Vapor Recovery Unit

A vapor recovery unit (VRU) is a small compressor package piped to the vapor space of stock tanks or process vessels. It pulls flash and working vapors, knocks out liquids in a scrubber, compresses the gas, and sends it to a sales line or fuel system. The point is to keep BTU-rich vapors in the pipe instead of the atmosphere.

Permian tank batteries see large daily vapor swings as tanks fill, trucks load, and separators dump. A VRU that cannot follow that curve will bypass to a flare or combustor, or it will trip. That is why inlet scrubbing, recycle, and controls matter as much as nameplate horsepower.

Redhead Services supplies vapor recovery units for production facilities. When the vapor stream is too lean or too erratic to sell, an enclosed combustor is often the control device instead of, or in addition to, a VRU.