COMPLEXO ESCOLAR POLITÉCNICO GIRASSOL Investigative English Work Theme: Flare in Oil and Gas Industry Teacher ___________________ COMPLEXO ESCOLAR POLITÉCNICO GIRASSOL English Work Theme: Flare in Oil and Gas Industry Group nº 01 Class- 12ª Shift- Afternoon Course- Refinação e Gás Group Elements: Name Eliezer Neto Reginaldo Madeira Robson Capata Vanilson Sebastião Yaal Hanja Value Índex Introduction.....................................................................................................................05 The Flare………………………………………………………………………………..06 Environmental Impacts of Gas Flaring…………………………………………………07 Overall Flare System in Industrial Plants…..…………………………………………..08 5 Curious Things About Flaring………………………………………………………..09 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...10 Bibliographical References Introduction In this work we are going to talk about the Flare in Oil and Gas Industry. For a better comprehension we will simplify the theme in question: Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction. The practice has persisted from the beginning of oil production over 160 years ago and takes place due to a range of issues, from market and economic constraints, to a lack of appropriate regulation and political will. Flaring is a monumental waste of a valuable natural resource that should either be used for productive purposes, such as generating power. Flaring persists to this day because it is a relatively safe, though wasteful and polluting, method of disposing of the associated gas that comes from oil production. Utilizing associated gas often requires economically viable markets for companies to make the investments necessary to capture, transport, process, and sell the gas or to conserve. 5 The Flare A gas flare, alternatively known as a flare stack, flare boom, ground flare, or flare pit is a gas combustion device used in places such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants and natural gas processing plants, oil or gas extraction sites having oil wells, gas wells, offshore oil and gas rigs and landfills. In industrial plants, flare stacks are primarily used for burning off flammable gas released by safety valves during unplanned over-pressuring of plant equipment. During plant or partial plant startups and shutdowns, they are also often used for the planned combustion of gases over relatively short periods. At oil and gas extraction sites, gas flares are similarly used for a variety of startup, maintenance, testing, safety, and emergency purposes. In a practice known as production flaring, they may also be used to dispose of large amounts of unwanted associated petroleum gas, possibly throughout the life of an oil well. Flare Importance Safety reasons Flaring may be required for safety reasons. Extracting and processing oil and gas involves dealing with exceptionally high, and changeable, pressures. During crude oil extraction, a sudden or dramatic increase in pressure could cause an explosion. Industrial accidents involving oil and gas, though rare, can result in destructive, dangerous, and long-lasting fires that are difficult to contain and control. Gas flaring allows operators to de-pressurize their equipment and manage unpredictable and large pressure variations by burning any excess gas. Economic and technical reasons In many cases, oil fields are located in remote and inaccessible places. These sites are hard to access, and they may not produce consistent or large volumes of associated gas that operators can use. This can make it logistically and economically challenging to transport associated gas to where it can be processed and utilized. Additionally, if oil production sites are small and dispersed over a large geographic area, capturing and using the associated gas is often viewed as prohibitively expensive. In these instances, the associated gas is typically flared. Sometimes, where it's not possible to utilize the gas, the local geology will allow it to be conserved by re-injection back into the reservoir. However, this too is not always feasible despite recent technological advances. Regulatory reasons In some cases, it is economically and technically feasible to capture and utilize associated gas. However, a country's laws and regulations might make it difficult for, or even forbid, companies from selling associated gas. For example, a company may have secured the rights to extract oil, but they may not own the associated gas produced during extraction. In other instances, regulations may not specify how associated gas is to be handled commercially. This creates legal ambiguity on how associated gas should be processed. 6 Environmental Impacts of Gas Flaring Thousands of gas flares at oil production sites worldwide burned approximately 144 billion cubic meters of gas in 2021. Assuming a ‘typical’ associated gas composition, a flare combustion efficiency of 98% and a Global Warming Potential for methane of 25, each cubic meter of associated gas flared results in about 2.8 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions, resulting in over 400 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually. The methane emissions resulting from the inefficiency of the flare combustion contribute significantly to global warming. This is particularly so in the short to medium term as, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane is over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a warming gas on a 20year timeframe. On this basis, the annual CO2 equivalent emissions are increased by nearly 100 million tons. Drawbacks of Flaring Flaring of natural gas does contribute to climate change, because it releases carbon dioxide. Additionally, depending on the purity of the natural gas there are other harmful emissions, such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, which combine with moisture in the atmosphere to form acid rain. This rain in turn acidifies lakes, streams, and damages vegetation. Other pollutants such as particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and ash can deplete soil nutrients through acidification, harming agriculture. In addition to harming the environment, there can be health implications of flaring. Exposure to the emissions of flaring can have adverse heath effects including cancer, lung damage and skin problems. How reduce the amount of gas being flared The traditional approach to flare gas utilization – collecting associated gas and transporting it through a gas pipeline – is heavily dependent on achieving scale. To be viable, operators must typically capture a large quantity of associated gas from many flare sites, ideally located close to one another, and then transport the gas for productive use. There are however several alternative ways to address the routine gas flaring problem. Oil operators can re-inject associated gas back into the ground or build the infrastructure needed to capture, store, and transport the associated gas to market. Meanwhile, governments can put in place effective regulations and policies to incentivize and encourage gas flaring reduction. 7 Overall flare system in industrial plants When industrial plant equipment items are over-pressured, the pressure relief valve is an essential safety device that automatically release gases and sometimes liquids. Those pressure relief valves are required by industrial design codes and standards as well as by law. The released gases and liquids are routed through large piping systems called flare headers to a vertical elevated flare. The released gases are burned as they exit the flare stacks. The size and brightness of the resulting flame depends upon the flammable material's flow rate in joules per hour (or btu per hour). Most industrial plant flares have a vapor-liquid separator (also known as a knockout drum) upstream of the flare to remove any large amounts of liquid that may accompany the relieved gases. Steam is very often injected into the flame to reduce the formation of black smoke. When too much steam is added, a condition known as "over steaming" can occur resulting in reduced combustion efficiency and higher emissions. 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. The adjacent flow diagram depicts the typical components of an overall industrial flare stack system: A knockout drum to remove any oil or water from the relieved gases. There may be several knock out drums: high pressure and low pressure drums taking relief flow from high pressure and low pressure equipment. A cold relief drum which is segregated from wet relief system because of the risk of freezing. A water seal drum to prevent any flashback of the flame from the top of the flare stack. An alternative gas recovery system for use during partial plant startups and shutdowns as well as other times when required. The recovered gas is routed into the fuel gas system of the overall industrial plant. A steam injection system to provide an external momentum force used for efficient mixing of air with the relieved gas, which promotes smokeless burning. A pilot flame (with its ignition system) that burns all the time so that it is available to ignite relieved gases when needed. The flare stack, including a flashback prevention section at the upper part of the stack. 8 5 curious things about flaring 1. For starters, what exactly is the pole with a flame we often see at industrial sites? The tall, thin structure with flames or steam coming out of the top is called a flare stack. It’s a gas combustion device used at industrial sites to burn off waste or other unwanted gases. 2. So why is the flare stack producing fire? A flare stack produces a fire as part of controlled burning taking place for a few typical reasons: 1) as part of testing to stabilize pressure and flow from a well 2) managing waste gas that can’t be captured or processed 3) for safety or emergency situations to release pressure. 3. Does flaring release carbon emissions? The flare stack’s main purpose is to combust vent gas—a large portion of which is methane. When methane (which you might remember from chemistry class as CH4) is burned, it produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). 4. What are some common misconceptions about flaring? First of all, people see fire and automatically think it’s dangerous. But the reality is, if someone sees a flare stack venting methane masked with steam, that’s far worse. The bigger and brighter the flame coming out of a flare stack, the less of an impact that facility is having on the environment, from a carbon-emissions standpoint. 5. How can oil and gas companies continue to flare if they want to reduce emissions? Companies can reduce routine flaring by finding uses for the gas, instead of burning it. Capturing this gas gives operators and opportunity to produce more energy. However, technology today also allows operators to monitor and measure combustion efficiency in real-time – meaning they can reduce the amount of carbon emissions released by flares. 9 Conclusion With this Work we can conclude that flare is a gas combustion device used in oil and gas industry by Safety, Regulatory, Economic and technical reasons. The flare is so important to the safety and efficiency of the industry, but for other way he is too very dangerous and poluent. 10 Bibliographical References https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/gasflaringreduction/gas-flaring-explained https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare https://www.bakerhughes.com/company/energy-forward/5-things-you-should-knowabout-flaring https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Flaring
