4 replies to this topic

[resmihadi]

Could anybody give suggestion for flare line cleaning please.....

[garyc148]

Could anybody give suggestion for flare line cleaning please.....

There are cleaning products and service companies that will work for flare lines. This is serious business as you must isolate the system from any operating equipment. You must do a thorough review of the service to determine what chemical cleaners to use. If you have a light hydrocarbon service without corrosives, you might need only to steam it out.

[Elaffsom]

Could anybody give suggestion for flare line cleaning please.....

Hello Resmihadi.
Could you define more what size flare headers and which unit flare headers you want to clean.

Usually every processing unit flare header end part should be equipped with steam feeding connection (spool pieced connection or only flanged valve). Steam flushing main purpose is to set flare headers oxygen levels as low as possible before the plant start-up. But you may use following steam connection to clean unit flare header if you have medium or higher pressure steam applicable. You should also use higher enough steam velocities to unsure that all the foreign particles and dirt go away with steam flow.

Usually refinery or petrochemical plant main flare headers (routed to the flare gas knock out drum via flare riser) internal diameter is so huge that you need to already do some internal cleaning if cleaning is really necessary. Main flare header should be equipped with man ways before and after the flare gas knock out drum. Cutting holes to the big pipe lines such as flare main headers can be expensive so man ways can safe money and make inspection and cleaning tasks more effective.

Could you also specify reasons why you want to clean flare headers ? Have your plant had some high viscosity relief loads to the flare network and you had thoughts that flare headers may be party plugged ? Normally flare lines corrosion is checked with external devices and internal check-ups won't be necessary excluding flare line from the flare gas knock-out drum to the flare riser which should be inspected also internal way if its possible.

But if you are dealing with polymer plants flare headers, internal examination should be listed to the plant shout down maintenance list. Polymer dust or pellets such as PE or PP have tense to collect along to the flare system pipelines even though relief system are equipped with proper separation equipments. You may use for example robot to flare header inspection thus dirty flare header sections can be addressed.

Notice that you should be careful when you are opening or cleaning flare lines. You should be always aware that following flare header is isolated from the operating process units and flare header is properly drained and flushed. Flare header can also contain iron sulfide which will react whit atmosphere oxygen and cause a fire. You should always consult professionals when you are planning to some inspection, maintenance or cleaning tasks thus unnecessary incidents can be avoided.

[Tube Tech Internatioanal]

On-Line Mechanical Cleaning and Inspection of Flare Lines is now a reality. Just became a member and saw an old enquiry re FLARE LINE cleaning, thought you might be interested. drop me a line at tubetech dot com. Mike

[empire]

We faced sour flare line plugging and we used steam to clean it.
It worked but took long time to clear the flare.
Any solution to prevent flare plugging?
Regards.