INTRODUCTION

In manufacturing a product, safety must be the top priority. It is an obligation to protect the
health and welfare of not just its employees but also surrounding communities that it may
also being effected. Thus, with the correct measures put in place to keep hazards at an
acceptable level, the safe running of the plant and also keep losses and risks will be ensure
maintained at minimum.
The HAZOP study represents a form of qualitative technique; however there are
also many quantitative techniques that can be used. Fault tree analysis is one of
them.
The fault tree analysis (FTA) was first introduced by Bell Laboratories and is one of the most
widely used methods in system reliability, maintainability and safety analysis. It is a
deductive procedure used to determine the various combinations of hardware and software
failures and human errors that could cause undesired events (referred to as top events) at the
system level. The deductive analysis begins with a general conclusion, then attempts to
determine the specific causes of the conclusion by constructing a logic diagram called a fault
tree. This is also known as taking a top-down approach.
Reactor
For this process, the continuous stirred reactor which will operate at a temperature of 150℃
and pressure 30 bar. The reactions which are occurring within the reactor include:

o CH3OH + CO → CH3COOH

o CH3OH + 2CO +2H2 → CH3CH2COOH +H2O

o CO + H2O ↔ CO2 + H2

These reactions are exothermic which means that the temperature within the reactor could
quickly increase if the correct safety measures are not put in place. The temperature is quite
high so with the added exothermic heat of reaction, there needs to be a cooling jacket system
involved with this process. If we did not put any corrective measure in place the increase in
temperature of the reactor would then lead to an increase in the rate of reaction which would
then in turn lead to an increase in heat generation rate. This could result in a runaway
reaction which subsequently could lead to an increase in the pressure of the reactor. As the
pressure is already quite high at 30 bar, any further increases in this pressure could lead to a
possible rupture in the vessel.
Due to these hazards relating to high pressure, the installation of relevant process control
measures should be done. Example; the installation of a pressure relief strategy alarm to alert
the operator.

Pressure relief strategy

A pressure relief strategy function to provide a venting route, from a piece of equipment such
a reactor, in order to prevent excessive pressure accumulation which could result in a
catastrophic emergency situation. Each piece of equipment has a maximum pressure level,
defined by applicable standards and regulations. Since an emergency relief system is usually
used as a final result, therefore its functioning must be independent of the proper operation of
other devices or systems, it must be self-actuated.
Mechanism

The mechanism of a pressure relief system is as follows; the pressure will increase if the
volume of the contents of a vessel tends to increase. Emergency pressure relief systems
operate by venting the equipment at a pre-determined pressure, the pressure will continue to
rise if the volumetric flow rate into the relief system is less than the rate of volume increase
of the vessel contents. With a properly sized relief system, a volumetric balance will be
struck before the pressure. Conditions will change if there are changes in pressure,
temperature, heat input rates, inventory and composition. Steady-state methodology suffices
to obtain an appropriate vent size if applied to the worst possible conditions of the transient
event. If the worst-instant conditions cannot be established by inspection, calculation of the
time-history of the event may be required. This time-history is often helpful for containment
and treatment system design even if a steady-state approach suffices for relief system sizing.

The AND gate is an electronic circuit that gives a high output (1) only if all its inputs
are high.

The AND logic gate is one of the example for the great understanding in operate the rector
under a good condition. Both pressure and flowrate of carbon monoxide should be should
either each one have the highest input. If both parameters have high input, thus the sudden
rise in alarm can occur. The pressure of equipment that works at high pressures (output) is
monitored constantly so that in case of a sudden rise an alarm can be triggered or the
relevant precautions can be taken. There is a regular maintenance check on equipment
which works at high pressures as well as all the seals to make sure the equipment is working
effectively and safely. Process control equipment can be used in order to make decisions
such as whether to let carbon monoxide should be allowed to continue to enter the reactor if
the pressure in the reactor is higher than it should be. The pressure detector used for the
alarm will also be programmed in order to take account of the reaction conditions.