DeltaV-Seal - Reducing fugitive emissions in the Permian Basin

James Nights • March 14, 2025

The United States Clean Air Act (CAA) is the comprehensive federal law regulating emissions from stationary and mobile sources.



Among other things the CAA authorises the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA) to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect the public health and public welfare as well as regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. The DeltaV-Seal effectively removes fugitive emissions fugitive emissions from connections, this case study details how.

Background

A report by the EPA (EPA-453/R-95-017) highlighted that the percentage of fugitive emissions coming from connectors (including bolted flange joints) accounts for 31% of emissions within a typical refinery or chemical plant.


The simplest way for an operator to reduce emissions by nearly a third and help avoid fines would be to stop emissions from connectors. The DeltaV-Seal flange gasket is precission engineered to provide a tight and durable seal , ensuring effectively zero fugitive emissions for the lifetime of a bolted flange joint.

Industry Challenges

Legacy gasket technologies leak, this leakage rate only increases as the installed gaskets degrade with time. With the EPA having the power to fine operators for their emissions using the Clean Air Act, any effort made to reduce emissions can help operators a void fines.


Operators schedule turn-arounds to change gaskets and maintain equipment. As technology advances, equipment becomes more reliable with greater available uptime. As equipment becomes more reliable the gasket can become the weak point in the system, increasing emissions or leading to unplanned shut downs, now resulting in emissions fines relating to the CAA.

Solutions

Metal-to-metal seals are proven to be tight and durable for decades . However, traditional (RTJ) fully-metallic seals are known to damage flanges and be sensitive to installation conditions, including surface roughness. The DeltaV-Seal has been expertly engineered, independently tested, and is precision machined to provide the tightness and durability of a metal-to-metal seal, with the ease of use and installation of traditional semi-metallic gaskets .


The DeltaV-Seal is suitable for use on ASME B16.5 raised face and flat face flanges, without causing damage to the flange face. The DeltaV-Seal provides industries with a metal-to-metal seal which is simple to install, durable for the lifetime of the bolted flange joint, and able to help operators prevent fines for fugitive emissions . No additional considerations are required compared to traditional semi-metallic gaskets.

Join Us at the 15th European Pressure Equipment Symposium

May 14, 2025
We are excited to announce our participation in the 15th European Pressure Equipment Symposium, taking place on July 1–2, 2025 , in Fürstenfeldbruck , near Munich. Our team will be on-site as exhibitors, and we warmly invite you to visit our booth and connect with our colleagues Andrew Patrick, Jan Oredsson and Erlend Berntsen. This event offers a great opportunity to exchange ideas, learn about the latest developments in the field, and explore how we can support your goals. To learn more about the event, please visit: www.tuvsud.com/akademie/europaeische-druckgeraetetage We look forward to welcoming you in Fürstenfeldbruck!

Replacing legacy gasket technology to increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs

By James Knights • March 17, 2025
Fertilizers are critical to enable the growing global population to be fed. Ongoing increases in energy prices, particularly methane, have made the cost of manufacturing nitrogen and ammonia-based fertilizers particularly high. Anything a manufacturer can do to reduce costs, reduce NOX emissions, and increase reliability has a positive global impact, ensuring a secure and long-term food supply while at the same time increasing reliability and reducing maintenance costs.

Replacing legacy semi-metallic gasket technology to prevent emissions of hazardous chemicals

By James Knights • March 17, 2025
Ammonium Nitrate is a challenging chemical to seal, in addition to being extremely hazardous. When Ammonium Nitrate emissions escape from bolted flange joints it crystalizes. These crystals of Ammonium Nitrate are a safety hazard and undesirable. Further to this the Ammonium Nitrate crystals can form inside the pipe, reducing flow and productivity. To remove the crystals of Ammonium Nitrate inside the piping, steam cleaning is utilized. This increases the degradation of legacy semi-metallic gaskets leading to an increased leakage rate, which results in more emissions, more crystals, and a cycle of avoidable costly maintenance.

Replacing legacy gasket technology to prevent the ingress of oxygen into a vacuum system

By James Knights • March 17, 2025
A leading chemical manufacturer sought a superior gasket to replace the current semi-metallic gasket utilized throughout this specific vacuum system. For this system it is crucial to prevent oxygen from entering the vacuum system as it would cause oxidation of the piping contents and compromise the entire batch of chemicals, leading to it being wasted. The DeltaV-Seal, known for its tightness and durability, prevents oxygen from entering the system through the bolted flange joints. This ensures that the product passed through the piping system is not contaminated by oxygen from the bolted flange joints, providing a superior quality end product.

COMSOL Multiphysics FEA Modelling of Gasketed Bolted Flange Joints

By James Knights • March 14, 2025
Imagine a future where in extreme environments it is possible to model and simulate a gaskets performance and know the lifetime of a bolted flange joint, sealed with a DeltaV-Seal. Pipeotech's Engineering and Technical team have been working to make the modelling and simulation of a gasket a possibility. Being able to simulate the performance of a bolted flange joint, and provide a defined lifetime has huge financial benefit to industry, maximising the time between turnarounds, extracting maximum value from their assets.

The simple replacement for Spiral Wound and Kammprofile gaskets

By James Knigjt • March 14, 2025
The DeltaV-Seal gasket replaces spiral wound and Kammprofile gaskets with a metal-to-metal seal without any of the challenges of traditional sealing technologies. As a metal-to-metal seal the leakage rate is extremely low, preventing fugitive emissions and ensuring we all breathe cleaner air.
More Posts