Page : 1 of 124

KLM Technology
Group
Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing
Plant Solutions

Rev: 03

SOLUTIONS, STANDARDS AND SOFTWARE

Rev 01 July 2007

Rev 02 May 2014
Rev 03 Jan 2015

www.klmtechgroup.com
Co Author

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

KLM Technology Group

03 12 Block Aronia

Jalan Sri Perkasa 2

Taman Tampoi Utama
81200 Johor Bahru,
Malaysia

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev 01 A L Ling
Rev 02 Yulis Sutianingsih
Rev 03 Riska Ristiyanti

Author / Editor:

Karl Kolmetz

(ENGINEERINGDESIGNGUIDELINE)

KLM Technology Group has developed; 1) Process Engineering Equipment

Design Guidelines, 2) Equipment Design Software, 3) Project Engineering
Standards and Specifications, and 4) Unit Operations Manuals. Each has
many hours of engineering development.
KLM is providing the introduction to this guideline for free on the internet.
Please go to our website to order the complete document.
www.klmtechgroup.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Scope

Flare Types

I)

Elevated Flare

II)

Ground Flare

11

Flare System

13

Design Factors

14

I)

Flow Rate

14

Page 2 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

II)

Gas composition

14

III)

Gas Temperature

15

IV)

Gas Pressure Available

15

V)

Utility Costs and Availability

15

VI)

Environmental Requirements

16

VII)

Safety Requirements

16

VIII)

Social Requirements

16

Design Consideration

16

DEFINITIONS

18

NOMENCLATURE

20

Greek Letters

21

THEORY
Elevated Flare Tips Sizing

22

Stack Support

24

Flare Stack Diameter

25

Vent Stack

27

Separation of Flare Headers

27

Load of Flare Systems

29

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 3 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Sizing the Flare Line

30

Sizing Piping, Headers, and Valves

31

Flame Length

33

Flame Distortion Caused by Wind Velocity

34

Flare Tip

36

Flare Stack Height

39

Multijet Flares

42

Burning Pit

46

Quenching Tower

48

Ground Flare Sizing

49

Thermal Radiation

50

Smokeless Operation

53

Steam Assist

54

High/Low Pressure Air Assist

56

Self assisted high pressure flares gas

57

High pressure water assists

58

Control of Smokeless Operation

58

Flare Pilots and Igniters

Pressure Igniter

59
60

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 4 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Electronic Igniter

60

Atmospheric Igniter

61

Knockout Drum
Seal Drum
Diffusion Type Seal

61
64
68

Selection of Flares

69

Flaring of H2S

70

Flare Gas Recovery

71

Flare Test Method

72

Flaring Efficiency

73

Reducing Flare Pulsing and Noise

75

Flare Stack Safety

75

Flare Stack Accident and Incident

83

APPLICATION
Example 1: Sizing of Elevation Vent Stack

90

Example 2: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack (simple approach method)

92

Example 3: Sizing of Elevation Flare Stack

(Brzustowskis and Sommers Approach)

99

Example 4 : Thermal Radiation Consideration

104

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 5 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Appendix A

107

Appendix B

112

Appendix C

113

REFERENCES

114

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 6 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

LIST OF TABLE
Table 1 : Material for low-temperature service

28

Table 2 : Combination of flare header

28

Table 3: Emissivity values for flared gases

50

Table 4: Effect of Thermal Radiation

51

Table 5: Recommended Design Total Radiation

51

Table 6 : Type of Seal Drum

65

Table 7: Comparison between Elevated Flare and Multijet Flare

69

Table 8 : Surface Emmisivity for Material

106

Table A.1: Limits of Flammability of Gases and Vapors. % in Air

108

Table A.2: Limits of Flammability of Gases and Vapors. % in Air

109

Table A.3: Example Calculation of Flammable Limits

110

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 7 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System

10

Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare

12

Figure 3: Simplifield representation of a flare gas recovery unit integrated with an

existing flare system.

13

Figure 4: Common Type of Stack Support

24

Figure 5: Ratio of X/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion

35

Figure 6: Ratio of Y/Lf versus Approximate Flame Distortion

36

Figure 7: Dimension of Flare Stack

41

Figure 8 :Burning-Pit

46

Figure 9 : Example of Simple Quenching System

48

Figure 10 : Steam from Smokless Flaring

55

Figure 11 : Igniter System

59

Figure 12: Flare Knockout Drum

62

Figure 13: Determination of Drag Coefficient

63

Figure 14 : Vertical Seal Drum

65

Figure 15 : Horizontal Seal Drum

66

Figure 16: Fundamental stages of the health & safety risk assessment

81

Figure 17: Prominent hazard associated with stack monitoring

82

Figure 18: Westlake petro 1 flare system overview original system

88

Figure 19: FlameCenter for Flares and Ignited Vents: Horizontal Distance Xc

103

Figure 20: FlameCenter for Flares and Ignited Vents: Vertical Distance Yc

104

Figure B.1 : Flammable Limits for Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide, Methane,

with Nitrogen,Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor.

112

Figure C.1: Flammable Limits for Paraffin Hydrocarbonswith Nitrogen

and Carbon Dioxide

113

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 8 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

INTRODUCTION
Scope
The flare is a last line of defencein the safe emergency release system in a refinery or
chemical plant. It is used to dispose of purged and wasted products from refineries,
unrecoverable gases emerging with oil from oil wells, vented gases from blast furnaces,
unused gases from coke ovens, and gaseous water from chemical industries. Flares are
also used for burning waste gases from sewage digesters process, coal gasification, rocket
engine testing, nuclear power plants with sodium, water heat exchangers, heavy water
plants, and ammonia fertilizer plants.
The flare provides a means of safe disposal of the vapor streams from its facilities, by burning
them under controlled conditions such that the adjacent equipment or personnel are not
exposed to hazards, and at the same time obeying the environmental regulation of pollution
control and public relations requirements.
The chemical process used for flaring is a high temperature oxidation reaction to burn
combustible components, mostly hydrocarbons, or waste gases from industrial operations.
In combustion, the gaseous hydrocarbon (natural gas, propane, ethylene, propylene,
butadiene, butane and etc) reacts with atmospheric oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2) and
water. Several by-products formed will be carbon monoxide, hydrogen and others dependent
upon what is being burned. Efficiency of hydrocarbon conversion is generally over 98%.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 9 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Flare Types
In industrial plants the most common utilized flare systems are elevated flares and ground
flares. Selection of the type of flare is influenced by several factors, such as availability of
space; the characteristics of the flare gas (composition, quantity and pressure); economics;
investment and operating costs; public relations and regulation.
I) Elevated Flare
Elevated flare (refer Figure 1) is the most commonly used type in refineries and chemical
plants. They have larger capacities than ground flares. The waste gas stream is fed through
a stack from 32ft to over 320 ft tall and is combusted at the tip of the stack.
The elevated flare, can be steam assisted, air assisted or non-assisted. The elevated flare
can utilize steam injection / air injection to made smokeless burning and with low luminosity
up to about 20%+ of maximum flaring load. The disadvantage of steam injection / air injection
is it introduces a source of noise and may cause noise pollution.
If adequately elevated, this type of flare has the best dispersion characteristics for
malodorous and toxic combustion products. Capital costs are relatively high, and an
appreciable plant area may be rendered unavailable for plant equipment, because of radiant
heat considerations.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 10 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Flare Tip

Pilot Burners

Steam
Nozzles

Steam
Line

Gas Barrier

Flare Stack

Gas Collection
Header and
Transfer Line

IgnitionDevice
Purge
Gas

Air Line
Water
Sear

Knock-out
Drum

Gas Line

Drain

Figure 1: Steam Assisted Elevated Flare System

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 11 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

II) Ground Flare
A ground flare is where the combustion takes place at ground level. It varies in complexity,
and may consist either of conventional flare burners discharging horizontally with no
enclosure or of multiple burners in refractory-lined steel enclosures. The type, which has
been used almost exclusively, is the multijet flare (enclosed type).
Compare to elevated flare, ground flare can achieved smokeless operation as well, but with
essentially no noise or luminosity problems, provided that the design gas rate to the flare is
not exceeded. However, it have poor dispersion of combustion product because its stack is
near to ground, this may result in severe air pollution or hazard if the combustion products
are toxic or in the event of flame-out. Capital, operating and maintenance requirements cost
are higher.
Because of poor dispersion, multijet flare is suitable for "clean burning" gases when noise
and visual pollution factors are critical. Generally, it is not practical to install multijet flares
large enough to burn the maximum release load, because the usual arrangement of multi jet
flare system is a combination with an elevated over-capacity flare.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 12 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Exhaust Gas
(1500oF) 63,179 scfm)

Thermocouple
UV Flame Scanner
Enclosed flare
Combustion
Chamber

SightPort

Burner
Landfill Gas
Inlet

Burner Arrangement
Landfill gas
From collection
Wells and header
system

5 to 10
Refractory Lining
(2)

SightPort
1,000scfm

Air Inlet

UV Flame Scanner

Air Damper (2)

UV Flame Scanner
Landfill Gas
Inlet

Concrete
Pad

SightPort

Base on
sources to
flare
Air Inlet

Figure 2: Typical Enclosed Ground Flare

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 13 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Flare System
Typical flare system consists of :
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)

Gas collection header and piping for collecting gases from processing units,
A knockout drum to remove and store condensable and entrained liquids,
A proprietary seal, water seal, or purge gas supply to prevent flash-back
A single or multiple burner unit and a flare stack,
Gas pilots and an igniter to ignite the mixture of waste gas and air and
A provision for external momentum force (steam injection or forced air) for
smokeless flaring.

Flare System is represented in Figure 3 .

Figure 3 : Simplified representation of a flare gas recovery unit integrated with an existing
flare system.
These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 14 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Design Factors
Is very important for the flare designer to understand several factors which can affect his
flaring system design, the major factors influencing flare system design are:

Flow rate;
Gas composition;
Gas temperature;
Gas pressure available;
Utility costs and availability;
Safety requirements;
Environmental requirements;
Social requirements.

Depends on the gas stream released

Related to regulatory mandates

I) Flow Rate
How flow rate will affect the design of flare system? Normally the designer of the flare system
will follow exactly the flow data provided, therefore overstated of the flows will lead to
oversized of flare equipment which lead to more expensive capital and operating costs and
can lead to short service life as well. Understated the flow can result in a design of an unsafe
system.
Flow rate obviously affects the mechanical size of flare equipment, increased flow will results
increase of thermal radiation from an elevated flare flame, which have direct impact on the
height and location of a flare stack.

II) Gas composition

The combustion gas products are depend on the feed gas composition, by studying the feed
gas composition the potential combustion product can be determined and burning
characteristic can be identified. It enables the design company to shown the weight ratio of
hydrogen to carbon in gas which indicates the smoking tendency of the gas. Some gas, such
as hydrogen sulfide will need special design for metallurgies, therefore detail of the feed gas
compositions to design the flare system is very important and should be determined
accurately.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 15 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

III) Gas Temperature
Gas temperature has direct impact on thermal expansion, gas volume and metallurgical
requirements for pipe & vessels. Beside this the more important impact of gas temperature
to flare design is the potential of substance / components of the gas to condense, because
condensation or two-phase flow will cause a greater smoking tendency and/or the possibility
of a burning liquid rain. This can be solved by adding a liquid removal equipment such as a
knockout drum.
IV) Gas Pressure Available
The gas pressure available for the flare is determined by hydraulic analysis of the complete
pressure relief system from the pressure relieving devices to the flare burner. This parameter
is a factor for smokeless burning design of flare. Some flare design companies have proved
that smokeless burning can be enhancedby converting as much of the gas pressure available
as possible into gas momentum. With the higher pressure drop across the flare burner it can
reduce the gas volume, which can lead to a smaller flare header size & reduced cost and
finally allows a reduction in purge gas requirements.
V) Utility Costs and Availability
To achieve smokeless operation, it is necessary to add an assist medium to increase the
overall momentum to the smokeless burning level. The common medium is steam which is
injected into nozzles of the flare system. In order to achieve this objective, local energy costs,
availability and reliability must be taken into account in selecting the smoke-suppression
medium.
Other utilities are needed to be in place are purge gas and pilots. The quantity required is
depending on the size of the flare system. The purge gas requirement can be influenced by
the composition of the purge gas and/or the composition of the waste gas. Pilot gas
consumption will also be influenced by the combustion characteristics of the waste gases.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 16 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

VI) Environmental Requirements
The primary environmental requirement is the need for smokeless burning to protect the
environment from pollution, it may be necessary to inject an assist medium such as steam in
order to achieve smokeless burning. Unfortunately the injection of the steam and the
turbulence created by the mixing of steam to solve the smoke burning problem causes the
emission of sound. The sound level at inside and outside the plant boundary is often limited
by regulation.
VII) Safety Requirements
The main safety concern for the flaring system is thermal radiation issues. The allowable
radiation from the flare flame to a given point is frequently specified based on the owner's
safety practices by following the safety regulation. Special consideration should be given to
radiation limits for flares located close to the plant boundary.
VIII) Social Requirements
Although the plant operation has complied with the environmental regulation, sometime the
outcome resulting flare system may not meet the expectations of the plant's neighbors.
Example: A smokeless flame may meet the regulatory requirements, but the neighbors may
complaint due to light and noise from flare system.
Design Consideration
When designing the flare system, several important parameters have to be consider, there
are flare head design, flare exit velocity, VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) heating value,
and whether the flame is assisted by steam or air.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 17 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

The design should be based on consideration bellow as well,

1. Flare Spacing, Location, and Height

Radiant heat
Burning liquid fall out
Pollution limitations

2. Flare Capacity and Sizing

Flare design capacity is design to handle largest vapor release from pressure
relief valve, vapor blow down and other emergency system

3. Flashback Seals- flashback protection, which prevents a flame front from travelling
back to the upstream piping and equipment. Sizing of flare systems is a function of
maximum allowable back pressure on pressure relief valves and other sources of
release into the emergency systems.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 18 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Flare Safety
Flare Stack Accidents and Incidents
The most frequent causes of flare accidents are:
1. Internal explosion
2. Liquid carryover
3. System obstructions
4. Faulty maintenance procedures
5. Ignition loss
Incidents categories:
Flame out Operation
Flame out Unknown
Flame out Weather
Flame out Instrumentation
Flame out Mechanical
Flame out Steam
Flame out Fuel
Flame out Pilot plugged
Surrounding are fire
Flare pluggage
Material Issues
Flare damage
Flashback Operations
Flame in muffler
Instrument failure Operations
Internal burning coke
Noise
Flare tip crack Mechanical
Liquid out of flare
Smoke

18.6%
15.9%
15.0%
6.2%
5.3%
5.3%
4.4%
0.9%
4.5%
3.6%
3.6%
2.7%
2.7%
2.7%
1.8%
1.8%
1.8%
0.9%
0.9%
0.9%

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 19 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Stack Explosions
Most of incidents in flare stack is flame out or stack explosions. There are many problem that
may cause a stack explosion.
1) The stack was supposed to be purged with inert gas. However, the flow was not measured
and had been cut back almost to zero to save nitrogen. Air leaked in through the large
bolted joint between unmachined surfaces. The flare had not been lit for some time.
Shortly after it was relit, the explosion occurred the next time some gas was put to stack.
The mixture of gas and air moved up the stack until it was ignited by the pilot flame.
To prevent similar incidents from happening again:
1. Stack should be welded. They should not contain bolted joints between unmachined
surfaces.
2. There should be a continuous flow of gas up every stack to prevent air diffusing down
and to sweep away small leaks of air into the stack. The continuous flow of gas does
not have to be nitrogen a waste gas stream is effective. But if gas is not being flared
continuously, it is usual to keep nitrogen flowing at a linear velocity of 0.03 - 0.06 m/s.
The flow gas should be measured. A higher rate is required if hydrogen or hot
condensable gases are being flared. If possible, hydrogen should be discharged
through a separate vent stack and not mixed with other gases in a flare stack.
3. The atmosphere inside every stack should be monitored regularly for oxygen content.
Large stack should be fitted with oxygen analyzers that alarm at 5% (2% if hydrogen
is present). Small stacks should be checked with a portable analyzer.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 20 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

2) Three explosions occurred in a flare stack fitted, near the tip, with a water seal, which
was intended to act as a flame arrestor and prevent flames from passing down the
stack. The problems started when, as a result of incorrect valve settings, hot air was
added to the stack that was burning methane.
The methane/air mixture was in the explosive range, and as the gas was hot (300oC),
the flashback speed from the flame was above the linear speed of the gas. An
explosion occurred, which probably damaged the water seal, though no one realized
this at the time. Steam was automatically injected to the stack, and the flow of the
methane was tripped. This extinguished the flame.
When flow was restarted, a second explosion occurred and as the water seal was
damaged, this one traveled right down the stack into the knock-out drum at the bottom.
Flow was again restarted and this time the explosion was louder. The operating team
then decided to shutdown the plant. One should not restart a plant after an explosion
until we know why it occurred.
Blocked Stack
1) Vent stack became blocked by ice because cold vapor (at -100oC) and steam were passed
up the stack together. The cold gas met the condensate running down the walls and
caused it to freeze. A liquefied gas tank was overpressured, and a small split resulted.
The stack was design to operate without steam. But the steam was then introduced to
make sure that the cold gas dispersed and did not drift down to ground level.
2) On other occasions, blowdown lines or stack have become blocked in cold weather
because benzene or cyclohexane, both of which have freezing points of 5oC, were
discharged through them. Steam tracking of the lines or stack may be necessary.
3) Blowdown lines should never be designed with a dip in them, or liquid may accumulate in
the dip and exert a back pressure. This has caused vessels to be overpreassured.
4) A blowdown line that was not adequately supported sagged when exposed to fire and
caused a vessel to be overpressured.
5) Water seals have frozen in cold weather. They should not be used except in locales where
freezing cannot occur.
These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 21 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

6) Vent stacks are sometimes fitted with flame arrestors to prevent a flame on the end of the
stack from traveling back down the stack. The arrestors are liable to choke unless regularly
cleaned. They are also unnecessary, because unless the gas mixture in the stack is
flammable, the flam cannot travel down the stack. If the gas mixture in the stack is
flammable, then it may be ignited in some other way. Stack should therefore be swept by
a continuous flow of gas to prevent a flammable mixture from forming.
7) Molecular seals have been chocked by carbon from incompletely burned gas, and water
seals could be chocked in the same way. The relief valve on a liquid hydrogen tank
discharge to atmosphere through a short stack. The escaping hydrogen caught fire. The
fire service poured water down the stack, the water froze, and the tank was over pressured
and split. The fire should have been extinguished by injecting nitrogen up the stack.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 22 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

DEFINITION
Back Pressure- Back pressure is the sum of the superimposed and build-up back pressures.
The pressure that exists at the outlet of a pressure relief device is as a result of the pressure
in the discharge system.
Gas Blower - Device for blowing air to flare system.
Blowdown - The difference between the set pressure and the closing pressure of a pressure
relief valve, expressed as a % of the set pressure of in pressure units.
Closed Disposal System- Disposal system which is capable of containing pressure that is
different from atmospheric pressure.
Flare System A system that safely disposing of waste gases through the use of
combustion.
Flare Stack- Is an elevated vertical stack found on oilwells or oil rigs, and in refineries,
chemical plants and landfills used for burning off unusable waste gas or flammable gas and
liquids released by pressure relief valves during unplanned over-pressuring of plant
equipment.
Flame Arrestors- A crimped ribbon aluminum or stainless steel flame cell to protect against
rapid burn backs in low-pressure situations. These passive safety device guaranteed to
prevent flame fronts from propagating back through lines, destroying facilities, and causing
injuries.
Flare Tips- Structure at top of the flare play the role to keep an optimum burn and control
over all flow rates, which results in a cleanercombustion. The design of the tip makes sure
that the tip does not come into contacting with the flame making the tips reliable and long
lasting.
Ignitions system Is a system use to ignite the flare of flare systems. Normally this system
designed to ignite the flare quickly the first time, maintain combustion and re-ignite rapidly to
prevent industrial hazards and personal injury while protecting the environment.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 23 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Knockout Drum Is a drum installed near the flare base, and serves to recover liquid
hydrocarbons, prevent liquid slugs, and remove large liquid particles from the gas streams
released from relief system.
Open Disposal System- A disposal system that discharges directly from relief system to
atmosphere without other devices.
Overpressure- Pressure value increase more that the set point pressure of the relieving
device, expressed in percent.
Pressure Relieving System- An arrangement of a pressure-relieving device, piping and a
means of disposal intended for the safe relief, conveyance, and disposal of fluids in a vapour,
liquid, or gaseous phase. It can be consist of only one pressure relief valve or rupture disk,
either with or without discharge pipe, on a single vessel or line.
Relief Valve A spring-loaded pressure relief valve is actuated by the static pressure
upstream of the valve. The valve opens normally in proportion to the pressure increase over
the opening pressure. A relief valve is used primarily with incompressible fluids.
Rupture Disk Device- A non reclosing differential pressure relief device actuated by inlet
static pressure and designed to function by bursting the pressure containing rupture disk. A
rupture disk device includes a rupture disk and a rupture disk holder.
Support Structure Structure which designed to withstand local wind condition for flares.
Three types available self-supported, Guy-wire supported and Derrick supported.
Windbreaker - A windbreaker is structure uses to prevent the wind from extinguishing the
flames which located at flare tip. It serves also to hide the flames.

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 24 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

NOMENCLATURE
At
C
dj
D
g
H
h
k
Lf
Mach
Mj
m
P
Pj
Qf
qf
R
Rf
Tj
Ud
U
V
W
Wstm
Z

Flare tip area, ft2

Drag coefficient (Dimensionless)
Pipe/Tip inside diameter, ft
Particle diameter, in
Acceleration due to gravity, 32.2 ft/s2
Heat of combustion gases, Btu/Ib
Distance, in feet
Ratio of specific heats (Cp/Cv)
Flame length, ft
Mach number at pipe outlet
Gas molecular weight
Mass flow rate, Ib/s
Maximum header exit pressure, in Ib/in2g
Pipe outlet pressure, in Ib/in2 (absolute)
Heat release, Btu/hr
Heat intensity (Btu/hr/ft2)
Gas constant, 10.7 (British unit)
Distance from the midpoint flame (ft)
Absolute temperature, in oR
Maximum allowable vapor velocity for vertical vessel, ft/s
Design wind velocity
Volumetric flowrate, ft3/s
Gas flow rate, in Ib/hr
Mass flow rate of steam, Ib/hr
Compressibility factor, dimensionless

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 25 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Greek letters

L
V

Emissivity, (dimensionless)
Sealing liquid density, in Ib/ft3
Density of liquid, Ib/ft3
Density of vapor, Ib/ft3

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 26 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

THEORY
Elevated Flare Tips Sizing
The elevated flare tips normally are sized as below:
i)

Flare tip with steam assisted: steam injection nozzles are sized for a velocity
of 400 ft/s (120 m/s) at maximum flow with considering the limitation of noise
emission.

ii)

Velocity is sized at least 250 ft/s (75 m/s) to insure good dispersion. But the
flare tips consisted with a simple open-ended pipe and a single pilot, this will
subjected to flame lift-off and noise problems at high velocities, therefore it
should be designed for a maximum velocity of 160 ft/s (50 m/s).

iii)

The flare height should be at least as high as any platform or building within
500 ft (150 m) horizontally, and in no case less than 50ft (15 m) high.

iv)

Any source of ignitable/ flammable hydrocarbons should be at least 200 ft

(60 m) from the base of the flare stack, assuming the potential for liquid fallout from the flare is minimal.

v)

To prevent probability of liquid entrainment to the flare, knockout drum should

be included reduce the potential for and/or reduce the impact of burning liquid
fall-out.

vi)

Drift distances of burning liquid droplets from an inadequately designed flare

system can be considerably greater than 200 ft (60 m).

vii)

Flares should be located to limit the maximum ground level heat density to
500 Btu/hr/ft2 (1.6 kW/m2) at any property line. The minimum distance from
the base of the flare stack to the property line should be 200 ft (60 m).

viii)

Flare elevation and spacing must be such that permissible radiant heat
densities for personnel at grade and on elevated structural platforms are not
exceeded under conditions of maximum heat release. In some special cases,

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 27 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

flare elevation and spacing may be governed by radiant heat exposure of
certain vulnerable items of equipment, rather than personnel.
ix)

Flare location and height must be such as to meet all applicable regulatory
standards of noise level

The diameter of the flare must be suitable to maintain a stable flame and prevent a blowout
(when vapor velocities are greater than 20% of the sonic velocity).

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.

Page 28 of 124

KLM Technology
Group

Kolmetz Handbook
Of Process Equipment Design

Practical Engineering
Guidelines for Processing Plant
Solutions

FLARE SYSTEMS
SAFETY, SELECTION AND SIZING

Rev: 03

JAN 2015

(ENGINEERING DESIGN GUIDELINE)

Stack Support
Three type of stack support available, there is self-supported, guy-wire supported and derrick
supported. (Figure 4: Stack Support).

(a) Self-Supported

(b) Guy-wire Supported

(c) Derrick Supported

Figure 4: Common Type of Stack Support

These design guideline are believed to be as accurate as possible, but are very general and not for specific design cases. They were designed
for engineers to do preliminary designs and process specification sheets. The final design must always be guaranteed for the service
selected by the manufacturing vendor, but these guidelines will greatly reduce the amount of up front engineering hours that are required to
develop the final design. The guidelines are a training tool for young engineers or a resource for engineers with experience.
This document is entrusted to the recipient personally, but the copyright remains with us. It must not be copied, reproduced or in any way
communicated or made accessible to third parties without our written consent.