Safety Archives

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

4 most important mechanical isolation methods of process piping & equipment

Oil and gas plant with closed and locked valve shawing different isolation methods.

Positive isolation is the isolation of process piping, equipment, or vessels from hazardous materials such that it is impossible for the material to enter the work area. Positive isolation must remove all risk of accidental reconnection to the source of the hazard due to equipment failure or operator error. There are several methods of achieving positive isolation some of which are discussed below.

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Case Study: High temperature DBB valves for steam injection – A common enhanced oil recovery method

Infographic of solar steam process (steam injection) as an enhanced oil recovery application.

Case study about high temperature Double Block & Bleed valves for steam injection. We have successfully installed the DBB valves at the Amal oilfield in Oman which uses “green” steam, generated at the Miraah solar thermal facility.

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5 important facts for a safe and transparent (remote) third-party inspection

Safe and transparent through your third-party inspection (remote inspection).

We are all facing many restrictions due to the pandemic. Therefore, we need to find ways to still provide the best possible support to our customers. One digital service that our customers can use is our third party inspections – better said remote inspections.
Our customers can use the remote visual inspection to check the valve quality before shipping.

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