Vahab Kazerouni, Abedreza Farhadipor, Pourya Omidvar, Gholamreza Karimi,
Volume 3, Issue 1 (9-2017)
Abstract
Considering the significant waste of gas in the oil and gas industry flares, it is highly desired to recover the gas in the industrial processes. Gas recovery reduces the energy consumption as well as the negative environmental impacts. In this study, different flare gas recovery methods are presented from exergy perspectives. Exergy analysis based on the second law overcomes the limitations of the energy-based analysis and offers a much more meaningful evaluation by indicating the association of irreversibilities. Analytical results indicate that simultaneous generation of power and heat by flare gases is the most effective method and can decrease the exergy destruction and fuel gas consumption of the cycle by 77.58 MW and 5793 kg/hr, respectively. When there is no demand for power, recycling the flare gases to process units and steam generating by the turbine exhaust gases can decrease fuel gas consumption of the cycle by 5605 kg/hr. It is also observed that pressurizing and recycling the gas for utility consumption can decrease the exergy destruction and fuel gas consumption of the cycle by 28 MW and 2100 kg/hr, respectively.
