Valve is a widely used equipment that can be found almost anywhere,valves are active in streets, houses, power plants and paper mills, refineries, and various infrastructure and industrial facilities.
What are the seven industries in which valves are commonly used and how do they use valves:
1. Power industry
Many power plants use fossil fuels and high-speed turbines to generate electricity. Gate valves are preferred for power plant on/off applications. Sometimes other valves are used, such as Y globe valves.
High-performance ball valves are widely used in the power industry.
Power plant applications place pipes and valves under tremendous pressure, so valves require strong materials and designs to withstand multiple test of cycles, temperatures, and pressures.
In addition to the main steam valve, the power plant has a number of auxiliary pipes. These auxiliary pipes consist of various globe valves, butterfly valves, check valves, ball valves and gate valves.
2. Water works
Water plants require relatively low pressure levels and ambient temperatures.
Because the water temperature is room temperature, rubber seals and elastomers that are not suitable elsewhere can be used. These types of materials can achieve sealed installation of water valves to prevent water leakage.
Valves in waterworks typically have pressures well below 200psi, therefore, there is no need for high pressure, wall thickness pressure design. Unless you need to use a valve at a high pressure point in a dam or a long waterway, a built-in water valve may be required to withstand pressure of around 300psi.
3. Offshore industry
The pipeline system of offshore production facilities and oil drilling platforms contains a large number of valves. These valve products have a variety of specifications that can cope with all flow control problems.
The key part of oil production facilities is the natural gas or oil recovery pipeline system. This system is not only used on the platform, its production system is usually used at 10,000 feet or greater depth.
On larger oil platforms, more processing of crude oil from the wellhead is required. These processes include the separation of gas ( natural gas ) from fluid vapor and the separation of water from hydrocarbons.
These systems usually use ball valves and check valves and API 6D gate valves. API 6D valves are not suitable for applications with strict requirements on pipelines, and are generally used in internal facilities pipelines on drilling ships or platforms.
4. Wastewater treatment
The wastewater pipeline collects waste solids and fluids and directs them to the wastewater treatment plant. Sewage treatment plants use low-pressure pipelines and valves to work. In many cases, the requirements for wastewater valves are more relaxed than those for clean water.
Check valves and iron gates are the most popular choices in wastewater treatment.
5. Oil and gas production
Gas wells and oil wells and their production facilities use many heavy valves. Underground natural gas and oil have great pressure, oil and gas can be sprayed into the air 100 meters high.
The combination of valves and special accessories can withstand pressures above 10,000 psi. This pressure is rare on land and is more common in deep-sea oil wells.
Valves for wellhead equipment are subjected to high temperature and high pressure. Valve piping combinations usually contain special globe valves ( called throttle valves ) and gate valves. A special stop valve is used to adjust the flow from the well.
In addition to the wellhead, there are also facilities that require valves in natural gas and oil fields. These include process equipment for pretreatment of natural gas or oil. These valves are usually made of low grade carbon steel.
6. Pipelines
Many important valves are used in these pipes : for example, emergency pipe stop valves. The emergency valve can isolate a pipe for maintenance or leakage.
There are also scattered facilities along the pipeline : this is where the pipeline is exposed from the ground, this is the equipment used to inspect and clean the production line. These stations contain multiple valves, which are usually ball valves or gate valves. The valve of the piping system must be fully open to allow the drainage equipment to pass.
7. Commercial buildings
There are a large number of pipelines in the standing commercial buildings. After all, every building needs water and electricity. For water, there must be a variety of piping systems to transport water, wastewater, hot water and fire protection facilities.
In addition, in order to make the fire protection system work normally, they must have sufficient pressure. The type and category of the fire assembly valve must be approved by the corresponding management agency before installation.
Post time: Feb-08-2023