Currently our SAGD plant's VRU is down and we are flaring. We use fuel gas to blanket our produced water tanks but we're interested in reducing the flow rates while the VRU is down so as not to contribute to flaring. Our DBM reccomends a flow rate that is sufficient to completely purge the volume above the liquid every 8 hours. No explanation of this 8 hr requirement is given and I'm wondering if its not just an arbitrary number. Can anyone offer some advice on appropriate purge rates? The tanks are also equipped with pressure regulator valves for protection during rapid level changes.I'm not dwelling on semantics or proper English; I want to make sure we understand what it is that you want to do so that we can suggest a safe and operable solution. You title this thread as "blanket gas" and yet you refer to "purging" the gas. Blanket gas is theoretically a static volume of gas maintained over stored liquid. In real-world applications the blanket gas has to be vented (when liquid level rise) or replenished (when liquid levels fall) in order to maintain a stable blanket gas pressure over the liquid. Knowing this basic fact, why would anyone want to "purge" the blanket gas out on a timely basis instead of on level demand? - especially over something as basic as produced water from a gas well. It doesn't make sense without further explanation or details.I've designed and operated a lot of tanks with either Nitrogen or Natural Gas Blanketing systems and I've never employed a "purge" of the gas blanket. Therefore, I'm curious to find out the reason for this requirement. Ask your "DBM" for the reason and let us know. Maybe we can all learn something new.

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