| Abstract |
Developing regulations and recent consent decrees aim to ensure that assisted flares operate with high combustion efficiency (CE) or destruction efficiency (DE), consequently minimizing emissions of uncombusted materials (particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs)). Currently, there is no proven technology that can be permanently installed at a plant to continuously and reliably measure flare CE and DE. Due to this limitation, regulations and recent consent decrees rely on the measurement of flare operating parameters such as vent gas composition, vent gas net heating value, vent gas flow rate, and assist media (i.e., steam or air) flow rate. These measurements are used to calculate other flare operating parameters and these calculated parameters are correlated to CE and DE. Several of these parameters have been identified from recent flare tests. The most effective of these parameters are determined "in the combustion zone"-that is, the calculated parameters take into account the addition of steam or air assist. The two parameters that correlate best with CE and DE are:... |
