Are there alternatives to an expensive overhaul of a bottlenecked flare system?

Detlef Gruber et.al. (BP Lingen, BP Refining Technology, and Inprocess)

Paper in: Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q1 2010

Abstract There are different situations for which it is necessary to re-evaluate the capacity of a site's existing flare system. In general, this is necessary following a potential increase in flare load, e.g. when: - Relief Valves that currently blow to air and that need to be connected to the flare header, - Changes in regulation that redefine the scenarios for which the flare system has to be designed, - New plants that are connected to the existing flare header, or - Throughput increase / revamps of existing plants that might increase the flare load through higher hold-up or higher heat load. In this article, the authors give an overview of the advantages of the approach of using dynamic simulation to calculate flare loads following API 521, give guidance on when and where to apply it, and describe a case study of a recent study at BP’s Lingen refinery in Germany.

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Dynamics break the bottleneck

Prabhat Panigrahy, Jens Balmer, Miquel A. Alos, Michael Brodkorb and Brian Marshall

Paper in: Hydrocarbon Engineering, Sep 2011

Flare and relief systems commonly found in processing plants in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries are constantly under examination. New constructions, extension of existing plants or chnages in safety regulations all require detailed analysis of several aspects of the flare and relief system. In many cases, steady state analysis will sufice; but more often than not, complex or marginal problems require dynamic analysis to resolve an apparently bottlenecked falre system. This approach has recently been successfully applied to analyse and improve the blow down strategy for an existing gas utilisation plant (GUP) owned and operated by Wintershall in Libya

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Compressor Dynamic Simulation Studies

Jose Maria Nougues, Michael Brodkorb & Josep A. Feliu

Paper in: Hydrocarbon Engineering, May 2012

Over the past 10 years the use of dynamic process simulation has been established as a reliable and effective tool to analyse transient behaviour of process systems. Centrifugal compressor systems show performance characteristics that mainly depend on the operating point imposed on them by the process units and the connection piping around the compressor. Large compression systems often have several compressors operating in parallel, with some of them in standby. Therefore, even in normal operation there are frquent start up and shut down operations while switching between compressors: to accommodate throughput changes, for example. The transient analysis of these operations is critical to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of the compressor system and the associated control and safety systems

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How to know the best PC/Laptop to run HYSYS Dynamics as fast as possible?

Jose Maria Ferrer & Manel Serra

February 2012

Many times we are faced with a dynamic model that needs a lot of time to run the simulations we need. This can happen with large models but also with small yet complex models (such as large distillation columns with many trays and many days to simulate). When looking for a new machine, it is difficult to know which one could deliver the best Real-Time Factor. There are certain public CPUs benchmarks, but sometimes they account for aspects not important to dynamic process simulation (graphic card, hard-drive, multi-core for single-core designed software ). To cover this gap, inprocess decided to establish a HYSYS dynamic case as a basis for comparison and run it in different machines to establish a benchmark among multiple system configurations (hardware and software). In this endeavor we also received data from other HYSYS users who kindly shared their test results with us to expand the benchmark. The attached files contain the results of the analysis along with the files used to elaborate it so that anyone can also test it in their machine and share it with us to update this analysis. Finally, the analysis also displays a comparison with the best-matching public CPU benchmark that we have found that can help you extrapolate to systems not tested / contained in our benchmark

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How to simulate sticky valves in HYSYS Dynamics

Jose Maria Ferrer

February 2012

Stiction is a tendency to stick-slip due to high static friction. Stick-slip is the tendency of a control valve to stick while at rest, and to suddenly slip after enough force has been applied. When the valve Stickness Factor parameter is used in a HYSYS Dynamics model, a first order lag is introduced in the valve actuator. The parameter that is introduced (in second units) is the time constant of the lag. An alternative way to simulate valve stiction in HYSYS Dynamics, that reproduces the real effect of Stiction, is given in the downloadable sample case. Using the help of a spreadsheet, the case simulates a valve with two parameters: Stiction (in % units) and Dead-band (in % units). The user can introduce different values of Stiction and/or Dead-band to see how the valve then behaves

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The operational use of Process Simulation in Refineries

Michael Brodkorb and Oriol Millan

2008

"Most use of Process Simulation in Refining is related to the design of equipment and processes as part of a project: smaller or bigger/ revamp or grass-root. As well, the value of using simulation to support operational decisions has been known for many years, but only recently it has found wider applications that help to improve refinery margins. This Inprocess Application Overview shows how process simulation can be successfully applied for supporting operational decisions in refining."

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Inprocess Brochure

Michael Brodkorb

2010

This brochure gives an overview of Inprocess' background and the fields of services Inprocess is active in.

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