Pressure Relief Technologies: Under Pressure to Perform Better

Developments in pressure relief technologies respond to chemical processors’ need for improved reliability and safety Pressure relief systems, whether rupture disks, pressure relief valves or other relief devices, are the last line of defense before a process enters a dangerous situation. “Processors never want pressure relief devices to activate, so it is important to take all possible steps to ensure that the process never gets to a state where this happens. However, if a pressure event does occur, you want to know that the device is reliably working and you want to be able to investigate the event effectively to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” says Nick Petrosyan, customer success manager with TrendMiner (Houston; www.trendminer.com). This is especially true in the chemical process industries (CPI), where pressure relief events can have extremely hazardous and costly results. For this reason, pressure-relief-device providers are making improvements that increase reliability and safety of their wares, while new technologies are being introduced to help design, monitor and analyze pressure relief systems in an effort to investigate events and provide actionable information to avoid them.   Improved devices The…