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WEEK 5

PLANT SAFETY
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Key objectives
• Importance of safety in the design and operation of
chemical plants
• Safety legislation with which companies must comply
• Standards and codes of practice that help ensure safer
designs
• Process and materials hazards that must be considered
in design
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Key objectives
• Methods such as HAZOP, FMEA, quantitative risk analysis and
environmental risk assessment that are used to analyze and
quantify process hazards

• How relief valves are designed and used to prevent failure of

vessels due to over-pressure
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Layers of plant safety

• Plant design (inherent safety)
• Basic Process control
• Critical alarms and operator intervention
• Automatic safety shutdown
• Pressure relief system
• Emergency response in process unit
• Emergency response in community
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Types of Safety
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic safety
• Engineered safety
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Design safety check list

Materials
a) Flash point
b) Flammability range
c) Auto ignition temperature
d) Composition
e) Stability (shock sensitive?)
f) Toxicity
g) Corrosion
h) Physical properties (unusual?)
i) Heat of combustion/reaction
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Design safety check list

• Process
Reactors
a) Exothermic – heat of reaction
b) Temperature control – emergency systems
c) Side reactions – dangerous?
d) Effect of contamination
e) Effect of unusual concentrations (including
catalyst)
f) Corrosion
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Design safety check list

• Pressure systems
a) Need?
b) Design to current codes
c) Materials of construction – adequate?
d) Pressure relief – adequate?
e) Safe venting systems
f) Flame arrestors
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Design safety check list

• Control systems
a) Fail safe
b) Back-up power supplies
c) High/low alarms and trips on critical valuables
i. Temperature
ii. Pressure
iii. Flow
iv. Level
v. Composition
d) Back-up/duplicate systems on critical variables
e) Remote operation of valves
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Design safety check list

• Control systems
f) Block valves on critical lines
g) Excess-flow valves
h) Interlock systems to prevent mis-operation
i) Automatic shutdown systems
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Design safety check list

• Storages
• Limit quantity
• Inert purging/blanketing
• Floating roof tanks
• Dyking
• Loading/unloading facilities – safety
• Earthing
• Ignition sources – vehicles
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Design safety check list

• General
a) Inert purging systems needed
b) Compliance with electrical codes
c) Adequate lighting
d) Lightning protection
e) Sewers and drains adequate, flame traps
f) Dust-explosion hazards
g) Build-up of dangerous impurities – purges
h) Plant layout
i) Safety showers, eyebaths
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Design safety check list

• Fire protection
a) Emergency water supplies
b) Fire mains and hydrants
c) Foam systems
d) Sprinklers and deluge systems
e) Insulation and protection of structures
f) Access to buildings
g) Fire-fighting equipment
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Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

(FMEA)
• Failure-mode effect analysis – used for process safety
analysis
• FMEA – group brainstorming exercise – consists of
experts
• Process chemistry
• Process equipment
• Process control
• Process operations
• Safety analysis
• Design engineers
 HAZOP should be applied when more design details are
available
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FMEA definition
• FMEA is a procedure in product development and
operations management for analysis of potential failure
modes within a system for classification by the
severity and likelihood of the failures.
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FMEA Cycle
Action and checking
Step 5: Risk priority
number (RPN)
= (SEV) x (OCCUR) x
(DETECT)

Step 1: Detect
failure mode

FMEA
Step 4: Detection
number (DETECT)

Step 3: Occurrence Step 2: Severity

number (OCCUR) number (SEV)
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FMEA analysis
• The three numbers gives overall risk probability
number (RPN)
• SEV (Severity number)
• OCC (likelihood of occurrence)
• DET (detection number)
• Based on PRN values changes in process design and
instrumentation will be incorporated
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Function
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Failure mode
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Failure mode examples:

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Failure Effects
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Severity
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Severity Table Rating system

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Cause(s) of Failure
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Occurences
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Occurrences table
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Current Controls
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Detection
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Risk Priority Number (RPN)

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Recommended Actions
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Transportation
• Materials
1. Gases
2. Liquid
3. Solids
Gases
• Pumping of gases depends on flow rate, differential
pressure required and operating pressure
• Fans and compressors are used to pump the gases
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Transportation
• Liquids
Type Capacity range Typical head (m
(m3/hr) of water)

Centrifugal 0.25-103 10- 50

Reciprocating 0.5-500 50-200
Diaphragm 0.05-50 5-60
Rotary gear and 0.05-500 60-200
similar
Rotary sliding 0.25-500 7-70
vane or similar
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Transportation
• Solids
• The throughput
• Length of travel
• Change in elevation
• Nature of the solids: size, bulk, density, angle of
repose, abrasiveness, corrosiveness, wet or dry
Conveyors
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Storage
• Gases
• Stored at low pressure
• Stored at high pressure
• Liquefying or refrigeration
• Gases holder
a) dry-sealed type holders
b) water-sealed type holders
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Storage
• Liquids
• Liquids are usually stored in bulk in vertical
cylindrical steel tanks
• Horizontal cylindrical steel tanks and rectangular
tanks
• Fixed and floating roof tanks are used
 Eunice Phang Siew Wei 38

Storage
• Solids
• Pile them on the ground in the open air is the
simplest method of storage
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References
• Sinnott, R. & Towler, G. (2009). Chemical
Engineering Design. 5th Edition, Elsevier,
MA.

• FMEA Lecture Notes. The University of

Wisconsin Madison.