(117aq) HSE Philosophies in Capital Projects of Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Complex- a Practical Approach

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Presenter Name:

Bejoy K. Bharatiya

Contact Name: Bejoy Bharatiya

Telephone No.: +61 413 098 008

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Bejoy Bharatiya is Process Engineering & Process Safety Advisor at DNV GL Offshore and Industrial Services (B) Sdn. Bhd. He has over 30 years of professional experience in the upstream oil & gas, refining, petrochemical, and mineral processing industry. Prior to joining DNV GL, he held various positions, Process Safety Group Lead at Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company (SASEF), Senior Process Safety Engineer at SANTOS (South Australian Oil Search) Pty Ltd. Australia, Senior Operations Engineer with Saudi Aramco Gas Operations, and the Principal Process Engineer of  Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), Australia.

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DNV Germanischer Lloyd Offshore & Industrial Services (B) Sdn. Bhd./PMB Phase 2 Project

Abstract (max of 1500 words)

HSE Philosophies in Capital Projects of Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Complex

- A Practical Approach

Bejoy K. Bharatiya

DNV Germanischer Lloyd

The petroleum industry has long since recognized that certain risks are involved in the major hazard industries. It becomes a major challenge to minimize risk by comprehensive HSE framework in the project execution of a major process facility in the hydrocarbon industry. Over the years, the oil and gas industry has learned lessons from a number of process safety events and various hazards such as loss of control and loss of containment top events that could result in: fires, vapour cloud explosions (VCE), toxic and asphyxiant exposure, which occurred in various parts of the world and are not limited to the country of origin. The design and operation of process facility for the refinery and petrochemical complex have been the subject of major hazard to the oil industry.

It has been the continuous effort of the industry to update the design and operating philosophies to improve the inherent safety of the processing units. The present paper is concerned with defining the major safety considerations of international oil companies, and Industry Standards in designing and operating the refinery and petrochemical process facilities. HSE philosophies are required to guide and drive the design intent of HSE critical systems. The main safety philosophies include: ESD and blowdown, fire and gas detection, toxic gas (H2S) detection, active and passive fire protection (including guidelines for firefighting systems and fire protection), layout HSE philosophy, process safety and containment etc.

This paper provides the basic safety design guidelines for a major project but does not attempt to cover in detail every aspect of safety design. Reference should be made, therefore, to specific discipline philosophies and specifications as appropriate.

The primary environmental philosophies include venting and flaring of hydrocarbons and H2S/SO2, CO2 production, solid waste and effluent wastewater disposal, energy efficiency etc. In the project planning and execution, these philosophies must be effectively embedded in the design through the HSE premises document.

For the major project execution, the HSE philosophies are written in a way to instruct the design functional specifications to be compatible and aligned with the existing facility, but are updated to take into account of new technology, new knowledge and other industry requirements.

HSE philosophy shall be considered throughout all the project development phases, engineering, construction, start-up, and operation via dedicated and well-structured efforts. The safety philosophy, and resulting protection of persons and assets, is combining all provisions undertaking during all project phases.

HSE Philosophy for the detailed engineering phase is prepared with the objective to elaborate the Project design philosophy with respect to identification and elimination of hazards and to promote a design that is inherently safe. Objectives of this HSE philosophy are:

·      Provide a safe working environment for personnel

·      Minimize the potential for hazardous occurrences

·      Avoid exposure of personnel to potential hazard

·      Contain and minimize the effects of hazards

·      Provide adequate safe access and escape away from hazards

·      Protect the environment

·      Provide a design that is fit for purpose for field life with the required integrity for safety and environmental protection

HSE Design Philosophies

During the detailed engineering, and subsequent construction and commissioning, particular care will be taken by achieving:

·      Good engineering practice

·      Application of an all-encompassing QA system

·      Development and implementation of a safety management system

·      Design reviews at 30%, 60% and 90%, layout review, HAZID, Design Safety Review (DSR), accessibility reviews and other reviews.

·      Qualitative and quantitative risk assessments and IPF review

·      Design of installation for extreme weather conditions

·      Execution of an extensive pre-start up review of the plant before introduction of feed (Hydrocarbon, gas) covering both hardware and, control systems and procedures.

·      Conformity check with local regulations, project standards and other applicable industry standards and directives.

Hazard assessment – Hazard assessment is based upon the hazard of the materials present in the processing facility. Some of the highest-ranking typical hazards included in the risk assessment (to be taken from facility Hazard Register) are:

The design for the active/passive fire protection systems, fire detection systems, gas detection systems and general HSE requirements shall comply with the HSE Philosophy, project standards and referenced codes/standards, specifications, and regulations.

The fire safety of a plant is the degree of reduction in vulnerability to fire and/or explosion incidents in terms of their probability of occurrence and associated potential damage. This degree is maximized by the integrated application of fire prevention, fire protection and fire-fighting measures.

The philosophy is to achieve the desired degree of fire safety primarily by fire prevention measures, which will also result in an optimum availability of the facilities to produce. Where despite the preventive measures potential fire hazards remain, fire protection measures are taken. The basic objective of fire protection is to limit or prevent the escalation of a fire in order to avoid risk to life and to minimize material damage.

The Project shall be divided into separate fire risk areas of possible fire involvement. This separation may include major pipe racks, roadways, or vacant space. For estimating firewater demand, only one major fire occurring in one fire risk area at any time is to be considered. The fire water system shall be developed to meet the highest firewater demand of the worst-case firewater scenario. Extension of the existing firewater system on the Refinery to cover the new installations will be considered. Harmonization of fire safety measures shall be maximized.

In addition to fire protection measures, the plant fire-fighting organization is available to control and/or extinguish fires that occur despite the fire prevention and fire protection. All shift operators to be trained in industrial firefighting form the first intervention team (FIT) and additional fire fighters will be available from the Fire Station Crew. The combination of FIT and the existing Fire Station Crew will form an effective team, available within minutes after an incident is detected. If required, extra support can be provided through the external fire brigade.

There shall always be more emphasis on fire prevention, fire protection and fixed and semi-fixed firefighting systems than on the capacity of any fire-fighting organization.

Furthermore, as the refinery hydrotreating and Sulphur Recovery Units process/handle large quantities of H2S/SO2, special emphasis shall be made during the design phase for the installation of suitable system for H2S service such as high mechanical integrity (e.g. materials, pipe types, double pumps seals etc.), safeguarding, H2S detection and automatic isolation/shutdown system. Design of this system shall be as per project standards and actual HSE philosophy for H2S detection system.

Safety relief venting shall be provided for equipment, which is subject to internal pressure build-up from an external heat source. Pressure relieving devices shall be designed in accordance with project standards and/or industry standards.

Plant layout and spacing shall be developed based on project standards and industry practices, e.g. API RP/STDs, General Electric GAP Services (GE GAP) 2.5.2 “Oil and Chemical Plant Layout Spacing. Safety distances will be optimized to reduce the area utilized once more detailed design is progressed and risk studies have been completed (e.g. Physical effect modeling).

This paper discusses industry experience and summarizes the salient design considerations and risk assessment to improve safety integrity in the execution of capital projects for refinery and petrochemical complex. An effort has been made to highlight the HSE methodologies adopted by major oil companies using project standards, and industry best practices and standards like API, ASME, NFPA, IEC, ISO etc. Emphasis has been made to increase the awareness among the discipline design engineers and process safety engineers to develop safer designs of the refinery and petrochemical facilities.