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RP30-7, Design Philosophy Fire & Gas CS PDF
RP30-7, Design Philosophy Fire & Gas CS PDF
Document Title
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND
GAS DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
APPLICABILITY
Regional Applicability: International
This document provides guidance on the design philosophy required for fire and gas detection
systems and how this should be integrated into a facilities overall protection arrangement.
AMENDMENTS
Amd Date Page(s) Description
___________________________________________________________________
Section Page
FOREWORD.......................................................................................................................iii
1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1
2. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS......................................................................................1
FIGURE 1 ............................................................................................................................11
HAZARD DETECTION REQUIREMENTS .............................................................11
FIGURE 2 ............................................................................................................................12
HAZARD MITIGATION/CONTROL REQUIREMENTS ........................................12
FIGURE 3 ............................................................................................................................13
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE i
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.....................................................................................13
APPENDIX A.......................................................................................................................14
DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................14
APPENDIX B.......................................................................................................................15
LIST OF REFERENCED DOCUMENTS .................................................................15
APPENDIX C.......................................................................................................................16
LEGISLATION AND STANDARDS.......................................................................16
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE ii
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
FOREWORD
The Introductory Volume contains a series of documents that provide an introduction to the BP
Group Recommended Practices and Specifications for Engineering (RPSEs). In particular, the
'General Foreword' sets out the philosophy of the RPSEs. Other documents in the Introductory
Volume provide general guidance on using the RPSEs and background information to Engineering
Standards in BP. There are also recommendations for specific definitions and requirements.
(i) There are not yet any industry or international codes or standards in existence to cover this
area.
(ii) The requirements for Fire & Gas detection and control systems need to be appropriate to
the risks inherent in an installation. This guidance gives an approach to ensure that the
design considers the risk factors and avoids the provision of overly complex systems.
Application
Text in italics is Commentary. Commentary provides background information which supports the
requirements of the Recommended Practice, and may discuss alternative options.
This document may refer to certain local, national or international regulations but the responsibility to
ensure compliance with legislation and any other statutory requirements lies with the user. The user
should adapt or supplement this document to ensure compliance for the specific application.
This is a first issue of the Recommended Practice. Readers should be aware that the document may
be subject to change resulting from rationalisation with other associated Recommended Practices
and Standards within the BP Group.
Users are invited to feed back any comments and to detail experiences in the application of BP
RPSE's, to assist in the process of their continuous improvement.
For feedback and further information, please contact Standards Group, BP International or the
Custodian. See Quarterly Status List for contacts.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE iii
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 This document provides guidance on the design philosophy required for Fire
and Gas system design and how this should be integrated into overall
protection systems. Gas detection includes both flammable and toxic
considerations. The guidance is applicable to onshore and offshore plant
and installations (herein after referred to as installations for oil, chemicals
and production facilities.
1.2 The requirements for detection devices and logic systems are not covered
and reference should be made to BP Group RP 30-5, Section 4, 'Fire &
Gas Detection and Control Systems' for applicable recommendations.
These cover issues such as hardwired and relay systems versus logic based
systems.
Further Recommended Practices will follow outlining other areas where guidance
is required on defining performance in the field, e.g. combustible and toxic gas
detection.
1.3 The requirements for fire protection facilities are detailed in BP Group RP
24-1 'Fire Protection - Onshore' and BP Group RP 24-2 'Fire Protection -
Offshore'. Outline detail is included within this Recommended Practice for
clarity, but cross reference should be made, where detailed, for specific
requirements.
2. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
2.1 The requirements for fire and gas systems has to be considered as part of
the overall health, safety and environmental protection facilities for
installations. The aim will be to ensure the inherent risks involved are
reduced to an acceptable limit, as agreed with the Business Unit responsible
for the installation, and as required by any applicable Local or National
Regulatory Authority. The risks that the safety facilities will be mitigating will
include but not necessarily be limited to:-
There may also be other risk criteria involved due to the market place where the
facility is installed or where the 'product' is being supplied. Risks such as Company
standing within the local community or image with customers may have an
influence on the specific installation.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 1
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
It needs to be stressed that setting very onerous targets for acceptable risk can
result in the requirement for complex and expensive fire and gas systems and the
whole of life costs for maintenance and test of these systems should not be under
estimated. Such targets need to be realistic and supportable.
2.2 The first step in designing protection facilities will therefore be the
identification of the overall risks involved for the installation. The business
unit responsible, will then need to set the criteria that are to be deemed
acceptable risk.
Having established overall risk criteria, a more detailed study can be made of the
installation to establish what contributing factors there may be from individual risk
sources which could impact on the overall risk limitation requirement. The level of
detail assessment will need to be commensurate with the stage of the design
completion at that time, however, the validity of the assessment would need review
as detail is developed.
Individual risk sources will be considered down to the primary level which could
result in release such as flanges, pump seals, vents etc.
The use of fire and gas detection and control systems can be very expensive to
engineer install and subsequently maintain during the life of an installation. There
may well be benefits, therefore in considering redesign of plant, layout or using
alternative measures such as passive protection. The use of Quantified Risk and
Cost Benefit Analyses may also be considered, however this will depend on
project/installation philosophy. The cost, time and resources required for such
analysis can be considerable should not be under estimated when deciding on this
route.
2.4 Having detailed the areas where fire and gas detection or protection control
systems could give a significant risk reduction, it is also necessary to
establish the effectiveness of any facilities that may be identified as required.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 2
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
The configuration of the system required to meet the anticipated risk
prevention contribution, will also need to be defined.
2.5 The design process, once risks have been identified, is summarised on flow
diagrams, Figures 1 to 3 and the steps involved are allocated numbers
which can be cross referred to in the following sections.
(Refer Figure 1)
The first step is to determine whether any area of risk of gas release and/or
fire introduces a significant hazard in the immediate area or due to
accumulation in other areas. If not, the provision of detection should not be
necessary. For gas detection, both combustible and toxic gases have to be
considered.
Having established the need for fire detection , it is necessary to determine how the
fire detection will be applied. The preferred method is to develop the fire hazards
into a 'grading' approach depending on fire, effective power and associated
performance requirements for alarm/control actions and effective response times.
No formal BP Group RPSE exists for this at present, however, internal guideline
documents are available which outline an approach for offshore installations. This
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 3
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
could be applied to onshore applications, however, it should be noted that the
requirement for detection is generally much less.
Even where free flow or forced ventilation is provided, there may be areas where air
is virtually stagnant and gas accumulation is possible. The type of release, release
rate and effectiveness of the ventilation must also be considered. Detail review will
be necessary and consideration given to redesign to avoid these stagnant areas.
Where this is not possible, or practical, the provision of gas detection may be
necessary.
(Refer Figure 2)
4.1 General
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 4
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
Hazard protection may be provided by means of manual or automatic executive
actions and may include in one or more of the following depending on the risk,
potential hazard and site:-
The requirements for dealing with an incident will depend on the operating
philosophy for the installation. This would normally be considered as
manned, where the operation is controlled, or monitored, from a control
point with ready access to the installation. The alternative of not normally
manned will apply where the operation is controlled, or monitored from a
remote location and is normally only manned short term for
breakdown/scheduled maintenance requirements.
Not normally manned installations will require visits for planned operation and
maintenance and unscheduled repairs and emergencies, so may still require a Fire
& Gas system. It may also be necessary for detection of problems before approach to
the installation is attempted.
The installation of fire and gas systems on not normally manned installations may
also be defined as required in local or national regulations.
Escape routes require careful consideration to ensure a rapid and safe exit from the
area. On offshore platforms this may involve enclosed and segregated routes
monitored by fire and gas detection.
It will be necessary for the Business unit involved with the installation to
establish the philosophy as to what will be deemed as acceptable risk of
serious injury/loss of life or 'major' commercial loss, refer to section 2.1. If
asset protection is not critical, reliance can be put on mobile protection
services.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 5
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
Where personnel protection is not the prime consideration of a Fire & Gas
detection system, such as for not normally manned installations, protection of
property and the environment may become the overriding factors.
This will require due consideration of the type of release, the form of any fire that
may result and what protection exists for adjacent equipment. The outcome of this
review may be that additional alternative protection methods are required (e.g.
passive protection). If the event can be contained within an area and escalation
should not occur, manned installations should be able to rely on mobile hazard
protection.
(c) How valuable are the contents of the area, and adjoining areas if a fire is
likely to spread.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 6
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
The effective response time (ERT) in hydrocarbon areas, is the time taken from
receipt of an initial fire or gas detection alarm to the completion of achieving the
activation of the necessary protection systems.
The level of experience and training of fire fighting teams and their ability to deal
with major incidents needs to be taken into a ccount.
Where manual initiation is accepted, local and remote initiation should also
be considered to ensure a fast protection response where necessary.
The review should also consider the impact of spurious initiation of the
protection systems. If the consequence of spurious alarm and control
actions can result in creation of a hazard or major operational problems,
then manual only systems should be provided. Alternatively additional
design features should be considered to improve the system reliability if
manual initiation is demonstrated to be unacceptable.
5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
(Refer Figure 3)
5.1 General
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 7
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
5.2 Step 3-1 - Manning
Fire & Gas systems on not normally manned installations are primarily installed to
protect capital investment and the environment or to give warning prior to
approach to the facility. The system availability, however, may need to be high as
personnel intervention can no longer be relied on. Automatic executive actions may
well be the only secure means of protection even if remote initiation capability is
also provided.
The 'duplex' system can relate to detectors, interface cards, logic systems and output
devices. The extent to which the elements should be duplicated depends on the
degree of redundancy already provided by area coverage and what alternative
means are available in the event that an element failure occurs. In general,
detector and interface card redundancy will be provided by detector voting and/or
secondary detection. Duplex logic systems and output devices will be required
unless secondary alarming of hazard detection is provided which independently
initiates the protection facilities.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 8
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
5.6 Step 3-5 - Spares Availability
During the initial design phase it will be necessary to agree operating and
maintenance philosophy with the operator, and to determine the required on-line
and off-line maintenance procedures for field devices and panel equipment.
Having established that the reliability of the fire and gas system is of
concern, due to asset protection requirements or the inability to effectively
'fire/gas watch', the system type needs consideration. A high level of
reliability can be achieved by use of a full duplex system, however this can
introduce undesirable levels of complexity and costs. An alternative
approach is to make an assessment to determine whether the additional
complexity and cost of provision of the duplex system, will give benefit in
reduction of potential operational down time if shutdown is deemed
necessary whilst repairs are being completed. If benefit is not demonstrable,
then simplex systems should be considered.
For most installations the fire and gas system may well be considered as non
essential to meet the safety risk criteria but required for asset protection purposes.
Provided that it is determined that the system is non essential for safety, the system
could be incorporated into the control system, however, the ease of implementation
within those systems and cost benefit, would need to be considered.
If the fire and gas system is designated as essential to meet the safety risk criteria, it
could be incorporated into the shutdown system, but if this system was
programmable, due regard would need to be given to relating failure modes of such
systems and issues of requirements for diverse hardware and software.
It should be noted that, if the control or shutdown system is used there may well be
the need to provide interface facilities which could effect the cost benefit decision.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 9
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
This documentation should be considered a live document for the life of the
installation and the basis for design reviewed whenever there is a significant
change in circumstances for the plant such as design modification or change
of operating conditions. After any such changes the safety basis should be
examined, to confirm validity or to identify any modifications necessary to
the fire and gas system.
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 10
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
IS FIRE A IS POTENTIAL
SIGNIFICANT NO NO
GAS RELEASE A
HAZARD SIGNIFICANT
( NOTE 1 ) HAZARD ( NOTE 1)
1-1 1-7
YES
YES
IS
AUTOMATIC IS PLANT NO
YES
RESPONSE TO SUFFICIENTLY
DECTECTION VENTILLATED
1-2 ESSENTIAL
1-8
YES
NO
CAN THE
PLANT BE NO
READILY WILL
VIEWED BY THE NO RESULTANT
OPERATOR CONCENTRATION
1-3 BE HAZRADOUS
1-9
YES YES CAN
REMOTE CCTV
YES
FACILITIES BE
PROVIDED
1-4
NO
WILL VISUAL YES
MONITORING
REVEAL
ALL SIGNIFICANT
1-5 RISKS
NO
NO IS RELEASE
LIKELY TO BE SUCH
THAT DECTECTION
1-10 IS EFFECTIVE
YES
PROVIDE PROVIDE
NO FIRE / GAS
FIRE GAS
DECTECTION
DECTECTION DECTECTION
REQUIRED
FIGURE 1
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 11
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
IS FACILITY NO
NORMALLY MANNED
2-1
YES
NO WHEN MANNED
IS MEANS OF ESCAPE
AVAILABLE
( NOTE 2 ) 2-2
YES
IS PERSONNEL NO
PROTECTECTION
CRITICAL
(NOTE 1)
2-3
YES
ASSET
YES PROTECTION
CRITICAL
( NOTE 1 )
2-4
CAN MANUAL
NO IS ACCESS /
INITATION OF YES ESCAPE READILY
HAZARD
AVAILABLE AND
PROTECTION BE
EFFECTIVE
PRACTICAL NO
2-8 2-5 ( NOTE 2 )
NO YES
CAN AUTO
PROTECTION
IS HAZARD
NO CAUSE LIKELY TO NO
MORE PROBLEMS ESCALATE
THAN
2-9 IT SOLVES
( NOTE 1 )
2-6
YES YES
YES
FIGURE 2
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 12
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
YES IS
NO
FACILITY NORMALLY
MANNED
3-1
CAN RAPID NO
MAINTENANCE
REPONSE
BE MOBILISED
3-4
YES
3-6 3-10
PROVIDE SYSTEM
PROVIDE SIMPLEX AS DETERMINED BY
SYSTEM COST BENIFIT
ANALYSIS
FIGURE 3
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 13
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
APPENDIX A
Definitions
Abbreviations
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 14
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
APPENDIX B
A reference invokes the latest published issue or amendment unless stated otherwise.
Referenced standards may be replaced by equivalent standards that are internationally or otherwise
recognised provided that it can be shown to the satisfaction of the purchaser's professional engineer
that they meet or exceed the requirements of the referenced standards.
BP Group Documents
BP Group RP 30-5 Section 4 - Fire and Gas Detection and Control Systems
(replaces BP CP 18 Part 5 Section 4)
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 15
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
APPENDIX C
The following legislation and Standards are applicable to the UK. In other Countries where local or
national equivalents exist for the area of application, these must be used. Where none exist,
however, the Standards should be applied subject to agreement with the business unit responsible
for the installation.
GENERAL
Legislation
Standards
OFFSHORE UK
Legislation
UK Statutory Instrument No. 611 The Offshore Installations Regulations (Fire Fighting
Equipment)
No. 1218 The Merchant Shipping Regulations (Fire Protection)
Standards
RP 30-7
INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL PAGE 16
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FOR FIRE AND GAS
DETECTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS