset of the plant. Since pilot is not physically
visible from outside and a fear to get extinguished prevails in the mind, people prefer to purge the flare header with
fuel gas to ensure the visibility of flame.

The requirement of purge gas in the fluidic seal is worked out on the basis of 0.4 ft/sec velocity, which works out to
be 12000 to 15000 m3/d in a 48 inch flare header system. In such situation cost benefit of purging with fuel gas vis
a vis Nitrogen may be looked into. In case of nitrogen purging, storage and supply system at various dead ends is
to be set up whereas fuel gas is already available system.

One has to look into all above aspects as to which system is cost benefit.