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Environment

and Safety
V. CHADHA, S. BHANDARI and P. VIRDI,
Bechtel, Haryana, India

Control design for steam vent noise in refineries


Noise pollution in oil refineries has a direct effect on worker Depressurization of steam lines for system maintenance
health. Noise is the unwanted or undesirable sound produced Steam ejector discharge and exhaust.
by process control equipment, which includes valves. Sound is
produced by fluctuating pressure waves that arise from the flow NOISE ABATEMENT METHODS
of fluid through the valve. The specific sources are either me- Source treatments. Not only do source treatments re-
chanical or of fluid structure in nature. These pressure waves duce the strength of the noise source, but they also shift
are characterized by both amplitude (volume) and frequency. the frequencies to a higher, non-problematic range. Source
Amplitude is measured in decibels (dB). Industrial noise levels treatments prevent noise at its source, which can involve the
are often expressed in a form that takes into account human valve. Common source treatments include noise attenuation
sensitivity to frequency. This is known as A-weighting and is valve trims, and inline and external diffusers that minimize
measured in units called A-weighted decibels (dBA). turbulence. TABLE 1 provides a list of valve and diffuser de-
Many refineries have a specification for noise levels within signs that can be used, depending on their noise-reduction
the plant environment and, in some cases, they are subject capabilities.
to fence line noise requirements to protect the refinerys sur- Path treatments. In addition to eliminating noise at its
rounding environment. As populated areas are moving closer source, path treatments can impede the propagation and trans-
to processing refineries, noise attenuation is crucial to adhere to mission of sound waves. Path treatments help eliminate noise
compliance requirements and avoid potential regulatory action. heard outside of the pipe wall by increasing the resistance of
Per ISA 75.171 or IEC 60534-8-3/60534-8-42,3, the maxi- the noise path. Typical path treatments include increasing the
mum permitted noise level, measured at 1 m from the valve, pipe thickness, adding acoustical or thermal insulation, or
must be less than 85 dBA. For all gas, vapor, steam and flashing adding inline pipe silencers.
liquid valves that have a typical pressure drop of 0.4 upstream
pressure, a noise calculation must be supplied. If the predicted TABLE 1. Typical source treatment noise attenuations
noise level is found to exceed 85 dBA, then the valve will be Treatment Typical noise attenuation Typical application
treated for noise.
Single-stage cage trim Up to 18 dBA Steam letdown
The venting of high-pressure steam to the atmosphere dur-
ing plant operations often leads to unacceptably high noise lev- Multiple-stage cage trim Up to 30 dBA Gland steam
els. This can be a result of: External diffusers Up to 40 dBA Sky vent
Steam safety relief valve discharge Inline diffusers Up to 50 dBA Steam letdown
Dumping of steam during steam generator startup

Silencer Vent to atmosphere


Vent to atmosphere

Valve with diffuser assembly


Valve

Steam generator Steam generator

FIG. 1. Valve with a silencer assembly (path treatment). FIG. 2. Valve with a diffuser assembly.

Hydrocarbon Processing|DECEMBER 201673


Environment and Safety

Silencers offer noise attenuation up to 45 dBA, depending is difficult. This means that attenuation is only effective for the
on treatment and application. The weakness of path treatments area where the treatment is applied.
is that both the fluid stream and the piping itself are very effec-
tive at transmitting noise; therefore, complete noise attenuation CASE STUDY
Atmosphere
Initial design. A common design on various projects con-
sists of a steam generator with a valve and silencer assembly
for noise reduction (FIG. 1). When operated, the large pressure
differential across the sky vent valve can cause high noise lev-
els. To reduce the noise potential, the pressure drop is split be-
tween the valve and a downstream silencer. The pressure split
Tube also serves to optimize the size of each component. Other key
Baffle
Shell challenges include:
Valve leakage due to an inadequate seat load,
which could lead to reduced plant load and
efficiency, as well as damage to the valve
Fast opening in case of a plant upset condition
Properly addressing noise for two separate noise
sources (valve and silencer).
This design requires additional support requirements, an in-
crease of weight/size, and the need for a larger platform. This
type of design is more capital intensive.
Proposed design. All of these limitations were overcome by
using a combined assembly consisting of a valve with a diffuser
Intermediate pressure (FIG. 2). A diffuser is a pressure-reducing device that is installed
Atmospheric pressure downstream from the valve. When installed, total pressure drop
Inlet pressure of the system is divided across the valve and the diffuser. This
enables the valve to operate at a lower pressure drop ratio, there-
FIG. 3. Valve with a diffuser assembly.
by lowering the noise level generated from the process flowing
through the valve.
At this location, the vent diffuser was used, which helped
reduce the noise generated by steam being vented to the at-
NEW VERSION
mosphere. The valve can be used during startup and abnormal
conditions. A diffuser valve combination can result in a noise re-
InstruCalc duction of up to 40 dBA, and retains the pressure/flow control
associated with a standard valve.
CONTROL VALVES FLOW ELEMENTS RELIEF DEVICES PROCESS DATA In the initial design valve and silencer proposed by the licen-
sor to attenuate noise, the valve and silencer are procured and
designed by different disciplines, which can lead to overdesign
InstruCalc 9.0 calculates the size of control valves, and result in a higher cost. In the design proposed here, noise
flow elements and relief devices and calculates fluid measurement is considered in its entirety for the venting of
properties, pipe pressure loss and liquid waterhammer steam to the atmosphere. Different treatments are worked out
flow. Easy to use and accurate, it is the only sizing to reduce noise, which helps to achieve an optimized and cost-
program you need, enabling you to: Size more than 50 effective design.
different instruments; Calculate process data at flow
conditions for 54 fluids in either mixtures or single RECOMMENDATION
components and 66 gases, and; Calculate the orifice The assembly shown in FIG. 3 is a better and more cost-effec-
size, flowrate or differential range, which enables the tive assembly than that shown in FIG. 1 to fulfill the requirements
user to select the flow rate with optimum accuracy.
of ISA 75.17 or IEC 60534-8-3/60534-8-4 maximum permit-
ted noise level. The valve diffuser assembly in FIG. 3 requires no
Updates include Engineering Standard
maintenance after installation. These features combine to offer
Upgrades and Operational Improvements increased noise control at a minimum investment.
in InstruCalc Version 9.0 Although the case study discussed here comes from a refin-
ery application, this design may be implemented in any steam
Order Direct from the Publisher. service application.
GulfPub.com/InstruCalc or call +1 (713) 520-4426.
LITERATURE CITED
1
ISA 75.17: Control valve aerodynamic noise prediction.
2
IEC 60534-8-3/60534-8-4: Noise considerationsControl valve aerodynamic
noise reduction method.
3
IEC 60534-8-4: Noise considerationsPrediction of noise generated by hydrody-
namic flow.

74DECEMBER 2016|HydrocarbonProcessing.com

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