Challenge

A Southern California refinery needed to shut down its Hydrogen Plant to perform critical maintenance outside of its normal turnaround cycle. This unit utilized a majority of the refinery’s produced fuel gas, and maintaining operations at the remainder of the facility required a solution for handling approximately 3 million standard cubic feet per day (SCFD) of excess gas.

Routing this volume directly to the flare system would have constituted a major flaring event—triggering regulatory scrutiny and exceeding permit allowances. The refinery required a Flare Minimization Plan and contracted Envent Corporation to provide a compliant, engineered solution to eliminate unnecessary flaring during this high-risk project.

Solution

Envent Corporation designed and executed a custom vapor control solution, complete with all necessary environmental permitting to meet the refinery’s flare minimization goals. Key components of the solution included:

• Upfront engineering design, incorporating detailed vapor management system schematics and a formal Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)

• A high-pressure knockout vessel to capture and separate liquids from the vapor stream

• Deployment of three EMECS (Envent Mobile Emission Control Systems) to safely process the excess fuel gas through thermal oxidation, achieving >99.9% Destruction Removal Efficiency (DRE)

• Onsite project engineers and field supervisors providing continuous oversight to ensure noise minimization and uphold the refinery’s good neighbor commitments

This solution allowed the refinery to maintain operations without exceeding permitted emissions or resorting to flaring.

Benefit

Envent’s engineered vapor control solution allowed the refinery to:

• Avoid a major flaring event during the Hydrogen Plant shutdown

• Maintain full compliance with environmental regulations and air district permit limits

• Complete critical maintenance with minimal operational disruption to other refinery units

• Streamline internal processes, as the refinery only needed to oversee the Management of Change (MOC) and provide tie-in points

This project highlights Envent’s expertise in flare minimization strategies, turnaround vapor control, and refinery emissions management—delivering solutions that reduce risk, protect air quality, and maintain operational flexibility.

Quote from Project Manager

“I wanted to thank you guys for the great work in execution of this project. It was definitely a success, and everyone was happy with the outcome. NO FLARING!”

In June 2017, Envent Corporation achieved 1 million man-hours without an OSHA recordable injury. We maintain a TRIR of 0.0 for 6 years. We believe Safety is No Accident.