German INEOS chemical plant installs special AS Schneider valves for local air quality regulations05 May 2022

To be able to comply with the limit values for pollutant emissions specified in the TA-Luft amendment, both plant builders and plant operators in Germany are required to check installed components.

INEOS has therefore installed TA-Luft-compliant valves in accordance with the 2021 amendment from AS-Schneider in its new chemical plant.

The amended Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control (TA-Luft) came into force on 1 December 2021. The regulations set stricter limits for pollutant emissions from plants subject to approval. The most important change in valve specifications is the adoption of the ISO 15848-1 standard, which specifies how a valve is to be tested and gives the parameters for classification. After the transition period expires in 2025, the requirements must generally meet the state of the art and thus the emission level of new plants. For plants in the planning or installation phase, care must be taken to ensure that valves, pumps, compressors or even flange connections directly comply with the specifications of TA-Luft.

INEOS Phenol is building a new plant for the production of cumene at the Marl Chemical Park in the Ruhr region. This is an aromatic hydrocarbon that serves as a starting product for acetone and phenol. The state-of-the-art production facility covers an area of 16,000m2, produces more than 2,000 tons of cumene per day and 750,000 tons per year. Commissioning is scheduled for the end of May 2022. INEOS' cumene project must comply with the requirements of the amended TA-Luft 2021 and ISO 15848-1 for the control of fugitive emissions from valves throughout its scope.

The plant design required the installation of compliant closed valves with block and bleed or double block and bleed function at each pressure measurement point. The valve pressure requirements were not a problem, but a major challenge for AS-Schneider was the temperatures in the new plant, which can range from -48 to +320 degrees Celsius.

At the time, AS-Schneider had reliable and environmentally friendly valves in its product range that met the requirements of TA-Luft 2002, but only covered the temperature range from -30 to +200 degrees Celsius. Within a very short time, AS-Schneider engineers developed a special valve head unit that meets the highest tightness class A of ISO 15848-1 in the complete temperature range from -50 to +400 degrees Celsius at a nominal pressure of up to 420 bar. The valve has been externally certified by TÜV Süd.

Now, AS-Schneider has already been able to deliver more than 600 of these instrument monoflanges with the new valve head unit to plant manufacturers in the chemical industry.

Operations Engineer

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