EXPANSION BELLOWS
FOR HYDROCARBON

Belman engineered and manufactured six Lateral Flexible Bellows with tie rods for installation in a petrochemical facility in Hungary.

CLIENT ISSUES
The client needed six replacement expansion joints for a piping system where the media was hydrocarbon, an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. The existing Expansion Bellows had reached the end of their service life, and the client needed a supplier that could offer them the same design solution but designed to meet the latest EJMA standard.

BELMAN SOLUTION – cost-efficient solution according to the latest standard
Belman designed the Expansion Joints not only to meet the specifications, but also optimised them to the latest EJMA standard. Naturally, the Expansion Bellows were designed to ensure a long service life and smooth operation. The existing solution was equipped with an inner sleeve, but as it involved a gaseous medium with a very low flow velocity, Belman advised the client to choose an expansion joint design without an inner sleeve in order to achieve a cost-efficient expansion joint solution.
The expansion bellows for hydrocarbon are a double-bellow design with an intermediate pipe made from the same material. The double bellows allow the absorption of larger lateral movements. The tie rods are placed to control the absorption of both movement and loads without transferring pressure thrust onto the fix points. Some of the expansion joints (3 pcs.) are designed to absorb axial compression as well, although not in combination with lateral movement.

Belman Expansion Joints for hydrogen and hydrocarbon
The media is hydrocarbon, which is derived from crude oils such as benzine, paraffin, diesel and many others. Many of the petrochemical facilities have begun upgrading their cracking towers to be able to extract hydrogen, known as black or brown hydrogen. Regardless of the media in the pipeline and the location in the petrochemical facility, Belman is highly experienced and can help the clients by providing Expansion Joint designs for various applications.

Belman – expertise in Expansion Joints for petrochemical facilities
Throughout the years, Belman has supplied numerous Expansion Bellows for many different applications in petrochemical facilities, such as: Expansion Joints for hydrogen, FCC Expansion Joints for fluid catalytic cracking, Tank Farm Bellows for installation as a flexible connection between tanks and manifold, Expansion Joints for oil platforms, and many more. This means Belman is highly experienced in designs that comply with different country, client and industry-specific standards and specifications such as Axens, Norsok, ASME and many others – making Belman the go-to supplier for tailored expansion bellows for petrochemical facilities.