Shutdown Strategy for Flare Minimization at an Olefin Plant

Shutdown operations in olefin plants generate extensive flare emissions, which cause adverse environmental and societal impacts as well as large amounts of raw material and energy losses that could supposedly be unitized to generate much more needed products. Consequently, shutdown optimization for flare minimization is crucially important to all stake holders. However, the current practice for shutdown flare minimization almost exclusively depends on experienced operators, engineers, and plant administration. There is still a lack of systematic studies on how to cost‐effectively identify and examine shutdown flare minimization strategies through plant‐wide modeling and simulations. A novel process retrofit and shutdown operation strategy for flare minimization in an olefin plant is introduced. Plant‐wide dynamic simulations are employed to examine the operational feasibility and critical information during the plant shutdown operation. The proposed shutdown strategy could virtually reduce the flare emission significantly compared to historical records.