Abstract

One of the problems that occurs during offshore well testing has been the discharge of unburned hydrocarbon emissions into the air and sea that leave deposits of oily slicks or "sheen" on the water surface. This residue results from inefficient flaring operations and can have adverse effects on the marine environment.

A new burner has been developed to address the environmentally unfriendly fallout conditions that have occurred from crude oil disposal during well testing operations. To support a broad range of applications, the design criteria for this burner included not only the capability to perform fallout free in the wide range of conditions expected during well testing but also to be simple to operate, have a compact lightweight design with a stable pilot and igniter system, provide clean startup and require low oil pressure.

Burner performance is significantly affected by fuel oil properties and its atomization characteristics. These topics and their relationship to the combustion process were addressed in the development of the design, and the testing that was performed by an independent Norwegian environmental testing company verified the burner's efficiency.

The burner design includes an array of atomizers, uniquely placed to improve flame turbulence and air ingestion important to efficient combustion. Engineering tests performed with 18 degree API crude oil were fallout free and smokeless, and tests performed by the independent environmental testing company verified that the new burner performed with 99.9 percent efficiency as a burning disposal system. The design supports constraints of the new, more stringent regulatory environmental standards because of its capability to reduce pollution from hydrocarbon fallout during well testing in a wide oil-flow rate range. In addition, the simple design and low oil pressure requirements require minimal maintenance and reduce the chance for erosion, thus providing cost efficient operation.