Application Note: Flare Gas Monitoring Systems

Flare stacks are used in many industries to burn off unwanted waste gas byproducts, or flammable gases released by pressure relief valves during unplanned over-pressuring of plant equipment. Applications include oil and gas well drilling operations, oil refineries, chemical process plants, gas distribution infrastructure, and landfills. In many cases, federal or state EPA regulations require the monitoring of a stack's flame, or the pilot flame that ignites the gases, to avoid having unburned hydrocarbons enter the atmosphere. IR video cameras are an ideal monitoring tool, since they allow automated remote monitoring on a 24/7 basis in virtually any weather. In addition, IR cameras avoid many of the technical and cost-related problems associated with other technologies such as ultraviolet (UV) flame detectors, flame ionization spectrometers, thermocouples, and pyrometers.

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