Flare stacks are one of the most demanding areas of any industrial site and need the most attention for regulatory, cost, and safety reasons. Industrial site managers need to know they have the best condition monitoring equipment available to get the most accurate data from their flare stack. At Thermascan, we have helped many such sites fulfill that need with our thermal imaging cameras. Learn why our cameras are so popular for flare stack inspections and monitoring below.
What Do Thermal Imaging Cameras Reveal about Flare Stacks?
One of the roles of a flare stack is to burn ventilated gasses to try to reduce the contamination of the local atmosphere. Whilst some waste gasses can be captured or processed differently, flare stacks at certain sites are needed to eliminate them and our cameras are often employed to monitor the situation. Here are examples of flare stack sites that are monitored by our automated thermal imaging cameras:
· Refineries
· Petrochemical sites
· Natural-gas processing plants
· Offsure exploration platforms
· Wellheads
· Landfills and combustion piles
There are several reasons a flare stack will be installed at one of these locations, including safety issues related to pressure release and mechanical conditions, as well as monitoring the heat of a flare. Not all flare stacks have a visible flame to see, and even the ones that do cannot have their status and combustion efficiency assessed simply by the eye; you need precise data to adhere to environmental regulations, but what is the best way to get this data?
Why Are Thermal Imaging Cameras Better Than Close-Contact Tools?
There are several tools used for close-contact temperature monitoring of flare stacks, but they are being replaced with automated thermal imaging cameras. What factors are inspiring this change?
Thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), fibre optic temperature sensors, and pyrometers need physical proximity or direct contact to deliver accurate readings. This factor can pose significant risks in hazardous flare stack environments. Generally, they also are only equipped to provide data at a single point rather than rendering a comprehensive understanding of the area being monitored.
A FLIR thermographic camera provides a broader and more detailed yet comprehensive assessment. The automated versions of our static cameras are capable of capturing continuous, real-time thermal footage of the entire flare stack. This not only enhances the safety of the monitoring process by removing the need for close contact but also gives more accurate detection of anomalies and hotspots across the entire surface area.
The Challenges of Monitoring Flare Stacks
Monitoring flare stacks within industrial settings comes with several challenges to overcome. The difficult conditions surrounding these structures mean intense heat and significant corrosion, exposing any form of close-contact instrumentation, like thermocouples, to harsh conditions that will quickly damage them, leading to unreliable data and hazardous replacement operations.
Flame visibility, or invisibility, as mentioned earlier, is also a challenge. Depending on the gasses being burned, it will seem like your flame stack has stopped functioning due to the invisible burn.
The time of day and weather can increase the challenges of visibly monitoring a flare stack, but the wind will have the largest influence on false data. The direction of the flame will influence any local close-contact devices, and if the wind were to blow against the flare and put the sensor upwind, it would provide false readings.
Why Is Flare Combustion Efficiency Monitored?
Waste gas components burn at different temperatures, and it’s vital to monitor a stack to see if it is operating within the required parameters and completely combusting the gas, but why does efficient burning help?
Methane is 25 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide, but once combusted at the appropriate temperature, it breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. The stack will need to maintain a heat of approximately 1,960°C to burn completely.
Another example is toluene. This is a component used in petrol manufacturing, amongst other products and burns at a lower temperature of 553°C in a flare stack. However, toluene is often accompanied by benzene during the manufacturing of plastics and resins and needs to be combusted at 565°C. This means that if your stack was operating at only 560°C, the toluene would burn, but the benzene would not, and it would contaminate the local environment.
The other side of the issue is when too much steam is injected into the stack to compensate, and subsequently ‘oversteams’. This creates more emissions and lowers local air quality as the burn is being inefficient the other way, by burning too hot. This is usually even visible as the stack will be pumpin out black smoke. It also has the added side effect of increasing the costs related to maintaining your flare stack.
FLIR thermal imaging cameras provide the data needed to monitor the combustion efficiency of the stack. With an automated system connected to a diagnostic computer, your stack will be monitored 24/7 in any conditions. Your team will be alerted of any unexpected temperature variances that would affect the efficiency of the burn, meaning you maintain the exact balance of an efficient combustion for both the environment and your expenses.
Automated Thermal Imaging Cameras at Thermascan
At Thermascan, we curate an inventory of the latest handheld and automated thermal imaging cameras, like the Teledyne FLIR FH multispectral camera series. These advanced condition monitoring tools will provide you with the detailed data you need to guarantee that your flare stack is always operating safely and efficiently.
Contact us today to discuss which camera model will best suit your needs.