Steam Pipelines
At present time, my company intent to distribute/utilized the steam
which generate from Co-Gen Plant to several facilities.. The Steam
pipelines app.length is 20 km.
Need your advise regarding the piping code should be applied/refered..
B31.4 ??? or
B31.8 ??? or
B31.1 ??? or
else ???
due to steam's high corrosive effect on piping material and the temperatures reached, you should refer to 31.1 (power piping). However, i am not sure if the length you refer to could be within the scope of 31.1. One way is to separate the whole pipeline into smaller sections between the valve(Forged Steel Valves) stations - if any - and thus have smaller power piping parts.
I think you should apply B31.1 to your design. B31.4 and B31.8 are primarily buried piping Codes and I think you will want your steam and condensate systems to be above ground (regardless, you will not want to bury the steam piping directly in the ground). The B31.1 scope include "District Heating" piping and this is similar to your steam distribution application. When steam distribution piping is placed underground it is common practice to place the piping in "steam tunnels" so that it can be accessed for maintenance. Another option is to use a proprietary pre-insulated "conduit encased" modular piping system:
However,
these systems require some experience to design and some special skill
in laying out the expansion loops. It is important to look closely at
the internal pipe supports in these systems and to be sure that there is
room to expand and contract near in in the expansion loops. Also the
placement of intermediate anchors is critical and the internal pipe
expansion at bends must be considered. The outer conduit may also have
some amount of expansion/contraction and it might be necessary to place
non-resilient foam blocks around the conduit at bends so that the soil
will not interfere with the expansion/contraction of the outer conduit.
It
is not a very common practice for our power plants to "sell" steam to
other industries but I know of (and have worked on) several cases where
this is done. For example, in Iowa one of the power plants sells steam
to several large scale food processors. Some of these steam distribution
piping systems are 5 miles long and longer. The ASME B31.1 Power
Piping Code was applied to the design, fabrication, erection and testing
of these systems. In one case the condensate is returned to the steam
plant and in other cases the condensate is not returned. In the
steam-water circuit, there are gas-to-vapor-to-liquid (condensate) phase
changes and this causes the condensate to (over a period of time)
become highly oxygenated and very corrosive. In condensate piping it is
important to treat the liquid such that its corrosive nature is
reduced. In very lengthy steam distribution systems there will be some
amount of condensation and it is important to install steam traps to
remove the liquid from the steam distribution piping. If condensate is
allowed to form "puddles" in the steam line there is a danger of "slug
flow" incidents and those events may be very damaging to the steam
piping system. If the condensate is to be returned to the steam plant
in a parallel piping system it may be necessary to install "heat
tracing" under the condensate piping insulation to prevent the
condensate from freezing on its return to the steam plant.
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