Pressure Vessels For Oil & Gas Facilities: What Engineers Need to Know

Pressure Vessels for Oil and Gas Facilities: What Engineers Need to Know

A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure. The pressure differential is dangerous, and fatal accidents have occurred in the history of pressure vessel development and operation.

Pressure Vessel, Post Fabrication

Pressure vessels are classified as static equipment as they do not have any rotating member.

The term separator in oilfield terminology designates a pressure vessel used for separating well fluids produced from oil and gas wells into gaseous and liquid components. 

Schematic Of Separation Process

A separator for petroleum production is a large vessel designed to separate production fluids into their constituent components of oil, gas and water. 

BASICS OF FLARE SYSTEMS

FLARE SYSTEMS

The flare is the last line of defence in the safe emergency release system in a chemical plant or refinery.

It is a fail-safe option used in the disposal of purged and wasted products from refineries, vented gases from blast furnaces, gaseous water from chemical industries, unrecoverable gases from oil wells etc.

Typical Flare Stack During Operation

The flare provides a means of safe disposal of the vapor streams from its facilities, by burning them under controlled conditions such that 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.

Galvanization Process: Things Every Engineer Must Know

Galvanization Process: Things Every Engineer Must Know

Galvanization is the practice of immersing clean, oxide-free iron or steel into molten zinc in order to form a zinc coating that is metallurgically bonded to the iron or steel’s surface. This zinc coating protects the surface of the galvanized metal against corrosion, by providing protection to the iron or steel.

Due to the unique corrosion resistance of Zinc, it is the widely used as a sacrificial anode, providing even better protection to the steel that ordinarily painted steel surfaces.

The hot dip The hot dip galvanizing process is adaptable to coating nearly all types of fabricated and non-fabricated products such as wire, tanks, sheets, strip, pipes and The hot dip galvanizing process is adaptable to coating nearly all types of fabricated and non-fabricated products such as wire, tanks, sheets, strip, pipes and tubes, fittings, hardware, wire cloth, hollow-ware, and structural assemblies.

All galvanizing consists of four fundamental steps:

1. Surface preparation
2. Pre-fluxing
3. Galvanizing
4. Finishing

The preparation steps consist of cleaning and pickling operations that free the surface of dirt, grease, rust and scale. It is dipped into a caustic soda to remove oil, grease, paint and other marking. 

An acid solution is used to remove rust. The preflux step serves to dissolve any oxide that may have formed on the iron or steel surface after pickling and prevents further rust from forming.