It's time to do maintenance on a section of process.

You don't want to shut down the entire facility, so you decide to block off and depressurize just the section you're working on. Just upstream is a double block and bleed valvea trunnionmounted ball valve with self-relieving seals and a bleed valve to vent the cavity. You close the ball valve and open the bleeder. Now you can de-pressurize the line downstream and open it up to work on it. No so fast, says Rudy Garza. You may think that valve gives you double isolation, but it doesn'tand that could be dangerous. On March 4 Garza, Mechanical LeadStatic Equipment Engineering Group at ExxonMobil Development Company, gave a presentation at the VMA Technical Seminar in San Antonio entitled "Isolation Philosophies" in which he asserted that many people take the term "Double Block & Bleed" (DBB) to mean the same thing as Double Positive Isolation" (DPI). While this may seem like a small matter, he says, it means that some users may think they've achieved positive isolation when they haven't. Part of the problem, he goes on, is that designers and users don't always understand the capabilities of the valves in question. And, he adds, the design of a particular valve can vary from one manufacturer to another. Garza stresses that his presentation shouldn't be taken as holy writ, but as how his particular branch of ExxonMobil (i.e. Upstream) looks at the situation in its own industry and the practices it uses. Other companies (including within ExxonMobil) and industries may do things differently and it is up to the users to determine the safety and suitability of a particular practice to their application, he says. The key message is that a user should look at the design of a particular valve, and find out exactly what the manufacturer means by the term "double positive isolation" or "double block and bleed.", to make sure it's really what's needed in a particular application. Many users, says Garza, have taken "double block and bleed" as a generic term, and tend to use it when they really mean (and the applicable specificationAPI 6D, Specification for Pipeline Valves, requires) the use of double isolation and bleed. The key to understanding, Garza says, can be found in API 6D. That specification wasn't always as clear as it could have been in spelling out the difference between DBB and DPI, but the addition in 2008 of several notes has clarified it. API 6D defines a double-block-and-bleed valve (DBB) as a "single valve with two seating surfaces that, in the closed position, provides a seal against pressure from both ends of the valve with a means of venting/bleeding the cavity between the seating surfaces." The 2008 note points out that this valve does not provide positive double isolation when only one side is under pressure. By contrast, API 6D defines a double-isolation-and-bleed valve (DIB) as a "single valve with two seating surfaces, each of which, in the closed position, provides a seal against pressure from a single source, with a means of venting/bleeding the cavity between the seating surfaces." The note adds that this feature can be provided in one direction or in both directions. The job of a double isolation and bleed is to stop process fluid from getting into an area where work is being done. Both in-line valves would be closed, then the bleeder would be opened. If any fluid leaked past the first valve the bleeder would drain it off before it pressurized the cavity - the space between the upstream and downstream valves, and at the same time would act as a tell-tale to indicate the leakage. If the bleeder (which is smaller than the in-line valves and may, in fact, be a needle valve) were to be plugged the downstream valve would keep process fluid from getting past it. So why is the difference between DBB and DIB important? Let's consider a typical trunnion-mounted ball valve with selfrelieving seats. API 6D defines this as a double block and bleed valve, not a double isolation and bleed valve. Under normal conditions (Figure 1) there is pressure on the upstream seal, which (along with an internal spring) keeps it energized. There's no pressure on the downstream side, so the only thing energizing the seal on that side is a spring. The bleeder valves are open, and the cavity in the ball is at atmospheric pressure.

But it's not uncommon for a valve that's been in service for a while to leak a bit. Figure 2 shows what happens then. The upstream seal is leaking a little, but this should not be a problem because the leakage will be carried away by the bleeder except when the bleeder is not working, either because one or both of the bleeder valves is closed, or because there's a clog in the bleed line. The pressure in the valve cavity can then possibly reach as high as 200 psi, which overcomes the spring on the downstream seal and forces it off its seat, discharging fluid downstream to where people may be working. This is clearly not a double isolation and bleed valve

Double Block and Bleed valves

Double block and bleed valves are used to achieve positive isolation when performing maintenance activities in a live process plant. Typically two block valves and a bleed valve are manufactured as a single assembly and this double block and bleed valve manifold can be readily installed for isolation purpose. Double block and bleed valves are usually used for critical process service, such as high pressure system or toxic, hydrocarbon or hazardous process fluids. For non-critical service, single block and bleed valve assemblies must be used. To perform positive isolation while performing maintenance, repair or shutdown activities, double block and bleed can be used in the following way. Both the block valves are closed first. The shutdown side of the block and bleed assembly is then drained/vented/purged to make ready for maintenance. The bleed in the double block and bleed assembly is used to relieve the trapped process fluid from space between the two block valves. This way two isolation valves separate the shutdown side from process fluids. Double block and bleed valves are also often used with spectacle blind or blind spacers to provide positive isolation. Double block and bleed valve assemblies allow fewer potential leakage paths compared to traditional multiple valve installations, thus increasing safety of the design.

Usually, ball valves are used as block valves or isolation valves and ball or needle valves are used as bleed valves or drain valves in the block and bleed assembly. Cartridge type standard length double block and bleed valves have a patented design with two ball valves and a bleed valve into one compact cartridge type unit with ANSI B16.5 tapped flanged connections. This configuration allows the valve assembly to have same face-to-face dimensions like a single block ball valve, thus allowing more space for other devices to be installed on the same line.

Types of pressure relief valves Pressure relief valves are commonly used for protection of equipments against internal over pressure. Following are the main relief valve types commonly used in the industry. Before getting into the relief valve types, some terms need to be described. Superimposed back pressure is the static backpressure that exists on the outlet of the pressure relief valve, when the valve is closed. This pressure can be constant or variable depending on the conditions in the flare system before the relief valve can discharge. Built-up back pressure is the backpressure generated due to pressure losses at the outlet of an open relief valve when it is discharging. This pressure depends on the downstream pressure in the flare header to which the relief valve is discharging and the relieving flowrate which is being discharged. When the relief valve is discharging, effects of superimposed and built-up back pressure exist together and felt as the combined back pressure. Conventional pressure relief valves (PRVs) Operational characteristics of this pressure relief valve are directly affected by back pressure changes. For conventional safety relief valve, only the superimposed back pressure affects the opening characteristic and set pressure value, but the combined back pressure (superimposed backpressure plus built up backpressure) affects the blowdown characteristic and re-seat pressure value. A conventional pressure relief valve is not used when the built-up backpressure is greater than 10% of the set pressure at 10% overpressure. A higher maximum allowable built-up backpressure may be used for overpressure greater than 10%. Advantages of conventional relief valves are reliability and versatility. These relief valves are most reliable when sized properly and can be used in a wide range of services. Disadvantage of these relief valves is the effect of backpressure on the relieving pressure of valve and hence pressure accumulation in the protected equipment. Also for high built up backpressure values generated by higher pressure loss in the relief valve discharge line, chattering can occur in these relief valves. Balanced Bellows relief valve

Effect of back pressure on the operational characteristics of the valve is minimized by incorporating bellows. The bellows encircle an area equal to the inlet orifice area. This area is maintained free from the effect of back pressure from the discharge side of the relief valve. The space enclosed by bellows is freely vented to air. This the opposing pressure on the inlet fluid is generated by the spring alone without contribution from any sort of backpressure. For these relief valves allowable back pressure is 10 50% of the set pressure. Advantage of using balanced bellows relief valves is no effect of back pressure on the relieving pressure and pressure accumulation. The spring is isolated from discharge fluid from the bellows, hence risk of corrosion mitigated. These relief valves get special consideration when there is high combined backpressure on the relief valve. Disadvantage can be said to be the susceptibility of bellows to fatigue and failure and possibility of release of flammable or toxic process fluids being discharged to atmosphere through bellows vent. Pilot operated relief valve In pilot operated setup, main relief is combined with and controlled by a smaller self actuated pilot valve. This relief valve valve uses the process fluid itself, circulated through a pilot valve, to apply the closing force on the safety valve disc. The pilot valve is itself a small safety valve with a spring. The main valve does not have a spring but is controlled by the process fluid from pilot valve. This arrangement allows operation of pilot operated valves with a very narrow margin between set pressure of the relief valve and operating pressure of the protected equipment. Hence these relief valves are particularly used for services where relief valve inlet line pressure drop is high (typically higher than 3% of set point) or when back pressure is high. Allowable back pressure is typically more than 50% of the set pressure. Disadvantage of using pilot operated relief valves can be blockage of the pilot valve inlet outlet tubing by foreign matter such as hydrate, ice, wax etc. Vacuum relief This valve is designed to admit external fluid to prevent an excessive internal vacuum.