April 2013

A customer of ours who manufacturers and supplies pressure sensitive film and adhesive products worldwide, had one of our legacy products installed over a decade ago to monitor the % LFL of the solvent levels in the heating process atmosphere. The system had been working great but due to its age, the necessary spare parts were becoming harder to come by, which lead to longer lead times & higher costs. Since this LFL system was critical to their success they decided to pursue an upgrade path. 

The US EPA is targeting improvement of Flare Operation Practices. This includes better control and monitoring of supplemental gas, steam and air for better combustion efficiency, less emissions and reduced operating costs.

For more information read the EPA Article

So what can be done to assure compliance with these requirements? Effectively monitor and control the supplemental gas of the flare.

Responsible Care® is the Chemical Industry’s program that enables worldwide chemical companies to achieve high standards of performance and generate great value for their businesses. 

The program pertains to some of these key areas of safety:

According to NFPA-86, additional Solvent Vapor Analyzers can be installed onto a process to specifically control damper positions. By adding additional LFL Analyzers to safely automate the dampers, the amount of ventilation air needed to maintain a safe LFL level in an oven would be minimized...and what does this mean? You can save money. In fact often times, by automating damper controls on ovens, as much as a 50% reduction in fuel costs can be realized. So the cost of adding solvent vapor analyzers would be quickly recouped.