| Abstract |
On December 1, 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) finalized regulations concerning refinery flares and have included standards for improving combustion efficiency and managing tip exit velocity. As part of these new regulations, the USEPA has required facilities to designate a single "smokeless capacity" for each affected flare. Although many flare manufacturers specify a smokeless capacity in the design documentation for a flare, this value is typically based on a set of conditions specified by the end user. The actual day-to-day smokeless capacity will depend on a range of factors, including vent gas composition, vent gas flow rate, and the actual amount of assist gas available when needed. This paper will present a variety of approaches for estimating the smokeless capacity of a flare, ranging from available USEPA guidance to recent peer-reviewed literature focusing on the predicting smoke formation based on the composition of the vent gas. |
