Company reusing flare gases
Flare gases are exhaust gases from various production units of the Company, which go to a common flare system of the enterprise. In this case a part of gases is compressed — hydrogen sulfide, heavy hydrocarbons and water being removed, — and sent back to the fuel network to be reused in production. In these processes gas compression and fractionation unit, gas flare facilities and gas treatment (from sulfur compounds) and compression unit (GTCU) of Workshop No. 8 are involved; here in May a step of a package of measures was implemented: expert examination of the equipment safety was arranged and operating parameters in GTCU flow diagram were changed to increase the processing volume of the reusable flare gases.
On separator С-2К exhaust fitting diameter was increased and pipe section was replaced to feed flare gases into Company’s fuel network
Currently, pressure limitation in the flow diagram of the gas flare system remains a bottleneck in enhancing the processing volume of the flare gases. In June during major overhaul these issues will be solved — technical devices were inspected with account for new process parameters.
The Company successfully implements a range of measures aimed at increasing consumption of the flare gases as fuel for process heaters and as feed in release of finished products. In this regard the production units are partially switched from natural to flare gas. In 2017 such operations were arranged at ELOU AVT-4 (CDU/VDU) unit of the Refinery, at Workshop No. 52 of the Monomer plant and at EP-340 ethylene-propylene unit. Beneficial effect is achieved through saved natural gas (merely from August till December, 2017 the Company managed to save over 56 million cubic meters of natural gas) as well as decreased discharge to flare and reduced adverse environmental impact.
For reference
Gazprom neftekhim Salavat is an affiliate of Gazprom Pererabotka and one of the largest oil refining and petrochemical complexes in Russia with a complete cycle of crude hydrocarbons processing. The range of products includes gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, other oil products, liquefied gases, butyl alcohols, plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrene, ammonia, urea and other products. Being the major exporter in Russia, the Company constantly revamps the existing production facilities and constructs new plants, implements up-to-date automated process control systems and improves the governance structure for optimization of the Company operations.