Disclosed herein are embodiments of a flare control method and a flare apparatus for automatically controlling, in real-time, the flow of one or more of fuel, steam, and air to a flare. The disclosed embodiments advantageously allow for automated control over a wide spectrum of operating conditions, including emergency operations, and planned operations such as startup and shutdown.

The present invention presents a method of assessing the quality of the burning of the gases in the flare and adjusting the vapor flow rate in a continuous way and with flexibility to integrate with different instrumentation topologies of the flare control system. The state of the flare flame is identified from an image set of the flame, classifying it into one of four: flame with excess vapor, optimized flame, flame with soot or images with insufficient information to classify them as one of the previous states of the flare flame. In addition, it is further able to quantify the height of the flame. The invention comprises the following components: flare, camera, image stream manager, edge computer, data historian, alert manager, information visualization panels, distributed digital control system, DDCS, and cloud storage and computing.

In an embodiment, a method of controlling flaring of a combustion gas including a flare gas, a supplemental fuel gas, and an assist gas is provided. Models estimating, based on flow rates and in-situ speed of sound measurements in the gases, net heating value of the combustion gas within a flare combustion zone, combustion efficiency of the combustion gas, and smoke yield of the combustion gas are maintained. The method also includes receiving measurements of the gas flow rates and determining set points for flow rates of the fuel gas and/or the assist gas based upon the models that achieve a target combustion efficiency. When a difference between a determined set point and its corresponding flow rate for the fuel gas and/or the assist gas is greater than a corresponding predetermined tolerance amount, that flow rate can be adjusted to reduce the determined difference below the predetermined tolerance amount.

Provided is a flare tip. The flare tip, according to one embodiment, includes a flare tip enclosure. The flare tip, according to this embodiment, additionally includes two or more flare tip arms extending from the flare tip enclosure, wherein the two are more flare tip arms are largely equidistance from one another, and two or more flare tip orifices located in each of the two or more flare tip arms.

This disclosure presents a clean burning flare stack, or gas flare. The gas flare is air assisted to ensure clean burning. The disclosed gas flare provides smokeless clean burning of released gases. For example, the gas flare burns the released gases in a lean burning condition such that sufficient air is supplied to the surges of gases. In addition, the gas flare, by using a low pressure blower mixing chamber, is capable of handling low pressure gases and high pressure gases. As such, different flow rates may be provided to the gas flare when different amounts of low pressure and high pressure flammable gases are mixed with sufficient blower air to provide a clean burning condition. The disclosed smokeless gas flare is thus environmentally friendly and aesthetically appealing.

A system for flare combustion control includes a sound speed measurement device for measuring sound speed in a flare vent gas, and a flare combustion controller including a memory and a processor. The processor is configured to receive the measured sound speed and determine, based on the measured sound speed, a molecular weight of the flare vent gas. The processor is further configured to determine, based on the determined molecular weight, a net heating value of the flare vent gas, and adjust the net heating value of the flare vent gas by regulating an amount of a supplemental fuel gas in the flare vent gas.

A method for optimizing purge gas of a flare system includes measuring a flow of flare fluids within a flare system to obtain a measured flow value. The flow of the flare fluids is compared to a target flow to obtain a difference between the flow of the flare fluids and the target flow. A control valve is operated to amend a flow of purge gas and the steps of measuring a flow of flare fluids and comparing the flow of the flare fluids to the target flow are repeated until the flow of the purge gas is within a target range. A value of the flow of purge gas is measured and transmitted wirelessly to a control system.

A system and method for burning. The system includes a burner head which has a plurality of burners. The burner head also has a primary manifold coupled to a plurality of burner lines which are coupled to burners. The burners also have a secondary manifold coupled to a burner line. Each secondary manifold is coupled to a plurality of spokes which extend outwardly form the secondary manifold. The spokes have at least one nozzle.

An equipment safety management device for managing safety of equipment capable of holding fluid is provided. The equipment safety management device includes: a safety means configured to be in fluid communication with an outlet of the equipment, the safety means being brought into a released state when pressure of the equipment reaches a previously set pressure, the safety means delivering the fluid to a flare pipe, which is fluidly communicated; and, as the flare pipe, at least one first flare pipe allowing a low-temperature fluid to flow therethrough and at least one second flare pipe allowing an aqueous fluid to flow therethrough. The safety means can deliver the fluid to both the first flare pipe and the second flare pipe.

A system for use with a fired vessel of production/separators or dehydration equipment that includes a metal box, a main burner, a pilot burner, and a flame arrestor. The main burner and the pilot burner are within the metal box and the first flame arrestor is connected to the metal box.