(146e) Reducing CO2 Emissions in Plant Flaring Operations

The owners of an ethylene plant under construction in China faced pressure from neighborhood facilities and regulatory agencies to reduce flare emissions, visible flame, and noise.  A new system that reduces flaring, CO2 emissions, noise, radiation, maintenance cost, operating costs and increases energy efficiency and flare tip life without sacrificing safety was required.  To enable installation during start-up of the plant in 2009, it was necessary to design, fabricate, and test a new system that included flare gas recovery system on a fast track schedule.

Production tests and operating data confirm the new flare and flare gas recovery system achieves the required increase in smokeless capacity, reduction in noise levels, decreased flame visibility, enhanced operational efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.  This paper will discuss how these results were obtained, and estimate results that could be obtained with a similar system in a refinery application.