Safety Archives

How a natural gas terminal meets 99% supply availability with DBB valves

The cease of natural gas imports from Russia forced Germany to switch from energy providers. Since then, Norway has grabbed the number one spot as the main supplier. To secure reliable gas transfer and distribution, all facilities within the circuit must be at peak capacity. One of those facilities is a Gassco plant located in northern Germany. The revamped Emden natural gas terminal kicked off operations in 2016 with the operative premise of providing an availability delivery rate above 99%. Since the start-up the plant did not reach its potential due to a leakage problem at the shut-off valves. Together with the customer, we set about working out a solution to achieve the high requirement of 99% availability. Here’s how we helped Gassco get to the promised target.

Practical test installation of a DBB Piping Ball Valve at a gas storage facility

Practical test installation of DBB piping ball valve in natural gas plant.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about my job is discussing new improvement opportunities with clients. Situations like that push me to engineer viable solutions that solve operational setbacks, so they can enjoy more reliability and safety at work. And that was what happened when I designed the practical test installation procedure I’m about to share. It was for a double block and bleed (DBB) ball valve installed in a gas storage facility.

API 6D ASME B16.34 ASME B31.3 bypass installation DBB Piping Ball Valve DBB valve gas storage facility ISO 14313 manifolds oil and gas Practical test installation sealing Tightness tightness test trunnion design valves

Flow control operations: Floating vs. trunnion-mounted ball valves

Technician ist walking through offfshore platform with lot s of floating and trunnion-mounted ball valves.

Every engineer encounters the challenge of having to choose one technology over another. A notable example is specifying the valve solution for a given process line. Sometimes the choice is evident. Other times, it is a tight horse race of options. In light of that, in this article, I want to focus on a topic I frequently get asked about: the differences between floating and trunnion-mounted ball valves. Selecting the most valve of the two for a specific service could be tricky at times. Thus, knowing what sets them apart helps a long way. Read on to learn about both valve solutions. My goal is to lead you to identify which design is more appropriate.

downstream engineer floating ball valve Flow control operations flow regulation high-pressure oerating torque standard EEMUA trunnion ball valve trunnion mounted ball valve upstream

What is a valve manifold and where are valve manifolds used?

Valve manifold configurations for diverse industrial plant applications.

Valve manifolds are flow management devices of ever-growing interest for operators, maintainers, and design teams worldwide. Even under today’s landscape of ongoing innovations, they continue to be a go-to technical solution for fluid control in systems. When two or more valves are involved, that is.

Since their deployment extends across diverse processes in several industries, it is only fitting to seize the opportunity to offer knowledge on them.

What are valve manifolds? When to use them? What configurations are available?

These are some of the questions to address in this introduction feature. Please, continue reading below to get the details.

2 Valve Manifold 3-valve manifold 5-valve manifold differential pressure direct mounting flow rate fluid level gauge pressure horizontal style manifold manifold Pressure remote mounting temperature valve Valve Manifold vertical style manifold

Types of valves used in piping and how to classify them

This article presents an overview of valves, their functions and the commonly used types of valves in the industry. The design principle, application areas, benefits and disadvantages of various types of valves are presented. Different methods of valve classification are also discussed to highlight the key considerations in valve selection.

butterfly valve check valve diaphragm valve gate valve globe valve needle valve oil and gas piping system piping valves plug valve safety type of valves valve classification valve function valves

How to isolate a process line from process instrument with a DBB valve

Different methods to isolate process line from process instrument.

Block and Bleed and Double Block & Bleed isolation systems are used in process instrumentation to isolate your instrument from the main process line. The isolation valve(s) stop the flow from the upstream, while the bleed valve removes any pressure or residual product that remains in the downstream section or in the section between the two valves.

Use of block and bleed valves is mandatory in many industrial processes for isolating the measuring instrument from the process line. This allows maintenance work to be performed on the instrumentation without the need to shut down the entire operation. There are two approaches to the installation of a block and bleed or a double block and bleed setup.

Block & Bleed isolation system Block and Bleed Close-coupled installation conventional installation conventional system dbb DBB valve Double Block & Bleed injection installation costs isolate process instrument isolate process line miantenance Monoflanges process temperature Process-to-instrument system roddable design Sampling Slimline Monoflanges VariAS-Blocks

Reliable and accurate sampling system for natural gas applications

NG plant with measuring lines shows reliable and accurate sampling system for LNG applications.

My previous article in this series explained what are the main issues in obtaining a representative sample in NG applications.

This case study demonstrates a reliable sampling solution currently used by plant operators. It helps plant operators to obtain representative samples.

API 14.1 conventional DBB valve configuration Custom designed DBB gas sampling valves DBB sampling valve DBB valve double block and bleed sampling valve Double isolation Dual flow sample probes flushing GPA 2166 isolation valve Natural gas industry pressure differential probe length representa sample probe Sampling conditions Sampling frequency sampling location sampling standards Single flow sample probes

What are the main issues in obtaining a representative sample in NG applications?

NG plant with measuring lines shows issues in obtaining representative sample.

In this article, I present the major issues associated with obtaining a representative sample in NG applications. The article explains what is representative sampling, and why sampling is important in the natural gas industry. I discuss factors that determine what should be a suitable sampling frequency in a process, and which sampling standards can be followed to ensure representative sampling.

Several major issues in obtaining a representative sample, and common design flaws that lead to poor sampling are presented and discussed. In addition, I present how a suitable probe length can be determined and how the probe should be installed. The different types of commonly used sampling probes are also compared and discussed.

API 14.1 conventional DBB valve configuration Custom designed DBB gas sampling valves DBB valve Double isolation Dual flow sample probes flushing GPA 2166 isolation valve Natural gas industry NG NG application pressure differential probe length representative sample representative sample in NG applications sample probe Sampling conditions Sampling frequency sampling location sampling standards Single flow sample probes

How to avoid hydrate formation during underground natural gas storage in salt caverns

3d image of natural gas storage in salt caverns and how to avoid hydrate formation.

In this case study, I focus on how to avoid hydrate formation in natural gas pressure measurement pipelines. I describe the traditional approach to avoid hydrate formation during natural gas storage in salt caverns. Furthermore, I explain a patented customer solution that AS-Schneider has industrialized.

cavern storage copper block copper block with an integrated shut-off ball valve copper tube heated sampling probe hydrate hydrate formation initial shut-off integrated shut-off ball valve measurement measuring lines measuring pipelines natural gas measurement natural gas storage salt caverns sensor tube underground natural gas storage

Underground natural gas storage in salt caverns and the challenge of hydrate formation

3d image of natural gas storage in salt caverns and the challenge of hydrate formation.

Many of my customers use natural gas storage facilities in order to balance out low and peak demands over the course of a year.
Over the years, I have gained a lot of valuable experience on this topic. This knowledge is what I would like to share with you in the context of a blog article.

cavern storage Depleted Aquifers Depleted Reservoirs hydrate hydrate formation salt caverns underground natural gas storage