I'm sizing a relief valve for a gas-liquid separator, which belongs to a petroleum production field. I was initially considering the maximum estimated flow for the field (something around 200000 Sm3/d of gas) as the check valve's relief capacity, but one of my superiors said that it should be designed to relieve the maximum capacity of the vessel (~ 500000 Sm3/d) instead. Just based on your numbers of 150000 and 500000 you are close to the limit of being unacceptably oversized. Considering that the valve you get to handle the 500000 will have some greater capacity then this will make the situation even worse relative to your current needs. If you have multiple relief cases to consider with widely varying rates, then multiple relief valve installation with staggered set points should be considered. If you are having to make modifications to your equipment to install your relief system and you install relief capacity only for your current needs, you may want to consider making your equipment modifications so that you can more easily increase you relief capacity later if that is a concern for your superiors.

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