Integrated flare combustion control
AssigneeBaker Hughes Holdings LLC
InventorsDaniel Robert Johnson, Chong Tao, Joshua Daniel Brooks, Randy Scott Pfenninger, Lei Sui
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for flare combustion control includes a sound speed measurement device for measuring sound speed in a flare vent gas, and a flare combustion controller including a memory and a processor. The processor is configured to receive the measured sound speed and determine, based on the measured sound speed, a molecular weight of the flare vent gas. The processor is further configured to determine, based on the determined molecular weight, a net heating value of the flare vent gas, and adjust the net heating value of the flare vent gas by regulating an amount of a supplemental fuel gas in the flare vent gas.
Claims6
A flare combustion control system comprising:
- an ultrasonic flowmeter configured to measure a sound speed of a flare vent gas flowing within a flare gas conduit;
- a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor, configured to measure a pressure and temperature of the flare vent gas, respectively;
- a fuel gas control valve configured to control a flow rate of a supplemental fuel gas flow delivered from a supplemental fuel gas conduit to the flare gas conduit upstream from the ultrasonic flowmeter;
- and
- a flare combustion controller communicatively coupled to the ultrasonic flowmeter, the pressure sensor, the temperature sensor and the fuel gas control valve, and comprising at least one processor programmed to perform operations including:
- receive the measured sound speed, the pressure, and the temperature from the ultrasonic flowmeter, the pressure sensor, and the temperature sensor, respectively;
- determine, based on the measured sound speed, the pressure, and the temperature, an estimated molecular weight of the flare vent gas;
- determine, based on the measured sound speed, the pressure, the temperature, and the estimated molecular weight, a predicted sound speed;
- compare the measured sound speed to the predicted sound speed;
- update the estimated molecular weight based on the comparing;
- repeat the steps of determining the estimated sound speed, comparing the measured sound speed to the predicted sound speed, and updating the estimated molecular weight until the predicted sound speed is approximately equal to the measured sound speed;
- determine, based on the estimated molecular weight, a net heating value of the flare vent gas;
- and
- adjust a valve position of the fuel gas control valve based on the net heating value of the flare vent gas.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.