B

y continuously monitoring for

abnormal situations, such as a
fire, and combustible or toxic
gas releases, fire and gas (F&G)
detection and mitigation systems are
the linchpins to maintaining overall
safety and operation of industrial fa-
cilities. The premise of these systems
is to protect processes and the envi-
ronment by providing early warning
of incidents and enabling actions that
prevent them from escalating. Also,
implementing an integrated F&G
strategy based on the latest automa-
tion technology, the chemical process
industries (CPI) not only meet pro-
tection requirements, but also have
potential to enhance business success.
F&G safety awareness
In December 2005, an explosion at the
Buncefield fuel terminal in Hertford-
shire, U.K. ignited millions of gallons
of fuel. Water and land quality were
adversely affected across southern
England, resulting in a clean-up ef-
fort that cost hundreds of millions of
pounds. Such incidents illustrate the
potential threats to the worlds oil-
and-gas supply chain and other vital
process industry resources. They also
serve as a critical reminder that, due
to the very nature of the business and
the products associated with it, the
CPI is inherently fraught with risks.
These risks range from raw mate-
rial and intermediate toxicity and
reactivity, to energy release from
chemical reactions, high tempera-
tures and high pressures. With all
too frequent news reports of cata-
strophic incidents occurring at man-
ufacturing facilities across the globe,
safety has never been a more scru-
tinized issue than it is today. Com-
pounding the already high visibility
of this issue is the state of the global
economy; manufacturers simply can-
not afford the monetary losses com-
monly associated with plant safety
incidents.
Amid this backdrop, integrated
process control and safety systems
have emerged over the last few years
as effective solutions for providing
safer working conditions in plants. In
providing operators better visibility
across process and safety, CPI compa-
nies are realizing that integrated sys-
tems can reduce costs by minimizing
equipment damage and incidents that
impact people and the environment.
At the same time, the reflection on
corporate image is positive.
Elements and integration
International standards organize
safety implementation under a series
of six protection layers:
Feature Report
40 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com may 2009
Feature Report





Switchgear
MCC












Fire detection
Smoke
Heat
FIame
ManuaI caII
point
Gas detection
Toxic
FIammabIe
Acoustic
Ieakage
ManuaI
caII point
LOGIC
SOLVER
Fire and gas
controIIer
or
Fire aIarm
paneI
system
AIarm Iists
and aIarm dispIay
Notification
appIiances
(beacons,
sounders)
Fire
suppression
system
Safety
shutdown
system
Figure 1. A typical F&G safety system comprises detection, logic
control, and alarm and mitigation functions. The logic solver is the
central control unit of the overall F&G detection and control system.
The controller receives alarm and status or analog signals from feld
monitoring devices required for fre and gas detection. The controller
handles the required actions to initiate alarms and mitigate the hazard
Fire & Gas in Safety Systems
Integrating fire-and-gas
detectors and mitigation
systems into overall process
safety control can help ensure
fast responses to emergencies
Scott Hillman
Honeywell
Inherentlysafeplantdesign
Processcontrolsystemsthatare
safe and secure
Automaticsafety,securityand
mitigation systems
Workprocedures
Alarmsystems
Mechanicalprotectionsystems
Acting as the prevention safety layer,
the safety shutdown system takes
automatic and independent action to
prevent a hazardous incident from oc-
curring and to protect personnel and
plant equipment against serious harm.
Still, in reality, incidents unfortunately
escalate far beyond this layer.
This problem is the main reason
that F&G systems should remain at
the core of any integrated solution.
Used for automating emergency ac-
tions with high-integrity safety and
control solutions, F&G systems act as
the mitigation safety layer that takes
action to lessen the consequences of
hazardous events. They are also criti-
cal to resuming full production when
recovering from these incidents.
A good F&G system combines state-
of-the-art detectors, conventional and
analog addressable fire panels, clean-
agent and inert-gas fire suppression
systems, and a safety integrity level
(SIL) certified logic solver (Figure 2).
The logic solver acts as the central
control unit (Figure 1), which receives
alarm and status or analog signals
from field monitoring devices such as
detectors or manual pull stations, ini-
tiates alarms and mitigates the haz-
ard. Correct and proven connection
of detectors to plant safety systems
is an important factor in reliable per-
formance of the F&G system and for
establishing the desired SIL.
In the past, a proprietary F&G sys-
tem was standalone or a hardwired
mimic overview panel that was linked
to a control system. With these older
systems, fire-control measures had to
be manually activated, which was far
from an ideal practice. Today, however,
F&G detection systems are gener-
ally programmable electronic systems
(PES) with high safety availability and
mitigation effectiveness. As modern
F&G systems are tightly integrated
with the overall process safety strategy,
mitigation is either enacted through
an emergency shutdown (ESD) system
or directly by the F&G system itself.
Using these new techniques and add-
ing intelligence to instruments to re-
duce the number of spurious alarms
has greatly improved detection rates.
Thanks to these advances in F&G
detectors, the systems can detect early
warnings of explosive and health haz-
ards, including combustible and toxic
gas releases, thermal radiation from
fires and minute traces of smoke
in sensitive equipment enclosures.
They also provide audible and visual
alarm indications to ensure that op-
erators and personnel are informed
of hazardous situations. With these
improved detection capabilities, F&G
systems automatically initiate execu-
tive actions, such as deluge systems
and evacuation procedures. This
minimizes the escalation of safety in-
cidents and protects personnel, prop-
erty and the environment.
Further value can be realized an
F&G solution is plugged into an inte-
grated system that provides common
tools, operating interface and network-
ing, resulting in independent systems
that are tied together on a common
platform. A recommended approach
is integration at the controller level,
which provides: plant-wide safety in-
strumented system (SIS) point data;
diagnostics and system information;
alarms and events, operator displays;
and sequence of event information to
any station. This minimizes manual
intervention and drastic plant shut-
downs, reduces hardware costs, and
allows plants to recover more quickly
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com may 2009 41
Ethernet
Serial interface
Addressable
fire alarm panel
Digital
video server
Plant evaluation system/
Plant security center,
(normally not in F&G scope)
Plant wide
historian
F&G operator
station
F&G mimic
panel
Digital
video cameras
Addressable fire detectors,
modules, manual call points
DCS/SIS operator
station
Fault-tolerant
ethernet
DCS
ESD safety
manager
F&G logic solver
safety manager
F&G detectors, manual call points Sounders, beacons
F&G
mimic panel
Battery
backup
Non-process manned buildings Process unit areas
Figure 2. A good F&G system combines state-of-the-art fre and gas detectors, conventional and analog addressable fre
panels, clean-agent and inert-gas fre suppression systems, and an SIL 3 certifed fre-and-gas logic solver into a consistently
designed and executed solution. An integrated system provides common tools, operating interface and networking, resulting in a
common platform with independent systems
Feature Report
42 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com may 2009
and easily from process upsets and ab-
normal situations.
Modernsafetysystems,whenseam-
lessly integrated with the plant au-
tomation system through a secure
communication network, will transfer
alarm signals, fault and trip signals
and system diagnostics. Information
from all related systems can be man-
aged from the same location, enabling
that additional layer to monitor the
status and operability of the total
F&G detection and control system.
Overall SIS technology integrates
safety measures dispersed throughout
a plant to reduce risk to employees
and assets, increase process availabil-
ity, and improve regulatory compli-
ance. SIS solutions can be integrated
with F&G detectors for increased pro-
tection, and unified with third-party
systems to reduce validation and ac-
ceptance testing costs.
Combined with the new generation
of F&G solutions, an integrated sys-
tem provides alerts of abnormal situ-
ations in a fast, accurate and struc-
tured way, giving personnel time to
decide upon the correct course of ac-
tion. These solutions, which include
new integration capabilities with
process-simulation tools, F&G detec-
tors and control communication pro-
tocols, enable safety engineers to de-
sign large integrated and distributed
plant-wide safety strategies. With in-
novative simulation solutions, safety
engineers can easily test the impact
of safety strategies on the overall
plant design and operations before
implementation. This reduces overall
risk and the impact of system modifi-
cations and ultimately increases prof-
itability by bringing new plants into
full production much faster.
In addition, new field-device con-
figuration tools allow plant personnel
to automatically configure intelligent
safety devices and integrate them
into the control system database.
Facilities subsequently save money
by using a single tool to manage all
equipment assets.
Toward integrated systems
As more plant owners move toward
highly integrated plant-production
systems, appropriate integration with
multiple interdependent yet interre-
lated layers of protection (Figure 3)
plays an important role in improving
safety and efficiency.
The F&G system should have com-
munications integration with the
plant distributed control system
(DCS) in order to have F&G graphics
and alarms displayed to the operator.
However, there also should be inde-
pendent displays, such as independent
human-machine interfaces (HMIs),
for plant operators to respond to F&G
excursions when the DCS HMIs are
not available. The plant F&G system,
with a fire system for occupied build-
ings, should also be integrated with
the plant evacuation and site security
center for efficient plant-evacuation
procedures. This enables plant man-
agers to keep better tabs on personnel
and efficiently coordinate with first
responders during emergencies.
As part of an overall plant-safety
strategy, end users need a unified
platform for emergency shutdown and
F&G detection. A single window for
operators and a common tool for engi-
neering and maintenance drives down
operational risk and costs.
Integrated control and safety sys-
tems (ICSS) provide multiple benefits
to process plants. They help opera-
tors minimize intervention and shut-
downs, and recover more easily from
process upsets. They also allow facili-
ties to reduce hardware and installa-
tion costs, and ensure easier system
configuration with preconfigured
function block selections.
Plants implementing an ICSS plat-
form for F&G, ESD and DCS systems
can significantly lower their opera-
tion and maintenance costs, and in
many cases, reduce overall wall-to-
wall project costs by 25%. Seamless
integration with the ESD and DCS
through a common network proto-
col provides a safe landing in case of
emergencies and eliminates the need
for additional equipment or engineer-
ing. Integration of fire detection and
security systems for offsites and utili-
ties with the plant automation infra-
structure further improves operator
efficiency, through single-window ac-
cess for alarm visualization, diagnos-
tics, and events and historians.
These truly integrated safety sys-
tems deliver several benefits, includ-
ing the following.
Integratedoperationalinterface
Integratedpeercontrol
Integrateddiagnostics
Integratedpostmortemanalysis
IntegratedF&Gsystem
Integratedpowersupplies
Integratedmodifications
Integratedsimulationand
optimization
Operational integration provides
a seamless interface to the process
under control, and at the same time,
maintains safe separation. From an
operational perspective, it makes no
difference where the application is
running. All required information is
available to the operator. This allows
applications ranging from rotating
equipment and compressor-protective
systems, to emergency shutdown sys-
tems and large plant-wide F&G ap-
plications to be monitored from any
operator console.
Additionally, industrial operations
benefit from a holistic approach to
safety that supports everything from a
Secure process control
Asset management and protection
Abnormal situation management
Effective operating environment
Boundary management
Emergency shutdown system
Physical protection
Emergency response
Figure 3. Industrial operations beneft from a holistic approach to safety that
supports a secure process control network to the perimeter of the plant to protect
people, assets and proftability. A layered safety strategy encompasses process and
system technology and the people who interact with that technology to help
plants achieve their safety objectives
ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com may 2009 43
secure process control network (PCN)
to the perimeter of the plant. This lay-
ered safety strategy encompasses pro-
cess and system technology and the
people who interact with that tech-
nology to help plants achieve their
safety objectives.
A layered safety strategy unifies
all plant protection layers (including
basic control, prevention and mitiga-
tion, as outlined in IEC 61511 stan-
dard) required for achieving optimum
functional safety. It also provides the
required functional safety with a high
SIL. This includes superior visualiza-
tion and logging facilities enabling op-
timal operator response and accurate
evaluations. By integrating basic con-
trol, prevention and mitigation com-
ponents, a CPI company can vastly
reduce its overall project costs and
ongoing maintenance expenses.
At the core of a layered safety strat-
egy is process design the embodi-
ment of the business, safety and pro-
duction considerations necessary for
effective operations. At the next layer,
the layered approach implements
tools and procedures for managing
abnormal situations and reducing
incidents. When an abnormal situa-
tion occurs, alarm management, early
event detection, and abnormal situa-
tion management (ASM)-designed
displays ensure operators have the
information available in the context
they need it. This enables faster reac-
tion to hazardous situations.
Next, properly designed emergency-
shutdown systems and automated
procedures can move a plant to a safe
state in the event that an incident es-
calates beyond the inner sphere of pro-
tection. Should an incident occur, F&G
detection solutions, coupled with rapid
location of individuals and a carefully
designed emergency response proce-
dure, will help contain the impact.
Finally, a layered approach to safety
protects the perimeter of the plant
using physical security that safe-
guards access to structures and moni-
tors traffic approaching the facility.
When designing a truly integrated
system, an effective project strategy
starts with an assessment of future
or existing F&G performance accord-
ing to functional safety standards
(Figure 4). Based on this assessment,
end users have a detailed roadmap for
installing new equipment or updating
obsolete infrastructure to an optimal
level of safety. This process begins
with a hazard and risk assessment
(such as HAZOP) and then contin-
ues through the various steps of the
safety lifecycle as outlined in safety
standards such as IEC 61511. An in-
tegrated main automation contractor
(I-MAC) can help identify F&G haz-
ard points and possible risks, and then
develop basic design packages and re-
lated acceptance test criteria to meet
safety requirements. This results in
optimized risk reduction and opera-
tional performance, better compliance
with safety standards, and increased
lifecycle sustainability.
Supplier assistance can extend
to implementing SIS solutions; live
hot cutover, implementation and ex-
ecution of revamps; and installation,
commissioning and safety validation.
To sustain the end users F&G sys-
tem performance, leading automa-
tion contractors also provide lifecycle
support services that include periodic
proof testing; system maintenance;
training programs on safety, code and
standard compliance; and spare parts
management.
Challenges and the road ahead
Industrial standards such as IEC
61511 (ANSI/ISA S84.01 in the U.S.)
play a large role in developing, imple-
menting and installing F&G systems.
The overall safety lifecycle model de-
scribed in the IEC standard lists all of
the necessary project activities, from
the concept (definition) phase to the
decommissioning phase, necessary to
ensure the functional safety of equip-
ment under control (EUC). These ac-

Review
potential F&G incidents as
part of risk assessment
Dene
role required of F&G
system in risk reduction
Select
appropriate system type
Set
performance standard
Develop
specification test, mainten-
ance, inspection procedure
Implement
performance standard
Figure 4. An effective project
strategy starts with an assessment
of future or existing fre and gas per-
formance according to functional safety
standards. Based on this assessment,
end users have a detailed roadmap for
installing new equipment or updating
obsolete infrastructure to an optimal
level of safety. The main automation con-
tractor can help to identify F&G hazard
points and possible risks, and develop
basic design packages and related ac-
ceptance test criteria to meet safety
requirements
Integrated safety In oIl and gas
L
ike other process industry operations, oil and gas terminals present difficult challenges
for automation and safety technology. Tank farms, storage areas, and loading and un-
loading operations all require F&G and safety systems to protect personnel, assets and
the environment. The consequences of incidents at oil and gas terminals, as illustrated at the
Buncefield fuel terminal, can be enormous (Figure 5).
In oil and gas terminal applications, operators not only need overfill protection but also an
integrated fire and life safety system allowing proactive response to alarms and events and
a single realtime view to any potential threat. Industrial plants have procedures and safety
systems designed to bring operations to a safe state in the event of equipment malfunctions
and other operational problems. In the case of a significant security incident, an integrated
system can activate these same procedures and systems. An integrated system also leads to
less expensive implementation and maintenance, since all components work together.
An integrated fire-and-life safety solution for terminals typically includes high-high tank
alarms and loading system interlocks (compliant with IEC 61511) that prevent overflow
through shutdown of pumps. Likewise, it incorporates the latest-technology gas and vapor
detectors, integrated with the overfill shutdown system, to detect incidents before they esca-
late. The system will mitigate safety incidents by ensuring that all personnel are informed of
hazardous situations in a clear and unambiguous manner, and providing fast and efficient
response to associated risks.
An effective terminal automation safety and security solution will not only include overfill
protection, but will also integrate security access control, personnel mustering systems and
video monitoring to reduce the possibility of unauthorized access or intrusion. Integration of
technologies such as security biometrics and wireless mesh networks enhance the operation
and the lower cost of implementation of these systems.
Feature Report
44 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com may 2009
tivities can be divided over a wide
range of categories, such as proce-
dures, documentation, testing and
validation, planning, hardware
and software development, and
risk assessment.
The IEC 61511 standard con-
cerns the determination and devel-
opment of risk-reduction measures
(RRMs)requiredastheoutcomeof
an EUC risk assessment. The basic
principle of risk assessment is that
all potential risks to the EUC are
identified and analyzed. This in-
cludes calculating the probability
of each potential EUC hazard and
determining the risk reduction
measures required to achieve an
acceptable SIL. This is defined by
the following expression.
Risk = Probability x Consequences
The prescribed reduction mea-
sures either decrease the risk
probability (for example, ESD sys-
tems), or mitigate their consequences
(for example, F&G systems). The risk
of EUC hazards can be reduced by a
combination of several RRMs, where
each measure handles one part of the
total required risk reduction factor
(RRF).
Recently, there have been discus-
sions regarding whether F&G detec-
tion systems should contribute to risk
reduction, or be considered only as a
protection for the installation. The
ISA technical report TR84.00.07, pro-
viding guidance on the evaluation of
fire-and-gas system effectiveness, is
currently in draft review.
Additionally, a growing number of
regulations have drawn more atten-
tion to process safety and the role
played by F&G systems. Manufactur-
ing plants must cope with business
challenges ranging from increased ac-
cident, incident and insurance costs, to
compliance with strict standards and
codes, such as NFPA, API and OSHA
in the U.S., and BS EN and SEVESO
II in Europe. Also, issues related to
corporate image and environmental
stewardship have growing implica-
tions in the global market.
To help address these issues, indus-
trial plants need effective solutions
for improving a wide range of process-
safeguarding practices. This requires a
control-system architecture that allows
engineers to design and build stand-
alone safety applications and distrib-
uted plant-wide safety topologies.
Plants must find ways to improve
F&G system effectiveness through
optimization of F&G detector cover-
age, system safety availability and
mitigation effectiveness. At the same
time, they must reduce the cost of
ownership for safety equipment.
Many facilities are also dealing with
the cost of upgrading and refurbish-
ing existing, non-integrated F&G
systems. Compounding this issue is
the fact that plants must meet their
safety needs while ensuring opera-
tional and business readiness at proj-
ect startup. Faced with this reality,
they seek the lowest risk and high-
est value protection from their safety
system and F&G technology.
Edited by Kate Torzewski
Figure 5. Like other process industry op-
erations, oil & gas terminals present difficult
challenges for automation and safety tech-
nology. Tank farms, storage areas, and load-
ing/unloading operations all require fre and
gas and safety systems to protect personnel,
assets and the environment. The conse-
quences of incidents at oil and gas terminals
can be enormous
Author
Scott Hillman is the global
solutions director for Honey-
wells New Construction Solu-
tions (2500 West Union Hills
Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85027
Phone: 602-313-4138; Fax:
602-313-4040; Email: scott.
[email protected]). In
his 20 years with Honeywell,
Hillman has held project en-
gineering, training, consult-
ing and a variety of product
manager positions. He also is a Certified Safety
Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) and a member
of the CFSE Governance Board.
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