CCI Helps Wilpro Go Full Throttle

At Wilpro’s El Furrial site in Venezuela, gas to flare valves were creating problems in production. These existing valves were suffering from gas leakage when closed, and high noise levels during venting conditions that Wilpro found unacceptable.

Leakage in the gas to flare application creates serious issues for a plant, particularly since the products that need to be flared tend to be high cost items. A constantly leaking valve also causes energy from the system to be lost, which increases plant costs. Even a minute leak can grow quickly into a large one, eventually affecting the valve’s internal parts performance. Additionally, El Furrial was also experiencing high noise levels during venting, which in gas to flare can indicate a high-pressure drop that results in shortened life and high maintenance costs.

For these reasons, El Furrial is replacing its valves with two, 14-in. (355-mm) 100D DRAG® valves. With design pressures up to 1350 psig (93 bar) at temperatures that range up to 120 F (50 C), these replacements will eliminate the possibility of excessive noise by using unique multi-passage trim designed to control high pressure drop. In addition to this, the DRAG® valves are specifically designed for long-term shutoff, to avoid any unnecessary seat leakage.

Published in SOLUTIONS Summer 2002