Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) will invest to build a flare gas recovery system at its Sohar Refinery, which is a part of a multi-billion dollar spend planned by the company over the next several years
A number of international engineering firms are bidding for Orpic’s contract to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services linked to the installation of the flare gas recovery system, the company added. The project, part of Orpic’s energy conservation and emissions abatement programme, is expected to help in the recovery and processing of vent gases, which would otherwise be flared and would later be compressed for use in the plant as a fuel gas.
Basic engineering for the flare gas recovery project has already been carried out by US-based John Zink Hamworthy, leading provider of emissions-control and clean-air systems and technologies.
The basic processes employed in the flare recovery system, according to Orpic, are the collection of flare gases from the liquid seal drum, compression of the gases and physical separation. Gas compression is performed by liquid ring compressors, while separation of recovered vapour phase from a mixed liquid is accomplished in a horizontal separator vessel.
Significantly, the project is seen as a further improvement to previous initiatives undertaken by Orpic on the flare reduction front.
In September 2013, the company announced the commissioning of two projects for reducing flaring and sulphur dioxide emission as part of a comprehensive US$50mn environment improvement programme (EIP). As a result of that initiative, flaring at Sohar Refinery was reduced by 60 per cent over 2011 trends. In quantity terms, flaring dropped from 12.5 tonnes per hour in 2010 to 4.5 tonnes in August 2013, the Omani company added.
