Safety in Petroleum Industries

Dhananjoy Ghosh

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000347241
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Fossil Fuels
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Safety in Petroleum Industries covers pertinent safety aspects and precautions to be taken for design, operation, maintenance, inspection and project constructions for petroleum industries, with an emphasis on petroleum refineries. Relevant practical knowledge and experience contributing to safe and sustained operation of the industry has been compiled with all necessary references. Identified areas where theoretical inputs are required have also been incorporated. Learning objectives for the petroleum industries have been identified and discussed in an organized manner based on author's more than thirty-five years of experience in petroleum and chemical industries.

Aimed at practicing engineers in upstream and downstream petroleum industries, this book:

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• Covers safety tips for operation of petroleum industries

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• Documents design codes, tools and practices including safe operating practices of different equipment and safety procedures in a single source

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• Includes detailed safety procedures like HAZOP, Safety Audit, management safety review, and process safety management

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• Contains dedicated chapters on Fire Fighting, and Industrial Hygiene and Ergonomics

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• Discusses first-hand experienced examples and burning issues in the petroleum industry

1

Preliminaries

1.1 Concept and Importance of Safety

There is always a safe way to do every job–accidents don’t just happen. Rather, they are caused. To prevent accidents, it is vital to teach safety to all new hands. To begin, let’s review the concept of safety.

The importance of safety practices in the petroleum and chemical process industries are of utmost importance due to the potential hazard to human lives and plant assets. In fact, the sustainability of an industry’s operations for all stakeholders depends on the extent to which it is operated without injury and fatality, as well as without damage to plant assets to ensure uninterrupted operation.

A major concern of safety in industrial plants is the occurrence of fires and explosions. To emphasize the importance of this issue, industrial safety is highlighted in the form of codes, standards, technical papers and engineering design.

Occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) publication 3073 defines a hazardous location as follows:

Hazardous locations are areas where flammable liquids, gases or vapors and combustible dust exist in sufficient quantities to produce an explosion or fire. In hazardous locations, specially designed equipment and special installation techniques must be used to protect against the explosive and inflammable potential of these hazardous substances.

1.2 Definition of Explosion and Its Relevance

An explosion is the sudden release of pressure that causes a rapid and large volume expansion of flammable liquids, gases or vapors due to fire. Sometimes explosions without fire also can take place if the liquids, gases or vapors are below their ignition temperature or flash point. As a rule, three basic requirements must be met for an explosion to take place in atmospheric air:

• A flammable substance needs be present in substantial quantity to produce an ignitable or explosive mixture.

• Oxygen must be present in sufficient quantity with the inflammable substance to produce the explosive mixture.

• A spark or high heat/temperature must exist.

Note:

i. The above three conditions form the ‘fire triangle,’ as it is commonly called.

ii. Every specific gas or vapor has its upper and lower flammability limit. If the concentration of the substance in oxygen or air is either above or below that specific limit, ignition might occur but flames will not propagate. Thus, there will be no explosion.

1.3 Safety in Engineering

In view of the above, international organizations have introduced safety codes that are followed by the industries to establish a standardized, safe operation. In addition, respective countries have established statutory bodies to ensure implementation of international safety standards and/or set up their own guidelines of safety standards to be followed by the respective industries.

In line with this objective, the subject of safety in engineering has acquired importance in engineering program degrees and course curriculums and has been structured into multiple sub-subjects so it is inculcated as fundamental knowledge in engineering.

In the mechanical engineering industries, safety issues are sub-categorized as follows:

1. Principles of machine guarding.

2. Safety in welding and gas cutting.

3. Selection and Suitability.

4. Safety in cold forming and hot working of metals.

5. Safety in inspection and testing.

6. Handling and storage of materials.

7. Mechanized handling of materials.

8. Working at height.

9. Use of tools.

10. Safety in the workplace.

11. Plant design and housekeeping.

All the above-mentioned topics are elaborated below as exercises in mechanical engineering in any industry in day-to-day activities.

• Principle of machine guarding:
Guarding during maintenance, Zero Mechanical State (ZMS), operation of protective devices, machine guarding and its types (such as fixed guard, interlock guard, automatic guard, trip guard, electron eye, positional control guard, fixed guard fencing, guard construction, guard opening, etc.), along with benefits of guarding systems.

• Selection and suitability:
Selection of various machines, such as the lathe, drilling, boring, milling, grinding, shaping, sawing, shearing presses, forge-hammer, flywheels, shafts, couplings, gears, sprockets, wheels, chains-pulleys, belts and the criteria for authorized entry to hazardous installations.

• Safety in welding and gas cutting:
Gas welding and cutting, resistance welding, arc welding and cutting, personal protective equipment (PPE) training, safety precautions in brazing, soldering and metalizing, explosive welding, selection and maintenance of the associated equipment and instruments, distribution and handling of industrial gases, color coding, flashback arrestor, leak detection, pipe line safety and storage/handling of gas cylinders, etc.

• Safety in cold forming and hot working of metals:
Cold working, power presses, auxiliary mechanisms, feeding and cutting mechanism, hand or foot-operated presses, power press electric controls, power press set up and die removal, inspection and maintenance, metal sheers, press brakes and hot working safety in forging, hot rolling mill operation, safe guards in hot rolling mills, bending of pipes, hazards and control measures, safety in gas furnace operation, cupola, crucibles, ovens, foundry health hazards, work environment, material handling in foundries, foundry production cleaning, finishing foundry processes, etc.

• Safety in finishing, inspection and testing:
Heat treatment operations, electro plating, paint shops, sand and shot blasting, inspection and testing like dye penetration, radiography and hydro testing, dynamic balancing, hydro testing, valves, boiler drums and headers, pressure vessels, air leak test, steam testing, radiation hazards, Indian Boilers Regulations, etc.

• Manual handling and storage of materials:
Basic principle of correct lifting and handling of materials; avoidance of excessive muscular efforts, maximum loads that may be carried, carrying of objects of different shapes, size and weight, safe use of accessories for manual handling, storage of materials, ergonomics of manual handling and storage, etc.

• Mechanized handling of materials:
Safety aspects in design and construction, testing, use and care, signaling, inspection and maintenance, operation; safe working load, inspection and maintenance of lifting tackles, competencies of persons, duties and responsibilities under the various legislations.

• Working at height:
Safety features associated with design, construction and use of stairways, runs, ramps, gangways, floors, ladders of different types, scaffoldings of different types, working on roofs, other safety requirements while working at heights, prevention of falls of persons at floor level from height or slipping.

• Uses of tools-hand tools and portable tools:
Main causes of tool accidents, control of tool accidents, purchase, storage and supply of tools, inspection and maintenance of tools, tempering of tools, safe ending and dressing of certain tools like handles, etc., safe use of various types of hand tools for metal cutting, wood cutting, miscellaneous cutting work, material handling, and other hand tools, such as torsion tools, shock tools, non-sparking tools, portable power tools, etc.

• Safety in the workplace:
Workplace design, improving safety and productivity through workplace design, technical and engineering control measures, control measures against human error, preventive maintenance, standards and code of practices for plant and equipment, etc.

• Plant design and housekeeping:
Safety in good housekeeping, typical accidents due to poor housekeeping, disposal of scrap and other trade wastes, prevention of spillage, marking of gangways and use of color codes as an aid for good housekeeping, clean-up campaigns, cleaning methods, inspection, employee responsibilities, check-listing, etc.

In electric power generation and distribution industries, the following additional sections are covered:

• Theories on power generation and application, such as steam generators with coal/oil fired boilers, gas turbines with or without an exhaust heat recovery system, nuclear power generation, hydraulic power generation, wind mills, solar power, etc.

• Distribution systems, along with transformers and substations covering the power control centre (PCC), motor control centre (MCC), electric motors of high tension (HT) or low tension (LT) class, distribution cable networking HT and/or LT, power cabling, control cabling, relay circuits, UPS (uninterrupted power supply), etc.

In civil engineering, safety is applicable everywhere–from mechanical and electrical infrastructure, such as roads, bridge-building, underground construction up to all process industries. The following are covered:

• Construction mix studies and engineering.

• Structural engineering, including structure stability design.

• Seismic engineering.

• Soil engineering.

• Painting.

• Insulation.

• Fire proofing.

• Refractory engineering.

1.4 Safety in Petroleum Industries

1.4.1 Features of Petroleum Industries

A petroleum refinery and its downstream industries should be understood as a complex system comprising of many subsections. Petroleum refineries have many process plants: the crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, naphtha hydrotreatment and reforming unit, diesel hydrotreatment, hydrodesulfurization unit, hydrocracker unit, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, Alkylation unit, Isomerization unit, bitumen unit, visbreaking or delayed coker unit (DCU), deep catalytic cracking (DCC) unit, Lube units, amine absorber units, sour gas treatment unit, sulphur recovery unit, flare section, captive power plant, utilities generation unit, effluent treatment plant (ETP), and producing various products starting from LPG, propane, butane, naphtha, Motor Spirit (MS/Gasoline), kerosene, ATF, High Speed Diesel (HSD), bitumen, furnace oil, lubes and waxes, in addition to various speciality products, such as hexane, low aromatic solvent, benzene, toluene, ethylene, propylene, etc. To ensure smooth storage and dispatch of these products, the refineries also maintain large numbers of storage tanks, along with various dispatch facilities, such as road tankers, railway wagon loading, pipeline transfer, ship loading and coke dispatch facility, as well as a crude oil receiving facility. Petrochemical plants also contain similar facilities but the process plants are different. They include a naphtha or gas cracker unit, ethylene and propylene recovery unit, benzene, toluene and para-xylene recovery units, MTBE unit, and various polymer units, such as poly ethylene, poly propylene, etc. Also, instead of crude, their raw material is naphtha/LPG/NG, and receiving systems are different. Their main products dispatched are in solid form, such as poly ethylene and poly propylene for which there are bagging, storing and dispatch facilities available. Both refineries and petrochemical plants have to maintain a large administration, procurement department, fire and safety department, marketing department, quality control department, technical service department, engineering service department, public relation department, legal department, est...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Author
• 1. Preliminaries
• 2. PSM (Process Safety Management)
• 3. Organization Safety Procedures
• 4. Project Safety
• 5. Safety Performance Indicators
• 6. Safety Reporting
• 7. IFC Guidelines on EHS – Present Perspective
• 8. Safety Tips on Operations
• 9. Incident History and Case Studies
• References for Consequence Modeling
• Index