Recovery of useful components from flares of refineries using membranes

Everybody has seen flares burning in refineries, but still numerous countries have not yet become conscious of the economic losses of valuable gases and the ecological damages caused by burning these gases. These streams have to be flared - wasting a valuable resource and contaminating the environment. Recovering useful components such as LPG or H2 from these flare gases saves valuable hydrocarbons/gases and enables them to be used locally. Membrane systems can efficiently recover these useful components from flare gases. For instance, removing LPG and heavier fractions from the flare gas massively reduces carbon emissions and the bulk of the BTU value in the gas is recovered for local use. The environmental nuisance of smoky flares can be eliminated, and the valuable components resource otherwise burned, can be recovered, by using membrane processes. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the economic loss and the environmental damage caused by the burning of waste (or vent) gases in the flare stacks and to propose a novel technique for gas recovery.

Recovery of useful components from flares of refineries using membranes Keywords:

Membrane , Flare , Recovery of useful components , LPG , H2 , Refineries