Fugitive emissions

Fugitive emission testing

(in practice)

In this article, the author describes the testing of valves with regards to fugitive emissions in practical situations. Examples, experiences and possible solutions are presented and explained in detail as well as some general terms are pointed out for better understanding.
By Colin Zegers

FE Type approval tests for valves

Type approval tests for valves are established to check the usefulness of valves with seat and sealing-components. Some type approval tests specify the test temperature(s), pressure(s) and operational cycles. Known FE type approval tests in Europe are TA Luft regulation in Germany, ISO15848-1 (worldwide) and SPE 77/300 (the current specification regarding Shell Type Acceptance Testing). TA Luft requires testing at practical conditions where the test temperature and operational cycles are not strictly prescribed. For example: a valve with a TA Luft certificate tested at ambient temperature with 10 operational cycles, is
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only guaranteed for these conditions. Such valves have been sold with a guaranteed TA Luft certificate and some of them were built in a plant with a temperature application of -25C and hundreds of cycles per day with serious consequences. The international ISO15848-1 standard requires fugitive emission testing and operational cycles at specified temperature steps, the number of cycles is specified by the recommended endurance class. Following these type approval tests, the SPE 77/300 is the only type approval test that specifies all aspects of a valve: functionality, external leakage and seat leakage at the entire specified temperature range. A type approval test of a valve could result in a perfect fugitive emission rate, however it could be a disaster in

practice concerning seat leakage when seat testing is not part of the type approval test. Besides the type approval testing of valves one can choose more reliability by only mounting sealing material in their valves which has been previously approved during testing at the entire guaranteed temperature range. An example of a type

Fugitive Emission Testing of a valve under practical conditions

Fugitive emissions
Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapours from pressurized equipment due to leaks and various other unintended or irregular releases of gases, mostly from industrial activities. As well as the economic cost of lost commodities, fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change. When it comes to safety and environment, valves and appendages should always be extremely reliable. Research has shown that leaking and faulty valves are responsible for the majority of fugitive emissions in (petro) chemical plants. Due to this fact it is obvious that valves need to perform to the highest standards. According to the ESA (European Sealing Association) the rate of fugitive emission in the USA has been estimated to be in excess of 300,000 tonnes per year.The rate of fugitive emissions from European refineries ranges from 600 to 10000 tonnes of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) are per year.

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Fugitive emissions

Wear of graphite stem seal during a FE test of a double block and bleed valve

Leak rate determining using the sniffing hood method

test for packings is the API 622 (valve packing type testing).

Difficult choices
Unfortunately, some valve manufacturers make their choice for sealing material for a certain valve application without paying attention to possible test reports. They are therefore only focused on details of sealing material published on a website, brochure or folder, in good faith. Sealing material for valves can be gaskets, seals, o-rings and (soft)seats. Applying these materials in their valves, is actually a leap of faith and can therefore lead to a high risk in practice. Too often these materials are sold for a PT range (pressure temperature) without ever having been tested at these conditions. In some cases these materials are not even sufficient for applications other than low pressure and ambient temperature. Valves to be type approval tested with these sealing materials can pass a test very easily, however sometimes they do not come further than a helium pre-test. In the past valves have been tested for a project, where the valves were equipped with a special low temperature o-ring. Unfortunately we had to test these valves at ambient temperature only. All valves passed the

ambient tests perfectly. Once built in the plant and exposed to the practical conditions of -40C all valves failed. During all tests, we are not only focused on fugitive emissions from seals or gaskets but also on emissions from the entire valve body. Sometimes it can happen that the leakage of a gasket, is via thread or bolting (the way of the least resistance) and not through a gasket. It is even a possibility that a valve is leaking through a body! Also alarming is the fact that during random retests, some valves are foreseen with a test report showing us that this valve is tested with a certain leak rate A. However a retest shows that the leakage rate is rate C or even worse. Sometimes it needs even a stem seal replacement by a different type or brand seal to meet the maximum allowable leak rate required by the end-user. One reason for the different test results observed, might be that during previous tests, the required hold duration is not respected. A general observation of many

international standards teaches us that the defined hold duration for general testing and fugitive emission testing is often too short. Most leakages will appear, only after a minutes hold duration instead of a hold duration of seconds. Many times a hydrostatic body test of 15 seconds is too short for most valves (according to API 598 and ISO 5208, the hydrostatic test duration for a 2 valve is 15 seconds). Especially for higher ratings, class 600 and higher, the hold duration should be minutes instead of seconds. The performance of valves in practice should be guaranteed longer than a service of 30 seconds.

Certificate and test report

A certificate of a type approval test tells us something about the performance of the valve at certain test conditions . The associated test report is actually a more important manual for the practice how to deal with a valve. In this review you can

About the test laboratory

In our test laboratory, annually hundreds of type approval- and production tests are performed under controlled conditions for standard specifications as well as by your own specific project demands. The test conditions can vary from deep vacuum to a pressure of 1500 barg gas with temperatures of -196C to 800C (and over) during high temperature tests or fire safe tests. The required operational cycles can be performed with computer-controlled actuators. All measured data can be recorded by a log and registration system so that reporting of tests is fairly simple. Burst tests can be executed in bunkers in perfectly safe conditions. For almost all valve related products it is possible to offer a one-stop solution to all NDT and NDT-related services needed to qualify your product through the highest standards. These services involve among others: Radiography (X-ray) Modification / revision of valves Ultrasonic Testing (US) Hydrostatic Testing Magnetic Testing (MT) Blasting/degreasing/spray painting Dye Penetrate Testing (PT) Disassembly-assembly PMI (Positive Material Identification) Hardness Testing

Damaged soft seat during type approval test under cryogenic conditions 60 June 2010

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Fugitive emissions

Leakage of a bonnet gasket via thread of a bonnet bolt

O ring leakage due to low temperature testing body -40 degC,

find all necessary information, such as test temperatures, the necessary torque for the gland bush bolts needed to meet the minimum requirements to start the test, including some possible adjustments of the gland bush bolts during the test. This information is essential to guarantee a proper valve operation in practice and the valve performance in relation to fugitive emission.

FE production tests for valves

Two well known production tests are described in the international standard ISO 15848-2 and Shell MESC SPE 77/312. These two requirements specify a test with a reduced number of operational cycles at ambient temperature. Also the test pressure (depending on the revision 77/312 and tightness class) is reduced for these two tests.

The cause of leaks we find during leak testing these installations could have several reasons: wrong gasket, gasket installed incorrectly, loose bolts/nuts and sometimes a gasket or bolts have not even been fitted! However during some tests it is remarkable that a high tracer-gas background in the plant can be measured. This can be caused by high leaker stem seals of valves, where leak rates of more than 10 cc/second per stem seal are no exception. Obviously, a type approval test for valves is needed to see whether the valve should be able to withstand the required conditions. Besides the FE tests during the type approval tests and production tests, the measurement of fugitive emission in practice is equally important.

Example:
A valve has a shaft with a 20 mm diameter. The maximum leak rate according to TA-Luft is: 6.28E-6 atm.cc / sec, 3.52E-7 atm.cc / sec according to ISO 15848-1 rate A(H) and 3.52E-6 atm.cc / sec according to SPE 77/312 (Shell). This means that every leakage of 10 cc / sec in practice represents the same leak rate as more than 1.5 million TA-Luft valves, 28 million rate A ISO valves and 2.8 million rate A Shell valves! Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action. Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks. To ensure a minimum of fugitive emission for valves, at least every dynamic application should be regularly checked for leakage to guarantee the required performance according to fugitive emission.

Fugitive emission in practice

Even though the quantities of leaked gases may be small, leaks of gases that have serious health or environmental impacts will always cause a significant problem. Research has proven that fugitive emissions of valves and (its) flanges can be a significant proportion of total emissions in (petro-) chemical plants (average 65% of the total fugitive emission, see www. europeansealing.com. Fugitive emission is normally one third of the total organic emission. Besides the impact of these emissions the real costs resulting from the emissions are far higher because of the invisible/indirect costs. Energy losses, costs of repair, damage to image, environmental penalties and claims are potential examples. Our company is specialized to carry out leak testing of industrial installations after a shut down or overhaul.
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Test set up of a ISO 15848 type approval test (vacuum method)

Emission (leakage) in practice refinery

About the author

Mr Colin Zegers has been involved in the field of leak testing with specialty valve testing for almost 12 years now. The Dutch independent test facility and service provider is able to test versatile products like: valves, appendages, vessels, heat exchangers and gaskets for functionality, emission, endurance, leakage and (fire)safety. The test facility is a one-stop shop for testing newly manufactured products, prototypes and revised valves also onsite leak testing, project supervision and consultancy can also be provided. You can contact Colin Zegers at c-zegers@live.nl

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