Engineering Out Hazards: Ensuring Petroleum Surface Facility Safety - Research Paper

Introduction

Petroleum Surface facilities emergency plans and safety is one of the most important aspects that ought to be put into many considerations to eliminate the cases of human injuries, equipment failures and lost production as well as harming the environment. This requires effective strategies and plans in the engineering works and designing these facilities. Therefore, the better aspect to this crisis is prevention that is "engineering out hazards. " the following discussion describes the safety strategies and plans that need to be incorporated by engineers and designers in building safe facilities are less prone to causing injuries and environmental harm. These may include laying out the site for safety, specifying rotating equipment for safety pumps, relief system design, designing the instrumentation and control system for safety and conducting a process hazard analysis.

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Lay Out the Site for Safety

This involves making a layout on a paper, that is, a well-structured image layout of the facility (a well-drawn plan) of the site and the respective equipment needed for installation of the facility. The procedure should involve the locating of most hazardous equipment of the site as the priority. This equipment may include vents that discharge flammable and poisonous gases that should be constructed downwind as well as being improvised with accidental ignitions. More so, the vents should not discharge the gases in human or animals habited areas. The discharge by the vents should not be closer to the equipment or any public receptors that they may cause harmful effects to. This is because if the discharge is made to human habited areas, it may cause hazardous injuries and death. Furthermore, the discharge of flammable gases to some areas that are prone to fire may cause disastrous fire accidents.

The engineers should also consider the possible effects of ignition failures as well as determining the results and chances of flame failure to human health and the environment. There should be stringent observance and adherence to the flare and vent design standards while setting up the facility (Johnstone & Curfew 2012). The next procedure should involve locating the fire process equipment such as glycol reboilers which are associated with flames and should be located away from flammable hydrocarbons. The other equipment to be reconsidered is the engines and rotating equipment should be situated away from hydrocarbons and ignitions. Other facilities to be considered in setting the plot site are the separators, electronic control equipment, and the facility offices.

Specifying Rotating Equipment for Safety Pumps

Specification of rotating equipment for safety pumps is also an important aspect of safety strategies and planning component. For instance, specifications should be used depending on the temperature levels and intrinsic reliabilities. The discharge pipes of the pumps should have relief valves to regulate and control overpressure in the piping as well as preventing the backflow. There should also be an integration of high and low-pressure switch to alert the operators. The equipment should be equipped with pressure safety valve (PSV) on the discharge of centrifugal pumps to help regulate and control the discharge when the pumps heat up, because the high temperatures may cause sealing failures in the equipment (Johnstone & Curfew 2012).

Furthermore, the installation of shut-in valves in the facility is vital on the inlets to pumps as it can close off the flow into the pump in cases of fire or leakages. The specifications of engines are also designed to maintain and enhance safety. Engines are always designed by the set and required standards. For instance, the fuel used in gas engines does not have any content of liquids or hydrogen sulphide gas as they can lead to premature engine damage. In the case of compressors, the pressure valves are protected with relief valves. In other cases of electric motors, there are set standards and specifications that are followed in the manufacture and installation of these electric motors as set by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).

Relief-System Design Is Critical

Facilities emergency plans and safety may involve a belief-system that is aimed to protect piping and equipment from an excessive overpressure. These relief devices that are installed in this equipment usually comply with the appropriate codes of the vessels while the relief system must comply to the standards of the state and federal laws and codes that are based on environmental considerations and safety. Engineers should make effective decisions based on the fluid type that the equipment holds and its public exposure before determining the necessity of a relief system or whether to install atmospheric vents. Despite direct venting into the atmosphere is the safest, simplest and most dependable method care should be taken and critical assessment was done on the release of flammable substances and toxic vapors into the atmosphere (Johnstone & Curfew 2012).

Therefore, relief-system designs are initially based on individual relief devices criterion then requirements on relief capacity for any single device or set of devices are determined in situations that can lead to overpressure condition. For instance, examples of upset conditions may include control-valve failure, fire exposure, thermal expansion, and blocked discharge.

Design the Instrumentation and Control System for Safety

This may involve the installation of instrument alarms and shutdowns. These provide the first level of safety in the case of occurrence of an upset. The level of safety has been improved by the introduction of distributive control systems, supervisory control, and data acquisition systems as well as control systems that use programmable logic controllers. These have improved facilities safety and enhancing advanced logistics in safety systems.

Safety systems can be analyzed depending on the level of protection that is, preventing or minimizing the effects of equipment failure. However, the two levels should work independently and more effective if they function under separate safety devices. This would provide the engineer with a situation of assessing the two devices separately as an independent unit if they fail to work.

Conducting a Process Hazard Analysis

Facilities emergency plans and safety involves the process of conducting a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) which is a systematic method of identification and analysis of potential hazards that may be subjected to the facility. The main objective of process hazard analysis is basically to provide a recommendation for the necessary changes in the design to make the facility safer during the operation periods. Effective facilities and well-designed aims at ensuring that the facility personnel, the equipment, and the environment are safe and free from any harm especially in situations where the control equipment fails.

Process hazard analysis is managed during the project design phase. However, the final stage of the facility construction undergoes a process hazard analysis. This is important in ensuring increased personnel safety of the workers in the facility, enhances the understanding of the functioning of the facility, optimization of equipment as well as reduced downtime and maintenance costs because the facility is not subjected to high risks of failure or destruction since the potential problems are realized and identified "up front" (Johnstone & Curfew 2012).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, we conclude that effective facility emergency plans and strategies are important safety measures that protect facilities, personnel, and the environment. Designing production facilities properly helps to reduce the occurrences of injuries. The effective procedures and management need to be followed keenly as well as adhering to the recommended practices, codes, and standards. Engineers and facility personnel needs to be conversant with specific knowledge of the facility. More so, after the facility is built final process hazard analysis should be done to ensure that all the safety systems have been installed.

Reference

Johnstone, J., & Curfew, J. (2012). Twelve Steps to Engineering Safe Onshore Oil and Gas Facilities. Oil and Gas Facilities, 1(04), 38-46.