Professional Documents
Culture Documents
12.3.8. Valves
Valves should be preferably positioned with their stem pointing upwards. PSV inlet and outlet valve
stem to be horizontal. To avoid accidental blocking owing to loosened wedge, the gate valve at flare
battery limit shall have the stem vertically down, unless dictated by process.
Butterfly valves shall not be installed with the spindle in the vertical position for services where
collection of dirt in the lower shaft bearing could occur.
It is preferred to mount check valves in horizontal pipe run. If necessary to install in vertical,
suitability of valve type shall be carefully considered.
Relief valves discharging to atmosphere must be provided with a vertical tail pipe terminating at
least 3m above any platform within 7.5m radius. Atmospheric vent tail pipes terminations shall also
be a minimum of 30m horizontally from furnaces, boilers. Provide a 6mm weep hole in bottom of
stack to prevent liquid accumulation. Provide square cut end of pipe in discharge to atmosphere.
Valves shall not be located outside the platform. Manually operated valves shall be located so that
hand wheels are operable from a platform or grade level. If the bottoms of the hand wheels are
more than 2.2m above a platform or grade level chains operators can be used. Approval for the use
of chain operators shall be obtained from the owner prior to the use of them. Chains shall not be
installed on screwed valves, or any valve NPS 11/2 and smaller. Valves with chains shall be oriented
so that chains do not hang in passageways. Chain wheels shall be vertical and chains shall clear the
operating floor by 900 mm.
Handle extensions may be used for access to underground valve boxes.
Locating the operating valves in pipe rack shall be avoided, wherever possible.
A minimum of 100 mm clearance must be maintained all around valve hand wheels.
Drain valve hand wheels shall be oriented so that they do not extend into access aisles where they
would be potential tripping hazard.
Hose connections, where applicable, shall be positioned at elevation not higher than 1200 mm
above finished plant grade or above platform of multilevel equipment but not lower than 600 mm.
They shall be pointing 45 degrees downward. The piping shall be securely bolted to a supporting
structure and have adequate access. Utility connections shall be installed with minimum 150 mm
clearance between each other.
Each utility take-off connection shall be located at the top of the horizontal main header or auxiliary
header. Root valves shall be provided for each utility take-off connection from a main header or
auxiliary header which cannot be taken out of service without shutting down a complete processing
unit or operating facility.
Instrument air take-off connections to the plant utility station shall always be provided with root
valves.
ing, and
take account of the differential thermal expansion between inlet and outlet headers.
header boxes shall be reviewed at the enquiry stage, based on the size of the air coolers.
structure. This information shall be coordinated with the vendor / structural group at a very early
stage.
o outlet piping to be confirmed with Process.