Sustainable Energy Reductions by Optimization of Flare Systems

As part of Albemarle’s commitment as an Energy Star Partner to reduce energy usage and adopt more energy-efficient operations, we recently made several improvements to the plant’s flare systems to result in significant cost savings and sustainable energy reductions.

Excess hydrocarbons that cannot be reused or recycled are safely and efficiently combined with excess air and burned in flares at our site. Natural gas assist is used in the flares to ensure that environmental Btu limits are met while destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) of at least 98% is achieved. A cross-functional team evaluated the flare operation and identified several optimization opportunities. This presentation will cover how improvements in process flow measurement and a new controller technology based on a neural network algorithm was able to achieve significant reduction in natural gas usage at the flare.