Zeeco's sonic flares are widely used in the oil and gas industry, both onshore and offshore. These flares employ high-pressure waste gases to achieve an extremely high destruction rate with superior smokeless performance and low radiation levels.

Single-Point

Single-Point Sonic flare systems are used primarily for applications in the oil and gas production industry, both onshore and offshore. They are also used in refining, chemical, and any other flaring situation where the flare system pressure is high enough to generate sonic velocity at the flare tip exit point.

Single-Point Sonic Advantages

Single-Point sonic flare systems typically have non-assisted or steam assisted flare tips that have special stabilizers built into the flare tip exit point.
These special stabilizers ensure the flare flame will not “lift-off.” Promoting a stable flame at the flare tip exit point also ensures a very high destruction efficiency.
Single-Point sonic flare systems also ensure the flare tip diameter is kept as minimal as possible, thereby resulting in lower equipment and utility costs, a longer flare tip life, less flame pull down, and a smaller wind profile for structural forces on the stack or boom support system.

Multi-Jet Sonic Flare System

MJ (Multi-Jet) Sonic flare systems are used primarily for applications in the oil and gas production industry, both onshore and offshore. They are used where high flare gas pressures are available (15 psig and up) and the customer prefers to have some smokeless burning capability and also lower radiation levels. Zeeco can design Multi-Jet flare tip assemblies with either a fixed exit area or with a variable exit area. Variable exit area tips use a special high-reliability spring force system to reduce the exit flow area at lower flare header pressure levels.

MJ Advantages

Designed specifically to ensure high stability and high destruction efficiency, even with sonic velocity at the tip exit point.
The flare tip has many smaller diameter exit nozzles, resulting in a much larger flare gas to ambient air contact surface and much higher air inspiration volumes and increased turbulence in the combustion zone.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Variable Jet

The ZEECO® Variable Jet (VariJet) flare tips are high pressure tips that use the energy of a high pressure gas stream to improve smokeless performance. To enhance the tip's ability to capitalize on high exit velocities and superior mixing that result from high gas to air surface area ratios, each arm of the VariJet tip incorporates a self actuated variable exit area assembly that opens as necessary relative to internal pressure to ensure operation at high exit velocities over a wide range of flow rates. By operating at a high exit velocity, the flare does not require any additional assist media such as steam or air to operate smokelessly, even at low flow rates. This type of flare tip gives the normal benefits of a high pressure sonic flare, such as well defined and erect flame patterns and low fractions of heat radiated over a much wider range of flows; which leads to lower radiation levels on platforms and at ground level.

The operation of the VariJet is controlled by the incoming flare gas pressure that causes the exit area to vary, thereby providing a constant backpressure and high exit velocity across the full operating range. Through the utilization of varying exit area, purge gas requirements for the VariJet are the lowest of any flare type. Additionally, using this technology allows the VariJet to be mounted and function well when firing at an angle or even horizontally.

Applications

Offshore and onshore oil and gas production, gas compression facilities, gas pipelines, LNG process plants, grassroots petrochemical/olefins/polyolefins facilities

Advantages

High stability, low fuel consumption pilots are standard
98.5% or higher hydrocarbon destruction efficiency
Superior materials and construction features
Non-assisted smokeless operation
Low radiation levels
Liquid carryover flaring requirements
Mixed phase discharge capability
Smaller knockout drums and piping
Very large gas capacities with high smokeless requirements
Shorter flame length

Pressure

Single-Point

Multi-Jet Sonic Flare System

Staged Multi-Point

Variable Jet