Chariots of Fire...

Such an inspirational song ......

While they won't let me take photos while in the refinery area, they can't prevent me from taking them from the street ;-) With all that's going on this song reminds me to keep up the good fight and don't give up... Been a very long night and great morning, especially with a nice walk..

For those geeks that wonder about that flame....

The tower that has a constant burning flame is called a Flare Stack. In very simple terms, it is  just like the burner of a gas stove with a controlled burning of natural gas though its pilot burners. It is the last line of safety/defense for refineries, petrochemical and gas processing plants. 

 The flare system consists of the Flare Stack and a flare header. A very large network of pipes coming from the different processes feed into the header. Whenever there is an upset or an emergency situation, all the extremely flammable hydrocarbons need to be vented out. But these cannot be just put in the atmosphere like the steam from our food pressure cookers. A vapor cloud would be extremely hazardous and catastrophic. To ensure that these escaping gases get burned to Carbon dioxide and water vapor, a flame is always kept burning on the top. It is a  necessary evil (waste of gas). 

The location of a fire stack is also very important. It is located far away from the main processing complex in the downwind direction. It is very tall so that radiation heat may not affect people and equipments.