SPE 111561

Improving Accuracy in Calculating NOx Emissions From Gas Flaring

Jørn Bakken and Øyvind Langørgen, SINTEF Energy Research, and Geir Husdal and Tonje S. Henriksen, Novatech

Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE International Conference on Health, Safety, and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production held in Nice, France, 15–17
April 2008.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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Abstract
The paper will present a proposal for a more accurate NOX emission factor and methodology for reporting NOX emissions
from offshore gas flaring. The work has been performed by the authors on behalf of the Norwegian Oil Industry Association
and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

There are large uncertainties in reported NOX emissions from gas flaring. In Norway, a default emission factor of 12 g
NOX/Sm3 of flare gas has been used since 1993 for reporting NOX emissions from offshore flaring. Increased focus on NOX
emissions has raised the question how correct this constant value is. The factor does not account for variations in gas
compositions, flare rates or flare types. Furthermore, this Norwegian default factor for offshore flaring is about 10 times higher
than in other comparable countries. This emphasizes the need for further work in this field and that the basis for data brought
into international treaties may vary significantly.

The present work has reanalysed earlier small and medium scale experimental data, and also included more recent DIAL
measurements performed on full scale onshore flares (DIAL is a laser based measurement system). A new scaling law for the
NOX emissions is proposed, which accounts for both the different gas types and pipe dimensions used in the experiments and
measurements. Data scatter is significantly reduced compared to the original scaling law.

NOX emissions from several offshore flares have been calculated with the new scaling law by using recent flare data.
Estimated total NOX emissions are reduced by 83% compared with today’s calculation methodology in Norway using a
constant value of 12 g NOX/Sm3 of flared gas.

Introduction
The Norwegian regulatory requirements for emission and discharge reporting from the oil and gas industry are stated in "The
Information Duty Regulation". These requirements stipulates that the emission factor applied preferably shall be field-
/installation specific, i.e. that the factor shall reflect the gas composition and burning conditions. This has been difficult for
NOX emissions from offshore gas flaring. A default factor is therefore recommended by the The Norwegian Oil Industry
Association (OLF) in the “OLF Guidelines for Emission and Discharge Reporting” /1/.

The Norwegian default factor for NOX emissions from offshore gas flaring was established during the OLF Environmental
Programme in 1991-1993. The factor was based upon a study done by SINTEF for OLF in 1992 /2/. This study showed that
the emission index increases as a function of increasing flare rate, and that the flame volume is the leading order parameter for
NOX emissions. For all practical purposes, a simplification would be required to enable NOX emissions to be calculated, based
upon annual or monthly flared volumes. A weighted average of 12 g NOX/Sm3 flare gas was established by OLF based upon a
combination of the Emissions Index (EINOx) as a function of flare rate on the one hand, and the distribution of annual flare
rates on emergency flaring, operational flaring and pilot/purge gas flaring on the other hand /3/. This default emission factor is
recommended in the “OLF Guidelines for Emission and Discharge Reporting” /1/ and has consistently been used for all
reported NOX emissions from offshore gas flaring at the oil and gas installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf from
1993 to date. The current default NOX emission factor does not take into account the variable parameters having influence on
the NOX emissions, such as flaring rate, flare type, gas composition, etc.
2 SPE 111561

However, this constant NOX emission factor is about 10 times higher than NOX emission factors used in other comparable
countries. Table 1 shows a summary of emission factors used in other countries. All emission factors use flare gas amounts as
input, either in the form of volume (Sm3), mass (kg) or energy content (GJ).

A source control of the various national default emission factors used has shown, however, that most of the factors are not
independently obtained (shown in Table 1). The source for the EU factor for oil and gas is derived dicectly from the
Norwegian factor. The US EPA factor /4/ is the basis for several of the other factors. The current UK standard factor and the
Dutch standard factor seem to be the only ones that are based on independent tests using relevant flare types. However, limited
data is also available for these factors. A new UK factor has been proposed and is based on the US EPA factor. However, the
tests that the US EPA factor is based on do not necessarily reflect the gas composition of the flare gas on offshore oil and gas
production facilities. The factor is established through tests using a mixture of propylene and propane on steam assisted and air
assisted industrial flares at low velocities (0.7 – 19 m/s for steam assisted flares and 3 – 66 m/s for air assisted flares).

Introduction of taxes on NOX emissions in Norway and the fact that the default emission factor used for reporting NOX
emissions from offshore flaring differs substantially from NOX emission factors used in other countries, triggered The
Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF) and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to initiate an investigation about
the uncertainity connected to NOX emission factors. On behalf of The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF) and the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) SINTEF Energy Research and Novatech AS have revised the work done at SINTEF
and NTNU in the beginning of the 1990’s in order to come up with better estimates for NOX emissions from offshore flares
(/5/, /6/, /7/). The present study also includes validation against measurements on large flares at onshore oil and gas
installations, as well as detailed analysis of flaring from seven offshore installations at the Norwegian continental shelf.

Theory and definitions

Theoretical studies on NOX emissions from turbulent hydrocarbon flames were performed by Williams et al. /8/ and Røkke et
al. /9/. The objective was to establish NOX emission scaling laws based on combustion theory. The theoretical approach was
then verified by comparison with experimental results.

NOX is the sum of NO and NO2 where NO contributes with the major part of these two. There are three different routes to NO
production in a flame; the Zel’dovich (or thermal) mechanism, the prompt mechanism and the nitrous-oxide route. They were
all included in the theoretical model through a reduced chemical-kinetic mechanism accounting for finite-rate chemistry. The
nitrous-oxide route was then shown to be negligible compared with the other two for typical flaring conditions, and was left
out in the final model. The inclusion of finite-rate chemistry lowers the maximum flame temperatures compared to a more
simple and unrealistic assumption of infinite reaction rates that could also have been adopted. This is important due to the high
sensitivity of NO formation rates to flame temperature. Another effect that also reduces peak temperatures is radiant energy
losses. This is not explicitly included in the model because of numerical estimates indicating that this is usually less important
than the finite-rate chemistry. The final scaling law then became:

⎛ u ⎞ 3
(1)
EI NOx ⎜⎜ ρ 0 0 ⎟⎟ = 44 ⋅ Fr 5
⎝ d0 ⎠

Fr = Froude number, u 02 g ⋅ d 0
EI = Emission index, g NOx/kg fuel
ρ0 = Fuel density, kg/m3, at ambient conditions (298 K, 1.013 bar)
u0 = Nozzle outlet velocity, m/s, at ambient conditions
d0 = Nozzle outlet diameter, m

This simple scaling law for turbulent hydrocarbon flames shows that the leading order parameter for the NOX production is the
flame volume. In the model a simplified expression assuming a cylindrical profile gives the volume as V = πR2L. Both the
flame radius R and the flame length L are shown to scale with Fr1/5 /10/. The Froude number Fr is the ratio between the jet
momentum forces and the buoyancy forces of the flare. The flame volume, and therefore also the NOX emission index, will be
proportional to Fr3/5.The expression is unique in the sense that it is based on fundamental aspects of chemistry and flame
structure and still relates emissions of NOX to global or main flow parameters.

Equation 1 can be rewritten so that the emission index is a function of the flow rate and the fuel density (calculated at ambient
nozzle exit conditions).
SPE 111561 3

1 [g NOx/kg fuel] (2)

EI NOX = 11.73 ⋅ m 0.2 ⋅ ρ 0−1.2 = 11.73 ⋅ V00.2 ⋅
ρ0

This means that for a certain flow rate the emission index according to the scaling law is independent of diameter but will
depend on fuel density. I.e. it will depend on the fuel molecular weight. It should be stressed that the last expression is only a
simple rewriting of the theoretical scaling law. Inherent simplifications and uncertainties will prevail also for the rewritten
expression, and also for the statements made thereof.

To validate the theoretical scaling law, experiments were performed with a thermal heat release up to 9 MW. At that time this
was the largest jet diffusion flames where measurements of NOX emissions had been performed. Mainly commercial grade
propane was used in the experiments, but some small scale experiments (<0.7 MW) were also performed with methane,
butane, a methane/propane mixture (50/50 volume %), and propane/oil mixtures. The nozzle diameters ranged from 5 to 50
mm and the exit velocities ranged from 3 to 247 m/s. The nozzle exit Reynolds and Froude number were ranging from 7025 to
908000 and 18 to 417000, respectively. The NOX emission measurements were taken in the post flame region (i.e. above the
flame) with a water-cooled quartz probe. In addition to the NOX concentrations, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2)
and oxygen (O2) concentrations were measured. The results from these experiments were reported and published by Røkke et
al. /9/, /11/, /12/ and Hustad et al. /2/.

The experimental results are shown in Figure 1 together with the theoretical scaling law according to Equation 1. Figure 1
includes also other measurements than performed at SINTEF and NTNU. The agreement between the theory and the
experiments was claimed to be well within theoretical uncertainty /9/. In view of the different phenomena that has to be
considered in developing such a scaling law this was quite successful.

To obtain the NOX emission scaling law in Equation 1 some assumptions and simplifications are made as previously
mentioned. In addition, the experimental verification is extensive at small to medium size flames but rather limited when it
comes to really large flames which can be compared to practical flaring operation. Below, some of these uncertainties and their
implications are discussed.

Flare gas composition

The earlier experimental program has mainly been run on propane, methane and a mixture (50/50 volume %) between those.
The experimental data shows that there is some spread around the theoretical scaling law. E.g. the experimental data for
methane (together with the H2 and CO data) tend to be somewhat lower than predicted by the theoretical law in Equation 1 and
also in general lower than propane data. This can be seen in Figure 1. This is consistent with that methane flame volumes will
be smaller than what is incorporated in the theoretical law as pointed out by Røkke et al. /9/.

A normal North Sea gas will have somewhat more than 80 % methane on a volume basis, or about 70 % on a mass basis. The
molecular weight will be about 20 or a little above. The experimental verifications have not covered normal natural gas, but
for the practical use of the NOX emission scaling law, possible high content of methane should be considered pointing towards
a lower constant value in Equation 1. The same tendency is also shown by Costa et al. /13/. They did similar experimental tests
for methane jet diffusion flames, but for small nozzle diameters of 5 – 8 mm. They did a direct comparison with the methane
data from Røkke et al. /9/ with approximately the same results.

Flow conditions
Each flare burner tip has a specific curve which shows the relation between mass flow rate and flare tip backpressure (the
pressure ratio over the flare tip nozzle) at a specified temperature and molecular weight. At some point the pressure ratio will
be high enough to cause sonic flow condition in the flare tip. From this point on the flare tip velocity will be constant and
equal to the speed of sound. Further increase in mass flow will then be a consequence of increased backpressure causing an
increase in density and so there will be a linear relationship between backpressure and mass flow rate. Generally, for high
pressure (HP) flares, the design rate will be much higher than the value at the sonic point. Above the sonic point we will have
an underexpanded sonic gas jet. These jets are characterised by the existence of one or more shocks known as Mach discs. A
transition region will follow which finally leads to the fully developed flow region where the further jet decay show the same
trend as that of a subsonic jet.

The experimental verifications of the scaling law have been performed on flows that are mostly subsonic and just up to sonic
at the highest velocities. The scaling law includes a density, a velocity and a diameter at the jet outlet (ρ0, u0, d0). The lack of
data for underexpanded jets raises the question of what values to use in such cases. However, also these situations need to be
covered by the scaling law. A proper equivalent jet exit therefore needs to be defined. One approach is to define an equivalent
outflow diameter, de, that carries the actual mass flow rate but still at sonic speed. The equivalent diameter will thus increase
with the increasing mass flow above the sonic point.
4 SPE 111561

Size differences between real flares and the experimental flames

The experimental campaign at SINTEF and NTNU in the early 1990’s were performed on nozzles up to 50 mm diameter and a
heat release rate ranging from 20 kW to 9 MW. Real flares may have tip diameters and a thermal heat release many times this
and introduces the question about scalability between these different sizes. This is an uncertainty which will be difficult to
answer without data from larger test flares.

Furthermore, the scaling law and the experimental verification are based on buoyancy-dominated flames, i.e. the Froude
number should be below a certain value. Røkke et al. /9/ indicates a value of 105 as maximum. A more recent study by Costa et
al. /13/ has performed similar experimental tests for methane jet diffusion flames but for small nozzle diameters of 5 – 8 mm.
They conclude that their results follow the same tendency as in Røkke et al. /9/ but that the limit for going from buoyancy- to
momentum-controlled flames should be about Fr = 104. However, the tests by Costa et al. /13/ are limited with respect to
nozzle diameter and gas density. It is likely that both these parameters affect this limit so that larger diameters and higher
density moves the limit to higher Froude numbers.

Effect of radiation
Radiation plays an important role in relation to flares, and first of all for HSE reasons. The radiant losses for propane flames at
low Froude numbers (buoyancy-controlled) will be about 30% of the total heat release, whereas for high Froude numbers
(momentum-controlled) it may decrease to about 10%. These radiant loss fractions will differ between different gases and will
generally be related to the sooting propensity of the specific gas. Methane, which is more or less non-sooting, will as such
have a lower radiant fraction than propane and other higher hydrocarbons.

Radiation will lower the flame temperature, but in the scaling law (Equation 1) it is not explicitly incorporated because
estimates indicate that it is less important than finite-rate chemistry. Nevertheless, attempts to include radiation in an explicit
way are presented in for example Turns /14/. Radiation is also discussed in Newbold et al. /15/. They compare their small scale
experiments to the data from Røkke et al. /16/ and find very good agreement. They conclude that the EINOx dependence on
Froude number given in Equation 1 can be seen to contain an implicit scaling with flame temperature.

Based on this, an explicit inclusion of radiation should not be necessary for a general hydrocarbon scaling law if it is deducted
for a gas composition which is close to the real one. But in a more detailed treatment where one would like to establish one
law that takes into account a large span of different gases, radiation effects should be included. Then the in-flame soot
production for the different fuel types will be important.

Flare type and condition

The main types of flare tip burners on the Norwegian continental shelf are the pipe flare and the Indair coanda flare. The
advantage of the last one is the partial premixing between air and fuel which will reduce radiation. The deduction of the
theoretical scaling law and the experimental verifications in Røkke et al. /9/, /12/ is based on a regular pipe nozzle without any
premixing of the fuel. As such it should strictly apply only to a regular pipe flare. In addition, Røkke et al. /16/ and Turns /14/
present results with partial premixing of propane with air and nitrogen, respectively. These studies are also based on regular
pipe nozzles. They both conclude that the emission index for propane in fact increases with increased premixing, and that this
may be due to the decrease in radiant heat losses which more than compensates the reduced temperature from the premixing
itself. I.e., the net effect is an increased characteristic flame temperature probably due to reduced soot formation. In Turns /14/
comparison is also made with methane flames. Here a decrease in emission index is observed, consistent with methane being
nonluminous and radiation effects are not that important. This show that the NOX emissions from different flare types will be
the result of a combination of different parameters and that desirable reduction in flare radiation in a HSE point of view may
give rise to increased NOX emissions.

A new scaling law for NOX emissions from flares

The earlier experimental results presented in the former chapter show that there is a spread around the theoretical scaling law.
Some of the uncertainities causing this spread were discussed above. A closer examination of the data in Figure 1 shows that
methane data tends to lie below propane data and that larger nozzle diameters tend to lie below smaller nozzle diameters. This
seems to be a systematic trend. The present work has, therefore, focused on taking the gas density and the nozzle diameter
more properly into account and develop a new scaling law that eliminates this systematic trend. In order to establish a
correlation that on the one hand takes care of different densities and, on the other hand reflects the observed variations in
nozzle diameter, the theoretical scaling law (Equation 1) is put aside and the earlier experimental data are used as a basis for
creating an empirical correlation.

Effect of density
Several of the experiments on methane have corresponding experiments on propane, i.e. the nozzle velocity and nozzle
diameter are identical. This means that the Froude numbers, and also the volumetric flow rates, are identical for these
SPE 111561 5

experiments. Using the theoretical scaling law, Equation 1, one would expect that the NOX emission index should be identical
for both methane and propane experiments on a volume basis (g NOX/Sm3 fuel). However, this is not the case. The
experiments showed that the NOX emissions were nearly identical on a mass basis (g NOX /kg fuel) for these corresponding
experiments. E.g. the experimental data for methane tends to be lower than predicted by the theoretical law in Equation 1. The
effect of gas density is more clearly shown in Figure 2 where experimental data for propane and methane with nozzle
diameters 10 and 15 mm are shown.

The left hand side of the theoretical scaling law, Equation 1, is modified by removing the density and then plot the
experimental data as a function of the Froude number. This is consistent with the first work by Røkke et al. as shown in /10/.
As shown in Figure 3, the data now falls onto a straight line. The scatter between methane and propane has vanished, and in
effect, the emissions are about the same on a mass basis (g NOX /kg fuel) as observed experimentally.

The experimental results from the earlier SINTEF/NTNU tests are then plotted the same way as in Figure 3. This is shown in
Figure 4. The data are then fit to an equation of the form Y = A ⋅ X B . Since the data only shifts up or down because of the
density when going from Figure 1 to Figure 4, the slope of the curve will be equal to the theoretical scaling law, i.e. B=3/5 and
the important dependency of flame volume is still intact. The resulting scaling law then becomes:

⎛u ⎞ 3
EI NOx ⎜⎜ 0 ⎟⎟ = 24 ⋅ Fr 5 (3)
⎝ d0 ⎠

The coefficient of determination (R-squared) is 0.98, indicating a good fit between the scaling law and the experimental data.
Equation 6 can, in the same manner as Equation 1, be rewritten as:

1
EI NOx = 6.4 ⋅ m 0.2 = 6.4 ⋅ V00.2 [g NOx/kg fuel] (4)
ρ 00.2

We now have an emission index in g NOX/kg fuel that only depends on the volumetric flow rate (or the mass flow rate and the
density). No data about flare dimensions etc. need to be known. This scaling law better matches the different gases used in the
experiments than the theoretical scaling law.

Effect of diameter
Figure 4 shows, even more clearly than Figure 1, that larger nozzle diameters tend to lie somewhat below smaller diameters.
As a further improvement we will modify the scaling law given by Equation 3, and seek a scaling law that also takes care of
what seems to be a systematic diameter dependency. It should, however, be stressed that all experiments are small scale
compared to a real flare. Even the largest experimental diameter (50 mm) is an order of magnitude smaller than a real flare.

In a study by Røkke et al. /16/ on partially premixed turbulent propane flames, the emission index was found to scale both with
the Froude number, the mass fraction of fuel in the premixed fuel/air mixture, and the nozzle diameter raised to the power of
0.55. This diameter dependency will also be used in the following treatment. If all the experimental data are plotted according
to this, we find a best fit with a constant value equal to 3.5 compared to 24 in Equation 3. The Froude number is still raised to
the power of 3/5, again indicating the importance of flame volume. The scaling law then becomes:

⎛ u ⎞ 3
EI NOx ⎜⎜ 00.55 ⎟⎟ = 3.5 ⋅ Fr 5 (5)
⎝ d0 ⎠

The coefficient of determination (R-squared) is now 0.99, indicating that the fit between the new scaling law and the
experimental data is improved even more.Equation 5 can, in the same manner as the previous equations, be rewritten as:

1 1 1
EI NOx = 0.93 ⋅ m 0.2 ⋅ ⋅ = 0.93 ⋅ V00.2 ⋅ [g NOx/kg fuel] (6)
ρ 0.2
0 d 0.45
0 d 00.45

Figure 5 shows a comparison of all the experimental data together with Equation 5.

However, as pointed out in Røkke et al. /16/, the expression taking the effect of the diameter into account in this manner was
found by omitting a term that was said to be of importance for larger diameters (above ~100mm). Most real flares have
6 SPE 111561

diameters well above that. The scaling law above therefore needs to be validated against data from large flares. Such a
validation will be presented in the following section.

Validation against measurements from large onshore flares

As pointed out above, a major uncertainity is the large size differences between real flares and the small scale experiments
which the new scaling law is based upon. In order to validate the new scaling law, Equation 5, several onshore oil and gas
processing installations in Norway having flares were contacted and asked to supply data from NOX measurements, if such
data was available. Data were received from four installations. The data received were average values, both for NOX and flare
gas rate for the whole period the measurements were taken. All measurements had been performed by the company
Spectrasyne Ltd using DIAL (DIAL stands for DIfferential Absorption Lidar, and Lidar is an acronym which stands for LIght
Detection And Ranging). A lidar is similar to the more familiar radar, and can be thought of as “a laser radar”.

All measurements were performed at low constant flaring rates. This means that the Froude numbers were very low. The gas
composition ranged from mostly methane to mostly hydrogen, and in some cases also steam assisted flares. The amount of
inert gas (CO2 and N2) also varied considerably. The use of steam in some of the cases complicates the treatment of the data.
Adding steam obviously increases the velocity out of the flare. This increases the Froude number and the volumetric flow rate
without increasing the flow rate of combustible fuel. Also the density decreases in most cases due to the lower density of
steam compared to the fuel. The nozzle outlet diameter of the flares ranged from 0.55 – 1.22 m.

As a first step in validation of the new scaling law, the DIAL-measurements are compared to Equation 3 and the earlier small
scale experiments in Figure 6. The figure shows, with one exception (which has an extremely low flow rate), that the measured
emissions lie below the emissions calculated by Equation 3, and thereby confirms the diameter dependency discussed above.
The DIAL-measurements of the steam assisted flares shown in the figure are only included as a comparison. These
measurements can be plotted in a number of different ways depending on whether the steam is calculated together with the
fuel flow or not. In Figure 6 the emission index for Flare A with steam and Flare C with steam, is calculated as g NOX/kg fuel
and steam, since the total flow of fuel and steam are used as the basis for calculating the Froude number. However, using
steam may also cause an increase in NOX emissions. The reason for this is that steam causes more rapid mixing with air due to
increased velocity, and therefore increased combustion intensity and flame temperatures. Also the heat loss due to radiation is
reduced. This is probably why the data from the steam assisted flares do not differ significantly from the other flares.

The cases most relevant to offshore flaring are the cases where the fuel gas consists of mainly natural gas and no steam or
other large amounts of inerts (Flare A, 86 vol% methane, and Flare D, 75-93 vol% methane). Figure 7 compares the scaling
law given by Equation 5 with only these cases together with the earlier small scale experiments. The figure shows that this
scaling law reproduces NOX emissions from hydrocarbon flares reasonably well. The experiments/measurements cover nozzle
diameters from 5 - 1220 mm.

The use of any of the scaling laws when there are large amounts of steam and inert gas in the fuel gas, is not recommended.
This can be explained by the following. If the total volumetric flow rate of fuel and steam is kept constant and we reduce the
fuel part, the calculated emission index per kg fuel and steam will also be constant. However, the calculated emission index
per kg fuel will increase. In the limiting case of close to zero fuel and mostly steam, the emission index per kg fuel will be
extremely high. This is obviously not correct. This means that the scaling laws are not valid if the flare gas consists of large
amounts of steam or inert gas.

Implications for offshore flares

Daily flaring data together with supplementary information about the reason for flaring, time of flaring, gas density etc. for
seven offshore installations have been analysed. Table 2 gives an overview of the flares analysed, and for what period. The
total volume of gas flared and the number of days with flaring in the period are also shown. Each flare is treated individually,
since the detailing level of the data is different. Through communication with the operator the reason for flaring for each day
has been analysed and the flaring have been divided into the following categories: work, anticipated work, controlled flaring,
continues flaring and blow-down.

Flaring on days that are categorized as “work” or “anticipated work” is assumed to last for 12 hours if no other timeframe is
given by the operator. “Controlled flaring” and “continues flaring” are assumed to last 24 hours. A blow-down is assumed to
last 15 or 30 minutes if no other timeframe is given by the operator. Whether 15 or 30 minutes are used is decided after
discussions with the operator. On this basis the NOX emissions were calculated for each single day, using the new scaling law
given by Equations 5. The data provided by the operators still have various degrees of uncertainties related to parameters such
as gas density, duration of flaring, distribution between LP and HP flare etc. Flaring not categorized as blow-down has been
assumed to have a constant flaring rate for that period. For flaring categorized as blown-down, the flaring rate has been
assumed to follow the shape of a right-angled triangle where the area of the triangle is equal to the total amount of gas flared.
SPE 111561 7

Since the scaling law given by Equation 5 depends on the flare diameter, it has been necessary to obtain the flare diameter for
the different flares. For some flares the diameters are known and for some the diameter has been estimated from drawings. For
two installations flare diameters are unknown. Five of the offshore installations use pipe flares, whereas two use multinozzle
flares. For these two an equivalent pipe flare has been calculated and used for NOX emission calculations. No correction for
nozzle diameter has been done in connection with blow-downs, where the the velocity is sonic and the jet is underexpanded.

Different parameters such as blow-down time, gas density etc. may significantly influence the calculated NOX emissions. The
degree of blow-down is the most important parameter. This includes both blow-down time and the number of blow-downs.
Since the emission index is a function of volumetric flow rate, the emission index will always be high during a blow-down.
Fields having a considerable number of blow-downs and high associated flare gas volumes will therefore have higher emission
indices than other fields.

Another important parameter is the flare gas density which has a significant impact on the calculated NOX emissions. The
density vary from platform to platform, from flaring mode to flaring mode and is also dependent upon the equipment being the
prime source for flaring at any time. Flare gas density or mass is normally not measured along with the daily flare volumes.
However, it can be anticipated with various degree of certainty.

The results are summarized in Table 3 where NOX emissions for the seven installations are calculated with today’s default
factor (12 g/Sm3 fuel), the theoretical scaling law (Equation 1), and the new scaling law (Equation 5). As Table 3 shows, using
the scaling law given by Equation 5 for calculation of NOX emissions cause a reduction of the NOX emissions by 80 - 90%
compared to using today’s Norwegian default factor.

The results presented are based on several assumptions and varying degree of certainty in the background data. The most
important uncertainties are:
• The accuracy of the flare log used to extract flaring data and the reason for flaring.
• The assumptions made in categorisation of the flaring data and the treatment of days with uncertain reason for flaring.
• It is not known whether the periods used for the different fields will be representative in a longer perspective.
• It is neither not known if the fields chosen will correctly represent the whole continental shelf as such.

Based on the calculated values a mean emission factor can be calculated for each installation. This mean factor represents the
gas flaring profiles for the installations in 2004/2005. The factors for the various installations show a variation from 1.16 –
2.36 g NOX/Sm3 gas.

Conclusions
A comprehensive analysis of NOX emissions from offshore flaring has been carried out. This includes analysis of earlier
experimental data and more recent DIAL measurements on onshore flares, and analysis of daily flaring data from seven
offshore installations. The following conclusions can be made:
• A new scaling law solely based on the earlier experimental data is developed.
• The new scaling law takes care of differences in gas density and nozzle diameter better than the theoretical scaling
law.
• Including the effect of flare nozzle diameter in the new scaling law (Equation 5) has been verified by relevant data
from large onshore flares.
• Using the scaling law given by Equation 5 to calculate the NOX emissions from five offshore installations gives
emission indices from 1.16 – 2.36 g NOX/Sm3 gas with a mean overall value of 2.0 g NOX/Sm3 gas.
• The calculated NOX emission indices from the five installations are of the same order as emission factors used in
other comparable countries (1.0-1.5 g NOX/Sm3 flare gas).
• The validation of the new scaling law by large scale measurements is also an important verification of NOX emission
factors used in other countries.
• The new scaling law is suitable for inclusion in a simple PEMS system since the emission index is a function of the
volumetric flow rate only for a specific flare. The nozzle diameter is a constant in the equation, and the density can
also be assumed to be a constant, at least for a certain periode. The constant density can be updated as the gas
composition changes over time.
• Based on the present study The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has suggested a new emission factor that is
consistent with factors used in other comparable countries for reporting NOX emissions from offshore flaring. The
suggested factor is 1.2 g NOX/Sm3 flare gas.
8 SPE 111561

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF) and The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD)
for financing this work and their collaboration and effort in collecting data from offshore flares and onshore flares. The authors
also wish to thank the oil companies that have supplied data both from offshore and onshore flares.

References
1. "Gas Flaring Analysis", OLF-report, OLF Environmental Programme, Aker Engineering a.s, (Feb. 1992).
2. Hustad, J.E., Jacobsen, M., Røkke, N.A., ”Emissions of non CO2-greenhouse gases from flares”, SINTEF report
STF15 F92031 (1992).
3. ”Veiledning til Vedlegg til Opplysningspliktforskriften; Krav til rapportering fra offshore petroleumsvirksomhet på
Norsk Kontinentalsokkel (in Norwegian)”, OLF-report (2004).
4. The US Environmental Protection Agency guidance document AP42, Section 13.5
5. Langørgen, Ø., Bakken, J., Husdal, G., ”NOX-emissions from offshore flares. A pre-study on the uncertainity in the
reported values” SINTEF Energy research report TR F6077 (2005).
6. Bakken, J., Husdal G., Langørgen, Ø., “A new method for calculating NOX emissions from offshore flares”, SINTEF
Energy Research report TR F6208 (2005).
7. Bakken, J., Husdal G., Henriksen, T.S., Langørgen, Ø., “Verification of scaling laws for calculating NOX emissions
from offshore flares”, SINTEF Energy Research report TR F6405 (2007).
8. Williams, F.A., Gordon, A.S., Libby, P.A., Røkke, N.A., Hustad, J.E., Sønju, O.K., ”Emissions from flares”, SINTEF
report STF15 F90056 (1990).
9. Røkke, N.A., Hustad, J.E., Sønju, O.K., Williams, F.A., ”Scaling of nitric oxide emissions from buoyancy-dominated
hydrocarbon turbulent-jet diffusion flames”, 24th Symposium (international) on Combustion, The Combustion
Institute (1992) 385-393.
10. Sønju, O.K., Hustad, J.E., ”An experimental study of turbulent jet diffusion flames”, Dynamics of flames and reactive
systems: AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, New York (1984) 95.
11. Røkke, N.A., Hustad, J.E., Sønju, O.K., ”Experimental studies of NOX emissions from turbulent propane jet diffusion
flames”, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Combustion Technologies for a Clean Environment,
Portugal (1991).
12. Røkke, N.A., Hustad, J.E., Jacobsen, M., ”Emissions from buoyancy dominated gas and gas/oil turbulent-jet diffusion
flames”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Combustion Technologies for a Clean Environment,
Portugal (1993).
13. Costa, M., Parente, C., Santos, A., “Nitrogen oxides emissions from buoyancy and momentum controlled turbulent
methane jet diffusion flames”, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science (2004) 28.
14. Turns, S.R., “Understanding NOx formation in nonpremixed flames: Experiments and modelling”, Progress in Energy
and Combustion Science (1995) 21.
15. Newbold, G.J.R., Nathan, G.J., Nobes, D.S., Turns, S.R., ”Measurement and prediction of NOx emissions from
unconfined propane flames from turbulent-jet, bluff-body, swirl, and precessing jet burners”, 28th Symposium
(international) on Combustion, The Combustion Institute (2000).
16. Røkke, N.A., Hustad, J.E., Sønju, O.K., ”A study of partially premixed unconfined propane flames”, Combustion and
Flame (1994) 97.
SPE 111561 9

Tables

Table 1 Summary of NOX emission factors used in different countries

# Country Emission factor Unit Equivalent factor in Refers to
3
kg NOX/Sm flare gas
3
1 Norway 0.012 kg/Sm 0.012
6
2 United States 0.068 Lb NOX/10 BTU 0.0010 – 0.0015
3
3 Canada 0.001345 kg NOX/Sm 0.00135 2
4 Australia (oil and gas) 0.0015 kg NOX/kg 0.0010 – 0.0015
5 Australia (refinery) 0.029 kg NOX/GJ 0.0010 – 0.0015 2
6 EU (refinery) 3.22 ×10-2 × NCV kg/tonne 0.0010 – 0.0015 2
3
7 EU (oil and gas) 0.012 kg NOX/Sm 0.012 1
8 UK (current) 0.0012 kg/kg 0.009 – 0.0014
9 UK (new) 0.001368 kg/kg 0.0010 – 0.0015 2
3
10 Netherland 0.00128 kg/Nm 0.00128

Table 2: Overview of flares, time period of analysis and flare gas volume
Installation Period Days with Total flared volume
3
flaring (Sm )
Installation 1 2004-01-01 to 2005-05-31 326 19 624 904
(HP and LP flare together)
Installation 2 2004-01-01 to 2004-12-31 352 2 618 551
(WAG, HP and LP flare separately)
Installation 3 2004-11-01 to 2005-05-31 65 2 755 040
(HP and LP flare together)
Installation 4 (*) 2004-06-01 to 2005-05-31 269 26 006 724
(HP and LP flare separately)
Installation 5 2004-01-01 to 2005-04-30 431 6 058 894
(HP and LP flare separately)
Installation 6 2004-01-01 to 2005-04-29 142 9 804 470
(HP and LP flare separately)
Installation 7 2005-04-01 to 2005-06-30 91 2 153 003
(HP flare)
th th
(*) Between 20 of August and 26 of November 2004 the gas export was down because of repair of the export pipe.
3
The whole production was flared amounting to 21.8 millions Sm for that period. This explains the high flared volume for Installation 4.

Table 3: Summary of NOX emissions and reduction based on the new scaling law
compared to the Norwegian default factor.
Flare Flare gas volume / Norwegian Theoretical New scaling law Reduction
mass default factor scaling law (Eq. 5) compared to
3 3 3
[Sm ] / [kg] (12 g/Sm ) (Eq. 1) 12 g/Sm
tonnes tonnes tonnes %
6 6
Installation 1 19.6 * 10 / 16.7 * 10 235 530 46.3 -80
6 6
Installation 2 2.6 * 10 / 2.5 * 10 31 21 n.a. n.a.
6 6
Installation 3 2.8 * 10 / 2.5 * 10 33 32 3.2 -90
6 6
Installation 4 26.0 * 10 / 24.2 * 10 312 374 46.4 -85
6 6
Installation 5 6.1 * 10 / 7.1 * 10 73 80 n.a. n.a.
6 6
Installation 6 9.8 * 10 / 10.8 * 10 118 154 22.8 -80
6 6
Installation 7 2.2 * 10 / 1.8 * 10 26 38 2.9 -89
6 6 ) )
SUM 69.1 * 10 / 65.6 * 10 828 1229 121.6* -83*
*) For Installations 1,3,4,6,7
10 SPE 111561

Figures

Figure 1: Comparison of measurements and the theoretical scaling law (Røkke et. al /9/).

1 000 000
Methane d=10mm
Methane d=15mm
100 000 Propane d=10mm
Propane d=15mm
EI*ρ0*u0/d0 (g/(m *s))
3

10 000

1 000

100

10
10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000
Froude number

Figure 2: Propane and methane experiments with 10 and 15 mm nozzles plotted on volume basis.
SPE 111561 11

1 000 000
Methane d=10mm
Methane d=15mm
100 000 Propane d=10mm
Propane d=15mm
EI*u0/d0 (g/(kg*s))

10 000

1 000

100

10
10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000
Froude number

Figure 3: Propane and methane experiments with 10 and 15 mm nozzles plotted on mass basis.

1 000 000
Methane d=10mm

Methane d=15mm
100 000
Propane d=5mm

Propane d=10mm
EI*u0/d0 (g/(kg*s))

10 000 Propane d=15mm

Propane d=17mm

Propane d=30mm
1 000
Propane d=50mm

Butane d=10mm
100 Propane/methane
50/50 d=10mm
24*Fr^(0.6)

10
10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000
Froude number

Figure 4: Comparison of measurements and the scaling law given by Equation 2.

12 SPE 111561

100 000
Methane d=10mm

Methane d=15mm

Propane d=5mm
10 000
Propane d=10mm

Propane d=15mm
0,55
EI*u0/d0

1 000 Propane d=17mm

Propane d=30mm

Propane d=50mm

100 Butane d=10mm

Propane/methane
50/50 d=10mm
3.5*Fr^(0.6)

10
10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000
Froude number

Figure 5: Comparison of measurements and the scaling law given by Equation 5.

1,E+06 Methane d=10mm

Methane d=15mm

Propane d=5mm

Propane d=10mm
1,E+04 Propane d=15mm

Propane d=17mm
EI*u0/d0 (g/(kg*s))

Propane d=30mm

Propane d=50mm
1,E+02 Butane d=10mm

Propane/methane 50/50
d=10mm
24*Fr^(0.6)

Flare A
1,E+00 Flare A - with steam

Flare B

Flare C - with steam

Flare D
1,E-02
1,E-04 1,E-02 1,E+00 1,E+02 1,E+04 1,E+06
Froude number

Figure 6: Onshore measurements compared to earlier small scale experiments and the new scaling law given by Equation 6.
SPE 111561 13

1,E+06 Methane d=10mm

Methane d=15mm

Propane d=5mm

Propane d=10mm
1,E+04 Propane d=15mm

Propane d=17mm

Propane d=30mm
0,55

Propane d=50mm
EI*u0/d0

1,E+02
Butane d=10mm

Propane/methane 50/50
d=10mm
3.5*Fr^(0.6)

Flare A
1,E+00
Flare D

1,E-02
1,E-04 1,E-02 1,E+00 1,E+02 1,E+04 1,E+06

Froude number

Figure 7: Onshore measurements compared to earlier small scale experiments and the new scaling law given by Equation 5. Flares
with mainly hydrocarbon fuels (steam assisted flares excluded).