CFD-Based Design of the PetroExir Kangan Flare in Iran regarding smokeless Operation

Currently, flares are widely used in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. During startup, maintenance, or process upsets, gases that cannot be recovered or stored are directed to the flare. Additionally, in emergency situations (such as power outages, fires, or equipment failures), the flare burns the gases released from relief valves to prevent explosions or rupture of tanks and pipelines. Given the large volume of soot generated from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons, modern flare designs incorporate mechanisms that inject air or steam to create turbulence and mixing between the gas and air, thereby enabling hydrocarbons to access sufficient oxygen for proper combustion. Therefore, the geometric design of next-generation flares is of particular importance and must be carried out in three dimensions using CFD analyses. In this study, the flare of the PetroExir Kangan Petrochemical Plant in Iran has been designed using CFD with ANSYS Fluent to ensure that, under critical site conditions, it can handle the maximum gas flow rate while the combustion, driven by turbulent mixing between gas and air, results in a Ringelmann number of less than ۱ outside the flame.

کلیدواژه ها:

flare ، CFD ، soot formation ، optimization ، air pollution ، Ringelmann