Chemical Engineering March 2020 - 13

Newsfront
Under Pressure
to Perform Better
Developments in pressure relief technologies respond to chemical processors' need for
improved reliability and safety
P
ressure relief systems, whether
rupture disks, pressure relief
valves or other relief devices,
are the last line of defense
GP Piping Systems
before a process enters a dangerous
situation. " Processors never want pressure
relief devices to activate, so it is
important to take all possible steps to
ensure that the process never gets to
a state where this happens. However,
if a pressure event does occur, you
want to know that the device is reliably
working and you want to be able
to investigate the event effectively to ensure
that it doesn't happen again, " says Nick
Petrosyan, customer success manager with
TrendMinder (Houston; www.trendminder.
com). This is especially true in the chemical
process industries (CPI), where pressure
relief events can have extremely hazardous
and costly results. For this reason, pressurerelief-device
providers are making improvements
that increase reliability and safety
of their wares, while new technologies are
being introduced to help design, monitor
and analyze pressure relief systems in an effort
to investigate events and provide actionable
information to avoid them.
Improved devices
The most commonly used pressure relief
devices include pressure relief valves and
rupture disks, which are designed to relieve
pressure in a vessel or other process component
when it reaches dangerous levels.
Once activated, the devices release process
fluids or gases to the environment or
a closed recovery system. As the last line of
defense, it is essential that they reliably operate
in difficult chemical industry conditions.
While the basic operational design of pressure
relief valves hasn't seen drastic changes,
providers of the components say they are
making improvements that increase reliability,
especially in difficult environments like those
found in the CPI. GF Piping Systems (Irvine,
IN BRIEF
IMPROVED DEVICES
THE IMPORTANCE OF
MONITORING
HIGH-TECH MONITORING
FIGURE 1. Pressure-retaining valve Type 586 and the pressurereducing
valve Type 582 from GF Piping Systems have been reengineered
to provide increased reliability and safety
Calif.; www.gfpiping.com), for instance, reengineered
its Type 586 pressure-retaining
valve (Figure 1). The new valve is compact,
and easy to install and operate thanks to a
set screw that controls a non-rising spindle
for even flow control in order to maintain pressure
reliably. The valve includes a threaded
bonnet, which eliminates the need for body
bolts, so there is no need to re-torque. This
makes it suitable for aggressive media.
" We use a threaded, plastic-on-plastic design,
which is significant in the CPI, " says Jeff
Sixsmith, product manager of valves and actuation
with GF Piping. " Metals typically aren't
good in a corrosive atmosphere or one where
there is a hot line running at high temperatures.
In these cases, when the line is shut
down, the bonnet connection will no longer
be tight because plastic and metal expand at
drastically different rates and the connection
is no longer secure. However, because our
connection is plastic on plastic, we don't have
that issue, so there's no need to re-torque the
valves because the connection is still secure.
This ensures reliable operation. "
Farris Engineering (Brecksville, Ohio; www.
cw-valvegroup.com/farris) recently began offering
a restricted lift feature on its pressure
relief valves, which allows users to customize
the valve lift to meet specific capacity requirements.
Restricted lift can improve a valve's
performance and stability, says Sean Croxford,
business unit manager of engineerCHEMICAL
ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
MARCH 2020
13
http://www.gfpiping.com http://www.trendminder http://www.cw-valvegroup.com/farris http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering March 2020
