Safety Valve Sizing Verification for Separation Vessels Designed for Offshore Platforms

Process Engineering International, LLC (PROCESS) was subcontracted to perform independent engineering sizing review services for various safety relief devices associated with flare system separators for three offshore oil platforms owned by an international oil and gas production company.  As a part of this project the following tasks were accomplished:

• Identified credible relief scenarios from client provided documentation.

• Developed the relief requirements based on client provided documentation.

• Performed sizing calculations to determine the capacity of relief valves and provided documentation for various pressure safety valves (PSVs).

• Performed hydraulic calculations to adequately size inlet and outlet piping for the new PSVs.

• Proposed new relief orifice sizes as needed.

• Proposed alternate relief solutions as required.

PROCESS utilized its licensed commercial simulation software’s hydraulics package and chemical/physical database, along with its proprietary in-house relief device capacity computer program with calculations based on the guidelines in American Petroleum Institute (API) Standards 520 and 521, to determine the pressure relief requirements for each application.

PROCESS supplied the client with the pressure relief device (PRD) sizing documentation packages that included safety device calculations and relief valve equipment datasheets that could be used to obtain quotes from vendors.  PROCESS also suggested specific relief devices represented in vendor literature.