Is it safe to breathe?

Fugitive emissions testing have long been a requirement for process valves but pneumatic systems for compressed air have traditionally vented their exhausted air through an open port or maybe a bug screen. Open ports allow ingress of debris that can affect valve performance and although bug screens help to prevent it, there is still energy and money wasted in the regular ‘tishhh’ heard in plants all over the world.

For pneumatic actuator control systems operating on natural gas or sour gas for example, it is essential for safety and legislation reasons that any flammable or harmful gases are not released to atmosphere. Although these gases are used for thrust to drive actuators, the exhaust gases can still be used in other processes afterwards, further reinforcing the need to ensure that none is wasted.

Don’t let it get out!
One common problem is where volume boosters are used to increase the gas flow to an actuator in order to achieve a particular stroking speed for the valve. There have been many instances where the booster had to be enclosed within a separate housing to contain and extract the exhausted gas as the common design has small relieving ports drilled around the circumference of the unit. This adds complexity and cost to the control system, particularly where multiple boosters are employed.

There is a better way…
Red Dragon introduce the new VB range of 1:1 volume boosters from Sitecna® in Italy which offer an optional threaded exhaust design suitable for natural and sour gas applications. There are four different elastomer options available to suit different media and ambient temperatures down to -55°C, making them suitable for harsh climates around the world, and in common with the rest of the Sitecna® range, are ATEX and GOST certified as standard.

The standard material for these products is 316L stainless steel to NACE MR01-75 and they are also available in epoxy coated copper free aluminium alloy for applications where weight saving is critical or ferrous metals are unsuitable. Non-standard construction materials such as Monel, Super Duplex and 6MO can also be supplied for particularly harsh environments.

Other items in the SItecna® range available from Red Dragon in the same materials include filter regulators; back pressure regulators; pressure sensing relays; lockup valves; quick exhaust valves; flow regulators; high flow silencers; 3/2 & 5/2 pilot operated, pilot operated manual reset and manual operated spool valves.

Red Dragon
Tel: 01443 772500
www.reddragonvalves.co.uk

Published: 17th October 2013