SAFETY: As the northern hemisphere winter approaches, here's a timely reminder for refiners to focus on freeze protection of dead-legs and infrequently-used piping and equipment. On 16-Feb-07, a leak of high pressure propane on a Propane Deasphal...
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SAFETY: Flare systems are important safety devices for numerous types of process plant including oil refineries. They are designed to handle emergency process upsets that require release of large volumes of gas and typically achieve > 98% destruct...
SAFETY: Catalyst regeneration in catalytic reforming units is a potentially hazardous operation because the reactors normally operate in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere but catalyst regeneration takes place in an oxygen-containing atmosphere. Inadverte...
INTEGRITY: Internal thinning and subsequent rupture of carbon steel boiler feedwater piping can result in significant plant downtime and can potentially be a serious safety hazard as ruptures can occur unexpectedly and close to work areas and walk...
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RELIABILITY: Solid particles and/or water droplets in the motive steam supply to (API 612 or equivalent) special purpose steam turbines driving process gas compressors can cause serious erosion damage or even mechanical failure of rotating and sta...
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INTEGRITY: Brittle fracture is a sudden, very rapid, catastrophic failure of a material with little or no evidence of thinning or necking at the fracture face. Carbon steels and low alloy Cr-Mo steels are the most susceptible grades of steel to br...
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SAFETY: On 18-Feb-15, an explosion occurred in an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) on the Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit at the ExxonMobil Torrance refinery (California, USA). The FCC was in “safe park” mode at the time. Shrapnel from the...
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SAFETY: Nickel carbonyl formation can occur when catalysts or adsorbents containing dispersed nickel come into contact with carbon monoxide (CO) at temperatures below 200 Deg. C (392 Deg. F). Nickel carbonyl is a highly toxic colourless or pale ye...
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SAFETY: Liquid overfill events have caused several major accidents at refineries over the years. Examples include Texaco Pembroke FCC Debutaniser (24-Jul-94) and BP Texas City Raffinate Splitter (23-Mar-05). However, in addition to these high prof...
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SAFETY: On 23-Mar-05 a vapour cloud explosion occurred on the Naphtha Isomerisation unit plot at the BP Texas City refinery. The explosion killed 15 people and injured 180 others. The vapour cloud was formed by vapourisation of light naphtha liqui...
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SAFETY: High pressure (HP) steam can cause severe burns to plant personnel or even fatalities. HP steam leaks are typically invisible to the human eye but are very noisy. Consequently, presence of a pinhole leak in a pipe or fitting in a noisy env...
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RELIABILITY: Reciprocating compressor cylinder valve reliability is affected by process and operational factors as well as mechanical failures. Common causes of cylinder valve failure include impact damage by liquids or solid contaminants in the p...
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SAFETY: Catastrophic failure of reciprocating compressor components can result in a major loss of primary containment (LOPC), a fire or explosion, significant equipment damage and loss of production, and most importantly, potential for serious or ...
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SAFETY: Failure in service of rolling ladders on floating roof storage tanks in flammable liquid service can create a significant safety and environmental hazard, especially if the roof deck becomes partially submerged (photo). Such failures can a...
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INTEGRITY: Maintenance and inspection of off-plot infrastructure is just as important for plant availability and personnel safety as it is for on-plot process equipment. Office-based staff as well as operators can help by keeping their eyes open d...
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SAFETY: On 25-Sep-98, 2 employees were killed and 8 more were injured when a rich oil deethaniser reboiler (GP-905) failed catastrophically at Esso Longford Gas Plant 1 (GP1) in Gippsland, Victoria (Australia). The resulting fire burned for more t...
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INTEGRITY: Caustic stress corrosion cracking (CSCC) in carbon steel vessels, exchangers and piping can result in a loss of primary containment (LOPC), an unplanned shutdown and/or a significant safety or environmental hazard. There have been sever...
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OPTIMISATION: Refiners can improve the reliability and efficiency of their steam and electrical power generation systems by replacing ageing direct-fired utility boilers and condensing steam turbine generators with a modern Cogeneration (“Cogen...
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SAFETY: Some catalysts require un/loading under inert conditions in order to exclude air and avoid pyrophoric ignition or catalyst damage. Nitrogen is most commonly used for this purpose but poses an extreme risk of asphyxiation to personnel. Sadl...
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SAFETY: High to low pressure (HP:LP) interfaces are a significant process safety hazard in many types of refining processes (especially hydrocrackers and high pressure hydrotreaters). Failure to mitigate the risk of gas breakthrough can result in ...