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Contents:
The Risk Analysis Process
Vessel-by-Vessel or Line-by-Line Risk Analysis Following up the Analysis Plant Disturbance Phenomena:
High pressure, high temperature, high Level Low temperature, low pressure, low level Too high or too low concentration Runaway reactions Blockage Wrong substance Breach of vessel boundaries Columns, Heat exchangers, Valves
References
Risk Determination
Risk Acceptance
No
Modify System
For this reason, it is reasonable to choose a mixed approach. If just a line-by-line approach is used, many accident types will be overlooked. Examples are reactions, overheating, lack of mixing, scumming, leftover products, etc. A vessel-by-vessel analysis is usually much faster to perform. If a lineby-line analysis is not made, however, some types of accidents may also be overlooked.
For these reasons, line-by-line analysis should be carried out at least to identify each line specific problems. Also, when there are branched lines, a line-by-line analysis of the network is almost essential.
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Many of the following accident phenomena have been found by studying accident records, particularly, Manufacturing Chemical Association Records and Loss Prevention Bulletins.
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High Pressure
High pressure in a vessel can be caused by high inflow to the vessel. Typical causes of high inflow are
Continued pumping, after the vessel is full Too high a pumping rate Control failure on a pump Loss of pressure-reduction facilities
If either the valve or the controller fails, then the downstream pressure may be dangerously high.
A similar, but less obvious cause of high pressure arises from liquid level controls in gas liquid separators. If the level controller, or the valve, fails then liquid level may fall to zero and gas then flows through the level control valve. Even though the mass rate of flow of gas will be lower than for liquid, the volume may be too high for the outflow from the downstream vessel, allowing pressure to rise.
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1.
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3. 4.
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High Temperature
The most frequent causes of high temperature are
1. Failure of temperature control, due to instrument failure (steam, heating oil, fuel supply). 2. Formation of hot spots due to flow blockage or formation of deposit. 3. Reduced flow in heat exchangers. 4. Too high flow rates for heating fluids, or, correspondingly, too low flow rates of reactants to be heated. 5. Reduced cooling flows (blockage, control failure, pumping failure). 6. Too high temperature in cooling flows (due to unusually warm weather, excess hot water flow to cooling ponds, failure of brine chillers or cooling towers).
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The main consequences from overheating are over pressures, runaway reactions, fire, and release of vapor. Other problems are break down of equipment, coking of liquids (or evaporation) leading to blockage and/or hot spots; valve weakening; and expansion that might lead to overstressing.
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High Level
The main causes of high level in a vessel are fairly obvious - too high inflow, or too low outflow. Other typical causes are
1. 2. 3. 4. Control failure (particularly level sensors) Errors in depth measurements Errors in valves arrangement (so that liquid is pumped to the wrong vessel) Back flow from a common delivery pipeline, which has a high pressure or is partially blocked.
More subtle causes of overflow are liquid expansion due to temperature rise, scumming and boiling.
Level sensing is often made by measuring pressure differential between the top and bottom of a tank. Pressure sensors, such as diaphragm type sensors, are generally much more reliable than level sensors, which tend to rely on floats of some kind, and tend to stick. \
However, it should be recognized that such measurements are not a direct indication of level. A change in density, due to a change in liquid or in mixture, can lead to errors in level measurement, and to overflow.
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Low Temperature
Low temperature in a vessel may be caused by
1. Low temperature in a heating flow 2. Low temperature in a cooling flow (either of these may be caused by control failures) 3. Loss of heating (blockage, power failure, loss of heating fluid, valve closure) 4. Evaporation (especially of a liquefied gas or volatile liquid) 5. Cold weather 6. Dissolving salts.
Cooling may also cause changes in concentration, for example for volatile gases such as ethane and propane in gasoline. Low temperatures may cause condensation of LPG in pipelines, something, which may be dangerous in LPG burners. A rather unusual problem of this type is condensation of oxygen from the air into liquid nitrogen exposed to air. Low temperatures, below 20oC may cause changes in ordinary carbon steels, so that these become brittle. Piping which has become brittle in this way has been known to shatter as a result of vibration. 29
Low Pressure
Low pressure may be caused by
1. 2. 3. 4. Pumping liquid out of an unventilated vessel Blockage of vents or vacuum pressure valves Connection of a vessel to another in which there is a vacuum Cooling.
Operators of large closed tanks are for example obliged to take account of cooling during rainstorm. Long drain lines can cause considerable under pressure (corresponding to the height of the drain line) if draining takes place from an unventilated tank. An unusual cause of low pressure is gas-absorbing reactions. Rusting on the inner surface of a closed vessel can cause under pressure sufficient to cause tank collapse. Ammonia gas, dissolving in water can cause very low pressures.
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A case is known of a steam line, which was cooled by water. The condensing steam created a vacuum and sucked back condensate. The resulting water hammer resulted in pipe rupture. Several similar cases are known for ammonia gas pipelines taking return gas from ships.
Low pressure can cause air to be sucked into vessels, and, for example to be mixed with flammable vapors, with explosions as a possible result. A typical place for this is pump intakes, especially if intake filters become blocked.
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Low Level
Low levels in vessels may be caused by
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Loss of inflow or low inflow due to blockage, closed valves, or control errors Loss of supply for an inflow Leakage or pipe bursts Too high outflow (control failure, erroneous opening of valves) Evaporation or boiling dry.
Gas can be drawn into liquid drain or separation lines, even when the liquid level is above zero, through formation of a vortex. This can often be prevented by fitting a "vortex breaker", that is, one or two vertical plates, into the drain line. 32
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Too High or Too Low Concentration ... High or low concentration of a substance can be caused by 1. Control failures 2. Blockage in addition lines 3. Delay in adding a component 4. Settling out of a solid component of a mixture 5. Insufficient mixing 6. Human error in addition of a component 7. Labeling error leading to addition of an inert component 8. Addition of a residue of one component from a previous batch, thus diluting the new addition.
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Runaway Reactions
A runaway reaction occurs typically when reaction rate increases with increasing temperature or increasing concentration of one reactant.
Typical causes of runaway reaction are 1. Poor temperature control or temperature control failure 2. Loss of cooling water, which can be caused by water supply or power failure, blockage, etc. 3. Loss of cooling surface due to encrustation, crud, etc. 4. Poor mixing or mixing failure, resulting in loss of cooling, hot spot formation, or errors in temperature measurement. 5. Temperature measurement is critical for such reactions, and typical failures are 6. Simple failure of the instrument 7. Coking or deposits on a thermowell so that the sensor becomes insulated 8. Placement of the sensor in an outflow line or recirculation line.
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Blockage
Pipelines can be blocked in many ways, most of them are obvious, some obscure:
1. Valve closure, due to human error, control failure, or valve failure 2. Forgotten blanking plates, spades, etc. 3. Blockage with foreign material impurities in the flow 4. Sand 5. Broken parts from vessels internals 6. Column packing 7. Catalyst 8. Welding rods, welding slag 9. Paper from packing 10. Stray objects such as beer bottles, footballs, containers, packaging 11. Dead animals or insects 12. Tree roots (in drains) 13. Freezing/solidification 14. Emulsion formation 15. Crystallization 16. Solid forming reactions (e.g., isocyanate/water)
Blockage often occurs when pipe flow is shut down, and is very difficult to detect at this time (restart is then hindered).
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Wrong Substance
Stray or erroneously added substances can cause a wide range of disturbances or accidents such as
1.
2. 3. 4. 5.
Unwanted or unexpected reactions giving toxic, flammable, acid, alkaline, oxidizing, or high vapor-pressure substances Catalyzing effects, leading to runaway reactions Solidification, and over pressurization Impurities in a product, causing production of waste, or product discoloration Catalyzing effects, leading to spoilt product, decomposition, etc.
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Wrong Substance
Wrong substances or impurities can come from many sources such as 1. Erroneously added raw materials 2. Wrongly labeled materials 3. Back flow 4. Leakage from supply tanks 5. Corrosion products 6. Products or residues left from previous production batches 7. Inflow (sucking in) of air, due to vacuum 8. Leakage from heat exchangers, cooling coils etc. 9. Flooding 10. Absorption 11. Unwanted or unexpected reaction products.
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Columns
Columns are subject to some special accident types such as
1. Flooding of the column, when the reflux rate is too high can lead to overpressure, but more often to disturbance of, or damage to, column packing or trays. Steam explosions due to disturbance of water in traps in column trays, and pump around take-offs. Coking or build up of tar on the packing, leading to overpressure.
2. 3.
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Heat Exchangers
Heat exchangers are subject to some special disturbance types such as 1. Leakage across tube plates and tubes due to corrosion 2. Fretting (wear) between tubes due to vibration against foreign objects or loose baffle plates. 3. Fatigue cracking due to flow induced vibrations 4. Tube ruptures due to jamming of floating heads.
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Valves
Most valve failures can be described in terms of failure modes rather than plant disturbances. The kinds of valve failure are
1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8.
Valve body leakage due to cracking or corrosion Valve seal packing leaks Body seal leaks in split body valves Broken valve items, leading to valve closure, or valve opening, depending on valve seat position Valve jamming in open or closed position (due to crud, overtightening, dried out packing, foreign bodies in the valve seat Valve spring breakage, leading to failure in open or closed position, or simply to failure to close on loss of activation Activator diaphragm leakage leading to fail open or fail closed Activator piston jamming.
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References
1. F. P. Lees, Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion in the Process Industries, Butterworths, 1982. (This book is a very important reference book with a very complete list of references up to 1982). 2. Baker et al, Explosion Hazards and Evaluation, Elsevier, 1983. (This book gives a thorough treatment of explosion phenomena, including handbook style calculations). 3. International conferences on Loss Prevention and Safety Promotion in the Process Industries. (1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1989, and 1992). The conference proceedings give an unbroken and virtually complete record of process-plant risk analysis developments over 20 years. European Federation of Chemical Engineers. 4. F.A. Al-Ali, Concepts of Safety in Design Stage, 1st International Conference on Loss Prevention and Safety, 5-7 Oct. 1992, Bahrain, p. 33-43. 5. D.T. Davis, Hazardous Materials Information and Response, 1st International Conference on Loss Prevention and Safety, 5-7 Oct. 1992, Bahrain, p. 103-111. 6. J.M. Totterdell, Designing for Safety, 2nd International Conference on Loss Prevention and Safety, 16-18 Oct. 1995, Bahrain, p. 151-161. 7. Al Saif, Y.A., Safety Management, 2nd Int. Conference on Loss Prevention & Safety, 1618/10/1995, Bahrain. 8. Taylor, R.J., Risk Analysis for Process Plant, Pipelines and Transport, E & F.N. SPON, London, 1994.
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