Degassing Overview

For decades refiners and chemical plant operators have been faced with the need to remove hazardous and flammable gasses from their process equipment prior to personnel entry or beginning any maintenance or inspection activities. Steaming out the equipment has been the traditional way degassing was done, and tons of steam was used to remove these contaminants from the process units. This steaming out took time, resources, and produced copious condensate that had to be treated in wastewater treatment.

In recent years plant operators have realized that using chemical degassing products with the steam or as a cascade application will help them gain a competitive edge, increase profitability, and reduce turnaround time for their operation.

Superior degassing with FQE® LEL-Vapor

The demand for system decontamination, including degassing, which meets or exceeds constantly changing regulatory safety and environmental requirements is growing. LEL-Vapor is a safe, non-hazardous, non-petroleum based product for use in plant process equipment decontamination and degassing. LEL-Vapor can be applied either by injection into a steam flow or as part of a liquid cascade solution.

LEL-Vapor is a proprietary blend of surfactants, penetrating and wetting agents, and specially selected safe chemicals that are not SARA 313, DOT, California Proposition 65 or CERCLA reportable. LEL-Vapor is best described as a super-detergent.

The competitive edge in degassing, cleaning, and turnarounds

A carefully planned turnaround utilizing LEL-Vapor degassing and absorption process returns processing and crude units to full production in record time.

• Can be merged into the shutdown phase – minimizing turnaround time
  Greatly reduces steam-out time
  Limits release of hydrocarbon gas
  Expedites entry into vessels without the use of fresh air
  Reduces mechanical cleaning time
  Wastewater disposal without concern for bioculture toxicity

Degassing is environmentally safe and friendly

Degassing with LEL-Vapor reduces personnel safety concerns and reduces the release of gas into the environment.

• Reduces benzene to zero
  Reduces H₂S to zero
  Reduces LELs to zero
  Reduces/eliminates hazardous waste
  Reduces Ammonia to zero
  Non-hazardous
  No VOC’s
  No flash point