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Flare tip leakage is too hot to handle for the competition

James Knights • March 7, 2025

Pipeotech was called upon to provide a solution for Flare Tip flange leak in the North Sea.


A North Sea Operator came to Pipeotech with a problem affecting a Flare line on their platform. This was due to the dynamic operating conditions caused by a phenomenon called internal burning.


This occurs when the internal flare line stabilizes inside the flare tip, at temperatures around 400c, and cannot be driven out without a substantial increase in flaring rates. During blowdown the tip is quenched down to -50c and this rapid change in temperature provides a huge challenge for any traditional gasket to seal for a long period of time.

Pipeotech were asked if they had any alternatives that could be offered to cope with the dynamic operating conditions and they were only too pleased to look at this challenging application. The product offered as the solution was the DeltaV-Seal™. This gasket solution is a revolutionary new design offering clients an all in one, metal-to-metal seal that can be used in raised faced, as well as flat-faced flanges.


The DeltaV-Seal is precisely engineered and machined with a triple ring configuration that conforms to the flange face. These provide an extremely tight and reliable metal to metal seal even at very high temperatures.


Since the gasket is all metal (manufactured from the same material as the flange), the gasket contracts and expands at the same rate as the flange material during thermal fluctuations, providing a tighter seal than other gaskets. These benefits led the operator to purchase the 20" 150lb Delta-V Seal gaskets and installed them in July 2018.

5-years on

In 2023 Pipeotech contacted the operator, who confirmed the gasket remains in place with absolutely no issues to date. The operator is now looking for other locations where traditional gaskets requrie regular replacement and the DeltaV-Seal can provide significant maintenance savings.

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.

DeltaV-Seal - Reducing fugitive emissions in the Permian Basin

By 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.

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.
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