Operators are under increasing pressure to reduce fugitive emissions for both onshore and offshore assets in order to achieve their core imperatives of safe operations and minimum downtime. Severn realises the role they play in today’s climate conscious world to help reduce and eliminate fugitive emissions from valves. Utilising the engineering heritage and extensive knowledge in severe service applications, Severn ensures it can offer the most suitable product for the end user.

Through Severn’s ‘Repair Intelligence’ and close operating relationships with end user operators, Severn has been able to understand the difficulties facing operations in the specification, purchasing and servicing of Control, Choke and Butterfly valves that are critical to reducing fugitive emissions across industrial facilities. Severn prides itself in offering technical solutions that perform no matter how severe or critical the application is. Ensuring that the end user gains the best valve performance and reduced maintenance costs over the lifecycle of the valve.

It has long been understood that approximately 60% of fugitive emissions come from valves. Even more so 80% of those emissions are related to the stem/shaft seal. Naturally, the focus is on this area with the relative fugitive emissions standards such as API 622 and ISO 15848. What is often misunderstood is the requirement for the standards to be applicable across varying temperature and pressure differentials. For this reason, Severn has 43 different certificates for sealing systems in valves based on their application requirements, up to 10,000 Psi and 425ºC. By utilising a range of materials from filled graphite through to custom PTEE-based compounds, Severn has, coupled with novel packing designs, been able to achieve tighter leakage rates that had previously been achieved with standard packing sets.

It is vital for the end user to understand the leakage class requirements when fugitive emissions are concerned to prevent over or underspecifying the solution. We often see “fugitive emissions” specified without clarification of the requirements. The various requirements from TUV through API and ISO specifications require different testing methodologies and even different testing mediums. This means that the testing standards are not directly comparable to each other. Severn often see the specification of “Low-e” or “Low emission” packing without reference to the specification. In some instances, these packing sets can have allowable leakage of up to 500ppm, many times that of systems tested to the ISO 15848-1 standard and potentially resulting in detrimental reduced on-site performance and / or higher maintenance costs.

Severn understands the ongoing challenges operators face with reducing and eliminating fugitive emissions and have created a technical solution with the design of its Oblique Cone Technology Triple Offset Butterfly Valve.

Severn has focused and will continue to focus its testing efforts on ISO 15848 standards as it is understood that these offer the widest range of qualification options whilst not utilising harmful greenhouse gases that can be emitted using some API methodology. The fact that sealing systems are tested on the valves they are designed for and not a standard test fixture ensures maximum customer confidence in our products performance and reliability.

Severn have focused on passing some of the most stringent testing with class A leakage classes and up to 40,000 operations available for some applications. Ensuring that performance is at the heart of our product range, and you achieve your core remit of safe operations and minimum downtime.

To further the commitment to reducing fugitive emissions and reduce the burden on end users to meet tightening specifications, Severns OCT Triple Offset Butterfly Valve offers the fugitive emissions packing sets as standard fitment on all standard valves in the range. Ensuring that the end user experiences maximum valve performance in all applications.

Operators are under increasing focus on reducing fugitive emissions control for both onshore and offshore assets, to reduce harmful emission to achieve their core imperatives of safe operations, regulatory compliance, and minimum downtime across critical process industries.

Fugitive emissions is a hot topic that will only become more critical in today’s environmentally conscious energy and process industries. Fugitive emissions are a gas or vapour leak, normally due to poor valve maintenance, inadequate valve sealing solutions, or packing sets being utilised without a true understanding of the application. This can lead to valve performance issues, increased unplanned downtime, and a variety of costly and detrimental failures impacting operational reliability and asset integrity.

How are Severn meeting the challenges of emission control?

Severn have been investing a significant amount of research and development (R&D) in emission reduction technologies to address fugitive emissions in control valves and their specific valve application requirements. By utilising a range of materials from filled graphite through to custom PTFE‑based packing compounds, Severn have, coupled with innovative valve packing designs, been able to achieve tighter leakage rates than previously achieved with standard packing sets.

We have reduced control valve emission leaks to a minimum across our whole control valve product range, without impacting valve performance, process controllability, or long‑term valve reliability.

The performance of valves fitted with fugitive emission sealing systems is a critical consideration for operators within oil and gas, petrochemical, power generation, and process plant operations. Traditionally, compression packings were simply tightened to ensure the seals were effective. This practice increases friction, reducing valve control accuracy, limiting process efficiency, and potentially leading to premature valve failure or total valve shutdown.

Thanks to extensive valve testing and qualification programmes carried out as part of Severn’s ongoing product research and development, we now have packing sets that achieve ISO 15848‑1 fugitive emissions classes A, B & C with valve processes from ‑196°C to +425°C and at pressures up to 10,000 PSI on both linear and rotary control valves.

A critical consideration is that the operation cycles required for an isolation valve to meet ISO 15848‑1 compliance can be as few as 201 cycles, while a control valve must achieve at least 20,000 cycles. This makes the reliability of the valve sealing system a significant consideration and often necessitates a specifically engineered fugitive emission packing system.

It is essential that the correct valve specification is identified from the outset. Severn’s valve application experts are on hand to support this process, drawing upon our unrivalled bank of control valve performance data, failure analysis history, and real‑world operating insight that forms part of Severn’s Repair Intelligence™ capability.

By working closely with the client and implementing over 60 years of valve engineering excellence, control valve expertise, and sealing system knowledge, Severn ensures that true application needs are identified. This guarantees that correct valve components are utilised, avoiding packing sets that are unsuitable for the operating conditions and which could otherwise lead to significant valve performance degradation and increased emissions.

Implementing these structured procedures and collaborating closely with the client helps to achieve lower fugitive emissions across the valve population, supporting clients’ commitments to environmental compliance, emissions reduction targets, and global initiatives following COP26 climate commitments.

Severn also offers the ability to utilise its significant expertise in high‑integrity valve sealing systems to retrofit existing control valves from all major OEMs, upgrading them with advanced low‑emission packing solutions without replacing the entire valve assembly.

Meeting the challenge of fugitive emissions is just one of many ways we help our clients achieve their core operational imperatives — safe operations, process efficiency, and maximum plant uptime.

If you are experiencing valve performance issues, emission compliance challenges, or sealing failures that are affecting your production capabilities, contact our control valve specialists today via the button below.

Speak to our control valve and fugitive emissions specialists to improve compliance, extend valve life, and reduce unplanned downtime.