The majority of mechanical equipments found in oil and gas facilities belongs to the static equipment group, which comprises of pressure vessels, heat exchangers, storgae tanks, fired Heaters, pig launchers etc. In this article, images of few of such static or stationery equipments will be provided mainly to visualize the design guys who have not yet visited actual working site or construction site.
Horizontal & Vertical Pressure Vessel: A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold fluids, i.e, gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different (higher or lower) from the ambient pressure. Pressure vessels are designed following ASME BPVC codes.
Columns: Tall vertical pressure vessels Have internals like trays, packing, distributors, demisters, etc. for separation and other applications.
Buried/ Mounded Storage Bullets: Bullets are large, high pressure storage vessels. Generally used for storing LPG / LNG. Buried / Mounded to safeguard against any accident.
Atmospheric Storage Tanks: Large, Atmospheric pressure storage equipment. Depending on the fluid stored, tank roof design will be of fixed roof or floating roof type.
Storage Spherical tanks: Spheres are very large, high pressure storage equipment. Generally used for storing huge quantities of LPG / LNG / NGL.
Shell & Tube Heat Exchangers: Most commonly used heat exchanger. Used for high pressure, high duty applications.
Air Cooled Heat Exchangers: Also called as dry type cooling tower, Air is used as cooling medium.
Plate Type Heat Exchangers (Fig. 7): Compact type heat exchanger, Used for medium pressure, high duty applications. Can work with very low approach temperatures.
Fired Heaters (Fig. 7): A fired heater comprises of a furnace where the flame impinges directly on the tubes / surfaces containing the fluid to be heated which include process fluid, thermic fluids, air, water and so on.
The furnace is also called as radiant zone as major heat transfer is by radiation, followed by the convection zone wherein the heat transfer is predominantly by convection.
PIG Launchers / Receivers: A pig launcher is a device which uses a pressurized container to shoot a cleaning device (“pig”) through the pipeline to perform a variety of functions including cleaning, monitoring, and maintaining of the pipe.
Flare Stack and Flare & Knock Out Drum:
Jet Ejector and Scrubber:
MSV Skid:
Wellhead:
Part of this article is prepared by Mr. Satish Atmanathan, a senior oil and gas professionals with extensive work experience. For a more detailed explanation about all the above parts and visualization, listen directly to him on the following video:
