3/24/2017 Inrefineries,whydotheyhaveaconstantlyburningflameatthetopofsometower?Whatpurposedoesitserve?

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In reneries, why do they have a constantly burning
ame at the top of some tower? What purpose does Whydoesafirealwaysburninaoilrefinery?Can't
thatoilbeusedforsomepurposes?
it serve?
Whyaretherefiresonthetopofanoilrefinery?If
they'resoflammable,whyaren'ttheyusedasan
9Answers energysource?

Whyistheflareburninginarefinery?
Prateek Kumar, designed, worked and built them
WrittenJul20,2014 Whyarepetroleumrefineriesalwayssoremarkably
welllitatnight?
The tower that has a constant burning ame is called a Flare Stack. In very simple terms, it
is just like the burner of a gas stove with a controlled burning of natural gas though its pilot Whyiskerosenecrackedatanoilrefinery?
burners. It is the last line of safety/defense for reneries, petrochemical and gas processing
plants. Whatisthebatterylimitinarefinery?

Whatisthefirevisibleatanoilrefinery?
The are system consists of the Flare Stack and a are header. A very large network of pipes
coming from the dierent processes feed into the header. Whenever there is an upset or an Whatisthelargestoilrefineryinthepublicsectorin
emergency situation, all the extremely ammable hydrocarbons need to be vented out. But India?
these cannot be just put in the atmosphere like the steam from our food pressure cookers. A
Whichisthelargestrefineryintheworld?
vapor cloud would be extremely hazardous and catastrophic. To ensure that these escaping
gases get burned to Carbon dioxide and water vapor, a ame is always kept burning on the WhichisthebestpetroleumrefineryinIndia?
top. It is a necessary evil (waste of gas).

The location of a re stack is also very important. It is located far away from the main
processing complex in the downwind direction. It is very tall so that radiation heat may not
aect people and equipments.

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RelatedQuestions MoreAnswersBelow

Whydoesafirealwaysburninaoilrefinery?Can'tthatoilbeusedforsomepurposes?

Whyaretherefiresonthetopofanoilrefinery?Ifthey'resoflammable,whyaren'ttheyused
asanenergysource?

Whyistheflareburninginarefinery?

Whyarepetroleumrefineriesalwayssoremarkablywelllitatnight?

Whyiskerosenecrackedatanoilrefinery?

Nevil Kunnath Aven, Employed in Oil Industry, tness acionado, car

lover, voracious reader
WrittenApr18,2016
I believe you are referring to a process known as gas aring. These plants use a combustion
device popularly known as a are stack to burn o the unwanted gases. The reasons for
aring or burning o gas depends on the industry. In industrial plants or reneries, planned
maintenance of pressure relief valves ( in some cases unwarranted over pressuring of relief
valves) may release toxic or waste ammable gas that needs to be burned o. The
combustion process releases the ame that is seen over the tower.

In oil and gas industries, it becomes a necessity of sorts to burn o ammable gases. In
production sites, a certain amount of natural gas is produced along with crude oil. If these
production plants are located in remote or newly developed areas, there may not be
sucient pipelines or infrastructure available to transport or store the natural gas. Since gas
is a whole lot cheaper than crude oil and economics may not work in favour of laying new
pipelines for gas, this gas is ared o continuously. Sometimes, these produced gases can
be used for reinjection but depends on reservoir depletion proposals, maturity and
economics.

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Rudramoorthy Ethiraj, I worked at Dolphin Energy Limited, Qatar from

2006 toSearchforquestions,people,andtopics
2012 as Shift Controller. SignIn
WrittenMay10,2016
In addition to the above input by other members what need to be remembered by beginners
are the following items.

A continuous burning are stack is a mandatory process safety equipment.

By letting out the waste gases which are combustible and toxic in nature at a much
higher elevations we ensure that they do not descend down at ground level at
appreciable concentrations which will subsequently cause harmful long term
environmental impact.

By ensuring complete burning of those gases like Carbon monoxide , Sulfur

Dioxide & Tri-Oxide , Hydrogen Sulphide, Nitric Oxide etc, we are basically
changing them into less harmful form of gases.

As no one can predict when a process plant will face an emergency which will
subsequently lead to de-pressurizaton eventuality, the need to maintain a constant
burning ame at the stack is a must. This small ame, will burn instantly such
incoming gases from pressure relief systems of the plant. In addition, to avoid air
ingress into such are headers there will be a continuous gas ow called purge gas
to maintain a positive pressure. Such minor quantity of gas ow is taken into
account during engineering phase of the project and has to be considered as a
necessary evil and we can not compromise on that.

As a thumb rule, one can safely presume that if the ame size is very minimal or
can not even be observed from a distance then the plant is expected to be operated
as per design and if one notices a bigger ame comparatively then either plant is
facing start up operation or an operational instability or some controlled venting of
gases is being undertaken as a temporary means until such a problem is tackled by
the Sta.

Even when the plant is under shut down condition, the pilot ame will have to be
maintained at any cost, if there is an immediate possibility of production about to
start.

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There are several in built safety features to check and maintain the pilot ame
"always on"Searchforquestions,people,andtopics
due to the criticality of the entire upstream operations. SignIn

In some exceptional remote areas where red are systems can not be maintained, natural
venting also is done after considering carefully the likely impact perceptions.

2.6kViewsViewUpvotes

Vinod Kumar Sahu, Independent analyst, data mining and report writing
WrittenDec24,2015
The tower with constant burning which u see is called are. the question is why do they
have constant burning ames?? ok. let me explain- As we go for cracking (say Naptha) any
oil product to get is by products to nally use it to make any end product, there is always
some amount of gases are released which can't be used in system. if we directly blow that
gases or vapors to environment, it has some dangerous impact because it is pollutant and
hazardous also.

So, instead of directly allowing these gases and ammable vapors to atmosphere, it is burnt
and converted in to less harmful and pollution. There is a large are header in every
renery or petrochemical plants and has a burner at top of the are which we can see from
far more distance. all the collected gases and vapors from dierent small lines are
connected in to main header line and directed towards are burner.

Now, the question is why it is constant burning, why not intermittently?? So, as the renery
and petrochemicals plants are continuous process plant and the are header is always lled
with gases and vapors. and the are is kept far away from the main cracker complex.

2.3kViewsViewUpvotes

Matruprasad Mishra, A retired banker with a background in Economics

and Management.
WrittenJun5,2016
Not only reneries but chimneys of almost all plants have a burning ame over them when
smoke and inammable gases comes out of it. It is an exhaust mechanism for all the plants
through which dirt and dust particles come out of burning re.

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The re in a blast furnace melts crude and other raw materials and rened products like
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diesel, petrol and spirit is produced. SignIn

In a steel plant from iron ore steel is produced after burning in a blast furnace.Similarly in a
thermal power station coal is burnt to produce electricity.

All the exhaust materials come out of chimney and a burning ame and smoke is noticed.
Some plants recycle the dust particles through articial rain.

1.3kViews

Jim Watts, 30 years in oil and gas industry in reneries and LNG plants
WrittenJun21,2016
The pupose of the tower (called the Flare) is to act as a disposal point for gases that have
become out of control in the renery, or to allow equipment to be depressured without
creating a safety hazard.

Some gases are heavier than air and would fall to the ground so the tower has a continuous
pilot ame to ignite any release. The amount of ow can be very high in emergencies and
the ame would be smokey so there is also steam injection nozzles at the top to increase the
air mixing and control smoke.

Reneries do not like wasting gas up the are tower so they install gas recovery compressors
to push the gas back into the fuel system if it will take it.

Flares can also be designed to be at ground level to enable easier maintenance but this
requires a lot of ground space and is not popular.

LNG plants have some places where the gas is always lighter than air and in this case there
is no pilot ame.

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Praveen MN, Renery Inspector

WrittenDec24,2015
Why does a re always burn in a oil renery? Can't that oil be used for some purposes?
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James Savik, In my part of the country, most of the money is made

oshore.
WrittenJan26,2016
Depending on the methodology of the rening process utilized, sometimes, volatile waste
products are burned o.

Usually it is burned o because it's high in sulphur content and would stink outrageously if
you didn't!

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Sreeram Srinivas
Searchforquestions,people,andtopics
WrittenJan21 SignIn
It is Flare Gas, i.e. the waste gas with some toxic gas (CO & H2S) included in to it. It is kept a
height to keep the ame which has heat, does not aect other installations in the plant &
gases are released at a height so that dispersion or diusion is complete before it reaches
ground.

151Views

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