A major oil refinery needed to ensure the adequacy of several Emergency Depressuring Systems (EDS) within their operating process units. The client requested that ioMosaic evaluate the dynamics of all interlinked equipment:
ioMosaic modeled the flow dynamics for the entire depressuring system using Process Safety Office® SuperChems™. Our software is capable of modeling the depressuring dynamics of one or more interlinked single and/or multi-phase vessels.
This project focused on the reformer reaction system. It started with four reactors connecting to a series of five exchangers and ended at a gas separator. This was a challenging analysis, because the depressuring system contained interconnected vessels that involved two-phase systems. A single volume representation solution of the system (what is typically assumed) is not recommended and cannot represent the correct initial system dynamics. In addition, the flow resistance of the lines interconnecting the equipment must be considered. This was addressed using detailed flow models for both single and multiphase systems with SuperChems™.
An important aspect is consideration of the potential condensation of heavies in downstream vessels as the pressure and temperature decrease during blowdown. For some systems, this can give rise to two-phase flow and/or cold cryogenic temperatures.
Oil refineries are required to provide adequate documentation regarding the conditions that necessitated the installation of depressuring systems, the required rate of depressuring, and the adequacy of the blowdown systems. The ioMosaic team modeled the depressurizing dynamics of a complex system and demonstrated to the client that their system was adequate. A full detailed report of the results was delivered in electronic and print formats.
Our experts have experience in all areas of emergency relief system (ERS) design, from reactivity testing for design basis determination to calculations for Z-axis deflection from dynamic loads.