Background:

An operating refinery owned by a leading petrochemical enterprise faced operational risks due to incomplete design basis documentation, legacy modifications, and multiple brownfield revamps across its refining units and flare network. Consequently, the existing flare system presented severe risks of inadequate relief capacity during emergency relief events. To mitigate operational hazards, the client urgently required a comprehensive flare system audit and hydraulic verification to uncover potential safety risks and establish actionable engineered mitigation measures to ensure long-term plant integrity.

Solution:

Adhering to API 521 standards, SimTech executed a rigorous relief load calculation across all process units under all credible overpressure scenarios. Utilizing steady-state calculations, dynamic modeling, and High Integrity Protection Systems (HIPS), SimTech performed an integrated relief analysis and flare capacity optimization, providing a scientific foundation for flare load reduction.

Benefits:

1) SimTech built comprehensive steady-state and dynamic simulation models across all units, performing systematic relief load verifications under emergency contingencies and delivering custom-engineered optimization solutions.

PSV Relieving Capacity Audit & Complete As-Built Documentation: Rigorously audited Pressure Safety Valves (PSVs) to evaluate relieving capacities against peak demand. A major deliverable was a complete flare design dossier—encompassing unit-by-unit relief loads across all contingencies, piping network topology and routing data, flare system design criteria, and hydraulic calculation results. This dataset establishes a robust engineering baseline for future revamp, debottlenecking, and expansion projects.