Project Synopsis
Perform relief valve and rupture disk evaluations in support of a commodity batch chemical plant expansion.
Project Summary
CHEMICAL FACILITY REACTOR/ADDITIVES AREAS RELIEF VALVES AND RUPTURE DISKS EVALUATION
The client, a detail engineering firm, was contracted by the ultimate client, a major chemical and commodities manufacturing concern, to provide engineering services in support of a specific plant expansion. The client contracted Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) to perform relief valve and rupture disk evaluations for the plant’s new reactor bay and additive bay mix tanks. PROCESS utilized its proprietary in-house relief valve sizing program and its licensed commercial computer process simulation software, Chemstations’ CHEMCAD, to:
- Define the credible overpressure scenarios for the new equipment
- Calculate the required relief capacity for each scenario, determine the controlling scenario, and select appropriately sized relief valves for the new equipment
- Model the hydraulics of the rupture disk-only relief systems to determine the appropriate size and actual capacity of the combination rupture disk / relief piping systems as required by API RP 520 Section 3.11 (7th Edition)
- Model the hydraulics of each relief valve and rupture disk relief piping network to determine the built-up back pressure for the respective controlling overpressure scenario.
PROCESS summarized the evaluation results in a letter report and provided project notebooks that contained the report, all calculation results, rupture disk and relief valve datasheets with suggestions for manufacturer and model numbers, and pertinent reference material.
Industry Type
- Commodity Batch Chemical Manufacturing
Utilized Skills
- Pressure relief valve (PRV) or pressure safety valve (PSV) sizing
- Hydraulics modeling
- Subcontract support of detail engineering firms