Inerting & Blanketing
Inerting & Blanketing
Inerting & Blanketing
to the vessel from the steam purge. Table 1. LOCs for selected gases and vapors.
Possible sources of purge or inert-
ing gases include commercially avail- Gas or Vapor LOC for N2/Air LOC for CO2/Air
able gases supplied from high-pres- O2, vol. % O2, vol. %
sure cryogenic tanks or standard
Cyclopropane 11.5 14
cylinders, or on-site air separation Natural gas (Pittsburgh) 12 14.5
plants that remove oxygen from the n-butyl chloride 14 —
Acetone 11.5 14
air and recover nitrogen by liquefac- Carbon disulfide 5 7.5
tion followed by absorption, chemical Ethanol 10.5 13
reaction, or membrane permeation. Hydrogen 5 5.2
Methyl ether 10.5 13
Cross-connections between the Methyl ethyl ketone 11 13.5
source of inerting gas and any other
Source: Adapted from Ref. 3.
system should not be allowed. The
gases from an enclosure or vessel
being purged must be vented at a safe pump). The steps in a vacuum purge Solution:
location. The purging or inerting gas are: (1) drawing a vacuum on the ves- xo = 0.21 lb-mole O2/total moles
should be introduced and exhausted sel until the desired level is achieved; The number of purge cycles k is
so that effective mixing is ensured (2) relieving the vacuum with an inert determined by rewriting Eq. 1 to
and the desired reduction in oxidant gas such as nitrogen to atmospheric solve for k (2):
concentration is maintained through- pressure; and (3) repeating Steps 1 and
out the system being protected. Mul- 2 until the desired oxygen concentra- x
tiple inlets and outlets are desirable to tion is reached. The amount of purge ln x k
o
promote diluent distribution. gas required depends upon the number k= (3)
PL
Several methods may be used to of evacuations needed to develop the ln
PH
form and maintain a noncombustible desired oxygen concentration.
atmosphere in an enclosure. These in- The oxygen concentration x after k
clude batch modes for one-time use, purge cycles (vacuum and relief) is Substituting in (2):
such as purging equipment during a described by Eq. 1, assuming that the
shutdown, and continuous inerting to pressure limits PH and PL are identi-
assure safe conditions during normal cal for each cycle (2): ln 0.02
0.21
operations. Each method will be de- k= = 0.69 or 1 cycle (4)
scribed and illustrative sample design ln 25
k 760
calculations will be made. PL
xk = xo (1)
PH
Syphon and vacuum purging The total nitrogen used is deter-
The common batch purging meth- The quantity of inert gas required mined from Eq. 2 (1):
ods are syphon, vacuum, pressure, may be calculated by Eq. 2 for k cy-
and sweep-through. cles, based on the ideal gas law (2): P2 – P1
Syphon purging involves filling the V2 = V1 (5)
P2
vessel to be purged with liquid (i.e., PH – PL V1
product or water) followed by intro- V2 = k (2)
PH
ducing the purge gas, typically nitro-
gen, into the vapor space as the liquid V2 = 760 – 25 5,000 gal ×
760
is drained. The required purge-gas vol- Example 1: Determine the number
ume equals the volume of the vessel. of purges required and the total con-
The rate of application corresponds to sumption of nitrogen to reduce the 1 ft 3/7.48 gal = 646.5 ft 3 (6)
the volumetric rate of liquid discharge. oxygen concentration in a 5,000 gal
Syphon purging may not be appropri- tank to 2% before introducing ace- or 1.66 lb-mol.
ate if the liquid is above its flashpoint tone. The temperature is 75°F and the
due to evaporation into the space. vessel is initially charged with air at Pressure purging
Vacuum purging is one of the most atmospheric pressure. A steam ejector Vessels may also be purged by
common vessel inerting procedures is used that reaches 25 mm Hg abso- adding inert gas under pressure and,
provided that the vessel is designed for lute and the vacuum of each cycle is after the gas has sufficiently diffused,
the maximum vacuum that can be de- relieved with pure nitrogen until the venting to atmosphere. As with vacu-
veloped by the source (e.g., a vacuum pressure equals 1 atm. um purging, more than one pressure
cycle may be necessary to reduce the ln 0.01 Integrating Eq. 12 yields Eq. 13, the
concentration of oxygen to the desired 0.03 volumetric flow rate required to reduce
k= = 0.54 (9)
level. The mathematical relationship ln 14.7 the vessel’s oxygen concentration from
that describes the pressure purging 114.7 C1 (initial condition) to C2 (2):
process is identical to Eq. 1, except
that the initial concentration of oxy- Thus, the number of purge cycles C1
gen in the vessel xo is computed after = 1, and the nitrogen consumption is Qt = V ln (13)
C2
the vessel is initially pressurized. calculated as follows:
Example 2: Determine the number
of nitrogen pressure purges required 100 – 14.7 – 14.7 Equation 13 assumes perfect mix-
and the total consumption of nitrogen V2 = × ing. Since this is not normally the
needed to reduce the oxygen concen- 100 + 14.7 case in actual practice, a correction
tration in the 5,000 gal tank described 5,000 gal = 582.8 ft 3 factor K is used. Table 2 lists values
in Example 1 to 1% oxygen. The ni- of K for certain conditions. Since lit-
trogen is supplied to the vessel at 100 or 11.65 lb–mole (10) tle data exist on defining the degree
psig and 75°F. of mixing, conservatism recommends
Solution: Equation 1 is used to de- a value of K no greater than 0.25.
termine the number of purge cycles. Note the increased consumption Equation 13 then becomes (3):
The initial oxygen concentration in the compared to vacuum purging (Exam-
vessel is calculated after the first pres- ple 1), because the vessel must be pres- C
surization using a simple pressure ratio surized to 100 psig during each cycle. Qt = V ln 1 (14)
K C2
where PL is the starting or atmospheric
pressure, whichever is appropriate. Sweep-through purging
This method introduces a purge Example 3: A 20,000 gal storage
P gas into a vessel at one opening and vessel that contains 100% air must be
xo = 0.21 L (7) withdraws the mixed gas at another inerted with nitrogen until the oxygen
PH
opening and vents it to the atmo- concentration is 2% by volume. How
sphere (or an air-pollution control-de- much nitrogen must be swept
14.7 psia vice), thus, sweeping out residual through? Assume K = 0.25.
xo = 0.21 flammable vapor. The quantity of
100 psia + 14.7 psia
purge gas required depends upon the Solution: The volume
20,000 gal of nitrogen
1 ft 3
physical arrangement. Sweep-through Qt =
required Qt is ln 0.21 ×
determined by Eq. 14:
(8) 0.25 0.02 7.48 gal
= 0.03 lb–mole purging is commonly used when the
vessel is not rated for pressure or vac-
= 25,148 ft 3 N 2 or 9.41 air changes
Applying Eq. 1, the number of cy- uum. The purge gas is introduced and
cles is: withdrawn at atmospheric pressure. (15)
To
Inerting ■ Figure 2. Process
Storage Tank
Continuous inerting methods are One method of flow Containing Styrene
fixed- and variable-rate (or demand). control for a fixed-rate Drain Monomer
Fixed-rate application involves con- application.
tinuous feeding of inert gas into an
enclosure (e.g., vessel) at a constant
rate and the corresponding release of sponding to the mean rate of change sure regulator to control the oxygen
a mixture of inert gas and flammable of the vapor-space temperature of concentration below the LOC. The
vapor that has been picked up in the 100°F/h may be used. The rates cor- control system should feature an ana-
vessel’s headspace. To ensure that the responding to a temperature change lyzer to continuously monitor the
vessel is completely protected, the and liquid withdrawal must be added oxygen concentration and allow inert
rate must be sufficient to satisfy together to determine the peak rate. gas to enter the space to maintain the
peak-demand requirements. These numbers are experience-based oxygen concentration at safe levels
The peak demand for continuous and are found in Refs. 1 and 3. with a reasonable margin of safety.
inerting is typically controlled by the Variable rate or demand inerting An increase in the concentration
maximum liquid withdrawal rate involves feeding inert gas into the above the set point should initiate an
coupled with potential temperature vessel at a rate that is a function of alarm and shut down the operation.
changes. For a vessel containing a demand. Demand is based on main- Where the oxygen concentration can-
flammable liquid, the inert gas de- taining a pressure within the vessel not be continuously monitored, it
mand based on liquid withdrawal is that is slightly above that of the sur- should be designed to operate at no
the capacity of the largest pump used rounding atmosphere (e.g., ~1 in. more than 60% of the LOC and
to withdraw liquid or the maximum H2O). checked on a regularly scheduled
possible gravity outflow rate, Variable application offers an ob- basis.
whichever is greater. vious advantage over continuous in Figure 2 shows one simple
The maximum demand from a that inert gas is supplied only when it method of flow control that can be
temperature change will occur in out- is actually needed, thereby reducing: used with a continuous introduction
door tanks operating at or near atmo- (1) the total quantity of inert gas re- of purge gas. Figure 3 depicts a
spheric pressure as a result of the quired; (2) product loss; and (3) dis- method than can be used with vari-
sudden cooling from a summer thun- posal problems. A disadvantage is able rate application.
derstorm. The rate of inert gas neces- the dependence upon flow control de-
sary to prevent the vessel’s pressure vices actuated by very low pressure- Practical considerations
from falling significantly below at- differentials that are sometimes diffi- Operation of a system with an
mospheric pressure is determined as cult to maintain. oxygen concentration low enough to
follows: (1) for tanks over 800,000 For variable-rate application, an prevent a deflagration does not nec-
gallons capacity, 2 ft3/h of inert gas inerting system is required to main- essarily mean that incipient fires are
per square foot of tank surface (shell tain such an atmosphere in the vapor absolutely prevented. Smoldering
and roof); and (2) for smaller tanks, 1 space above the liquid. Ideally, this can occur in fibrous materials at low
ft3/h of gas per 40 gal of tank capaci- system should include an automatic oxidant concentrations, later result-
ty. Optionally, an inert gas rate corre- inert-gas addition valve or backpres- ing in a fire or explosion when ex-