DCMH.

CH4051_Process Safety
Design to Prevent Fire and Explosion

Prepared by:

Dr. Mardhati Zainal Abidin

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

AP Ir. Dr. Risza Rusli

University of Doha for Science & Technology

For:
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
 Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

▪ Understand inerting and purging procedure

▪ Understand static electrics – how it formed and how to prevent

▪ Understand electrical area classification and what it means for electrical

fixtures

▪ Understand fire protection; sprinkler, monitors, fire extinguisher, foam

 Barrier Model in the
Chronology of an Accident or Event
Prevention Mitigation
• Mechanical integrity • Automatic/manual • Alarms • Emergency response
• Predictive and preventive process control or • Operator intervention • Sprinkler, deluge
maintenance; inspection; safety systems • Interlocks, trips • Dike, trench
testing • On-line spares • Emergency shutdown • Blast wall, barricade
• Operator training • Backup systems • Last-resort controls • Water curtain
• Human factors • Relief Valves • Personal protective
• Impact barriers • Ignition source control equipment
• HEPA filters

Loss Event /
Hazard Cause Deviation Impact
Accidents
Material/energy Initiating event of Excursion Loss of Severity of
contained and process upset; beyond design/ containment consequences,
controlled during Start of accident operating limits of process losses
normal operation event sequence material/energy
• Toxicity • Mechanical failure • No flow • Fire • Casualties
• Flammability • Procedural error • High temperature • Explosion • Property damage
• Reactivity • External force • Low level • Hazardous • Business
• Radioactivity • Fouling, etc. • Impurities material interruption
• Elevated • Wrong material release, etc. • Environmental
pressure, etc. • Step omitted, etc. damage, etc.
 Design Criteria

▪ A robust design in preventing the initiation

of fire & explosion is :
▪ Prevention on the existence of
flammable mixtures or oxygen content
as the primary control.
▪ Elimination of ignition sources as a
secondary control.
▪ How the fire and explosion can it be
prevented?
▪ Inerting
▪ Control static electric
▪ Ventilation
▪ Explosion-proof equipment
 Inerting & Purging

❑ Inerting - Adding an inert gas to a combustible mixture to reduce the conc.

of O2 below limiting O2 concentration (LOC) – inert gas e.g. N2 or CO2 or
steam

❑ Purging usually for short-term addition of the inert gas for a specific time
period:
• During equipment start-up, for example before flammable material
is introduced into a reactor or distillation column

Reduce oxygen
concentration to a safe
level.
 Purging/Inerting Procedures

Purging method to reduce the O2 concentration to the low set point.

Vacuum Evacuate and replace with inert.

Purge

Pressure Pressurize with inert, then relieve pressure

purging

Sweep- Continuous flow of inert

through
Purging
Siphon Fill with liquid, then drain and replace liquid with inert.
purging

Combined Pressure and vacuum purge.

 Vacuum Purging
✓ Not used for large storage vessels
✓ Common for reactors
STEP:
1. Drawing a vacuum on the vessel until the desired vacuum is reached
2. Relieving the vacuum with an inert gas, such as nitrogen to atmospheric
pressure.
3. Repeating steps 1 and 2 until the desired oxidant concentration is reached.
Vacuum Purging
 Vacuum Purge Cycle

The concentration or mol fraction after j purge cycles:

j j
 nL   PL  (7-6)
y i = y o   = y o  
 nH   PH 

The total moles of nitrogen added for j cycles.

n N 2 = j (PH − PL )
V
(7-7)
RT
 Example - Vacuum Purging

Use a vacuum purging technique to reduce the oxygen concentration within a

1000-gal vessel to 1ppm. Determine the number of purges required and the
total nitrogen used. The temperature is 75°F, and the vessel is originally
charged with air under ambient conditions. A vacuum pump is used that
reaches 20 mm Hg absolute, and the vacuum is subsequently relieved with
pure nitrogen until the pressure returns to 1 atm absolute.
Determine number purge required and the total nitrogen used.
Example - Vacuum Purging
 Example 7-1: Vacuum Purging

The Total nitrogen used : Eq. 7-7

PL= (20 mmHg / 760mmHg) x 14.7 psia = 0.387 psia

= j (PH − PL )
V
n N 2
RT
= 4 (14.7 – 0.387) psia x (1000gal)(1 ft3 / 7.48 gal)

/(10.73 psia ft3 / lb-mol °R) (75 + 460)°R

= 1.33 lb-mol = 37.2 lb of nitrogen

 Pressure Purging

❑ Pressure-purged by adding
inert gas under pressure
❑ Added gas is diffused
throughout the vessel,
vented to atmosphere
Consider:
❑ The vessel is initially at PL
and is pressurized using
pure nitrogen at PH.
✓ The objective is to
determine the number
of pressure cycles
required to reach the
desired concentration.
 Pressure Purging

❑ The vessel is pressured with pure N2

❑ Pressurization - the number of moles of O2 remain constant & moles
fraction decreases
❑ Depressurization - the number of moles of O2 is reduced, the
composition of the gas remains constant - the O2 mole fraction remains
unchanged.
❑ The relationship used is identical to Eq. 7-6
j j
 nL   PL 
y i = y o   = y o  
 nH   PH 
nL is now the total moles at atmospheric presure (PL )
nH is total mole under pressure (PH )
 Example - Pressure Purging

Pressure purging technique is used to reduced oxygen of a 1000-gal vessel

to 1 ppm using pure N2 at a pressure of 80 psig and temperature of 75°F.
Determine the total N2 required. Compare the quantities of N2 required
between pressure purging and vacuum purging.
 Example – Pressure Purging

j j
 nL   PL 
yi = y o   = y o  
 nH   PH 

The final O2 conc. (yf ) is 1 ppm or 10-6 lb-mol O2 per total lb-mol. The
number of cycles required:

𝑦𝑗 𝑃𝐿
ln = 𝑗 ln
𝑦0 𝑃𝐻

ln( 10−6 /0.21)

𝑗= = 6.6
ln 14.7𝑝𝑠𝑖/ 80 + 14.7 𝑝𝑠𝑖𝑎
 Example – Pressure Purging

▪ The number of purge cycles required is 7

▪ The qty of N2 used , from Eq. 7-7
n N 2 = j (PH − PL )
V
RT
133.7𝑓𝑡 3
= 6 94.7 − 14.7 𝑝𝑠𝑖𝑎
10.73𝑝𝑠𝑖𝑎. 𝑓𝑡 3 /𝑙𝑏 − 𝑚𝑜𝑙°𝑅 535°𝑅
= 11.1lb
= 311 lb nitrogen
 Vacuum vs. Pressure

Vacuum Pressure

Pressure
purge cycles 4 6

Total moles of
nitrogen 1.33 11.1
Combined Pressure / Vacuum
Combined Pressure / Vacuum
Inerting with Nitrogen + Oxygen
Sweep Purging
Taking a Vessel Out of Service
Taking a Vessel Out of Service
Placing a Vessel Into Service
 Example

A 10,000 gal storage vessel contains butane liquid. We need to get air
into the vessel so that maintenance folks can do an internal inspection.
How do we do this without creating a flammable atmosphere?
 Solution

1. First pump out liquid butane and reduce pressure to 1 atm. At this
point vessel contains pure butane vapor at 1 atm.
2. Find data on butane:
LOC=12%
Combustion reaction for butane:
2C4H10 + 13O2 → 8CO2 + 10H2O
3. Calculate butane target percentage using the following equation:
 Solution

4. Use the following equation to estimate total cycles.

8- psig nitrogen = 94.7 psia
 Controlling Ignition Source: Static Electricity

A common ignition source is sparks due to static charge

buildup and sudden discharge. It is perhaps the most elusive
of ignition sources.
 Electrostatic Process

Process by which separated charges

recombine or excess charge is lost from a
system

A charged objects can be discharged when

▪ The field intensity exceeds 3 MV/m or
▪ The surfaces reaches a max. charge density of 2.7 x 10-5 C/m
 General Design Methods To Prevent
Electrostatic Ignitions
The design objective is to prevent the build up of charges on a product and
surrounding objects (equipment and personnel)

1. For handling liquid : reducing of charge generation and increasing the rate
of charge relaxation.

2. For handling solid/powder : designing the system to include charge

reduction by means of low-energy discharges.

3. When discharges cannot be eliminated

• maintaining oxidant levels below combustible levels (inerting)
• maintaining fuel levels below LFL or above UFL
 General Design Methods to Prevent
Electrostatic Ignitions

Propagating brush discharges are

Sparks are prevented by grounding
prevented by keeping the non-
and bonding prevent two metallic
conductive surfaces or coating thin
objects from having different
enough to have a break down voltage
potentials
below 4 kV.

General Design
Methods To Prevent
Electrostatic
Ignitions

Conical pile discharges are

Brush discharges prevented by
prevented by increasing
keeping the non-conductive
conductivity (additives), decreasing
surfaces thin or conductive enough
the charge rate below 0.5 kg/s and/or
to have a breakdown voltage of 4 kV
inerting.
 Bonding and Grounding

Bonding and grounding reduces the voltage of an entire system to ground level
or zero voltage
Bonding – the voltage difference between two conductive material is reduced
by bonding one end the material to the other end of the second material.
Grounding – the voltage difference between sets of bonded materials is
reduced to zero by bonding each set to ground
 Bonding and Grounding

Handling Solids without

the presence of
flammable vapours:

Transferred by bonding
and grounding all
conductive parts
 Dip Pipes

Reduce rate of charge generation: Dip Pipes

An extended line, called dip pipe, reduces the electrical charge that
accumulates when is allowed to free fall
Inerting

Handling Solids with the

presence of flammable
vapours:

Closed handling of the

solid of the solids in an
inert atmosphere.
 Hazardous Area Classification

▪ Plant layout plays a major role in preventing ignition of flammable release

which may occur. This aspect of layout is known as Area Classification –
distinctly represent
▪ An atmosphere in which an ignitable concentration of flammable gas
or vapor is present or might occasionally be present.
▪ An atmosphere in which combustible dust is, or could conceivably
be, in suspension in sufficient quantity to cause an explosive or
ignitable mixture.
▪ Initially electrical engineers used to carry out ‘electrical area
classification’ since one of the principal type of ignition source was
electric motors
▪ Hazardous Area Classification extends to cover ALL sources of ignition
and is generally performed by chemical engineers
 Zones of Hazardous Area

▪ Process of Hazardous Area Classification assigns area to one of the

following categories:

• Zone 0: A zone in which a flammable atmosphere is

continuously present or present for long periods

• Zone 1: A zone in which a flammable atmosphere is likely to occur

for short period in normal condition

• Zone 2: A zone in which a flammable atmosphere is not likely to

occur in normal operation and if it occurs only exist for a short time.

• A non-hazardous area is an area not classified as zone 0,1 or 2

38
 METHOD OF PROTECTION
Explosion-Proof Equipment & Instrument

EXCLUSION OF IGNITION SOURCE

EXCLUSION OF FUEL (TO EXTERNAL ATMOSPHERE)

Ex p Purging and pressurising Ex i Intrinsically safe

Ex pD Pressurisation for dust Ex iD Intrinsically safe for dust
Ex o Oil filling Ex d Flameproof/ explosion proof
Ex q Powder filling Ex tD Protection by enclosure

Ex m Encapsulation Ex e Increased safety

Ex m Encapsulation
Ex nR Restricted breathing
Ex mD Encapsulation for dust
Ex nA Non sparking
Ex nC Protected sparking
 METHOD OF PROTECTION
Explosion-Proof Equipment & Instrument

Ex Code Standard
Enclosure which can withstand internal explosion and prevent
Ex ‘d’ (Flameproof)
transmission to the surrounding.

Type of protection applied to electrical apparatus such that, in normal

operation and in certain specified abnormal conditions, it is not capable of
igniting a surrounding explosive gas atmosphere. It is applicable to non-
Ex ‘n’ (Non Incendive)
sparking electrical equipment with parts or circuits producing arcs or
sparks or having hot surfaces which, if not protected to IEC60079-15 could
be capable of igniting a surrounding explosive gas atmosphere.

The method of protection by which additional measures are applied to

electrical equipment as to give increased security against the possibility of
Ex ‘e’ (Increased Safety) excessive temperatures and of the occurrence or arcs and sparks during
the service life of the apparatus in normal or specified abnormal condition
with rated supply voltage not exceeding 11kV r.m.s A.C and D.C.

Type of protection based upon the restriction of electrical energy within

apparatus and of interconnecting wiring exposed to an explosive
Ex ‘i’ (Intrinsically safe)
atmosphere to a level below that which can cause ignition by either
sparking or heating effects
 METHOD OF PROTECTION
Explosion-Proof Equipment & Instrument

Ex Code Standard

Pressurization ‘p’ is type of protection to permit safe operation of electrical

equipment in hazardous conditions using technique of purging and/or
Ex ‘p’
pressurization to prevent the ingress of external atmosphere into an
(Pressurised/purged)
enclosure or room by maintaining a protective gas (clean air or inert gas)
therein at a pressure above that of the external atmosphere.

Equipment components of the equipment are usually encased in a resin

Ex ‘m’ (Encapsulated)
type material
Ex ‘q’
Equipment components are completely covered with a layer of Sand,
(Sand/Powder/Quartz
powder or quartz
Filled)

Ex ‘o’ (Oil Filled) Equipment components are completely submerged in oil

This method, being by definition special, has no specific rules. In effect it is

Ex ‘s’ (Special
any method which can be shown to have the required degree of safety in
Protection)
use.
 METHOD OF PROTECTION
Explosion-Proof Equipment & Instrument

FLAMEPROOF NON SPARKING INCREASED SAFETY

Ex d Ex nA Ex e
 METHOD OF PROTECTION
Explosion-Proof Equipment & Instrument

PRESSURISED ENCAPSULATED

Ex m
Ex p

OIL FILLED QUARTZ-POWDER FILLING

 Equipment Protection Level (EPL)

Level of protection assigned to equipment based on its likelihood of

becoming a source of ignition and distinguishing the differences between
explosive gas atmospheres, explosive dust atmospheres, and the explosive
atmospheres in mines susceptible to firedamp.

NOTE : The equipment protection level may optionally be employed as part of

a complete risk assessment of an installation, see IEC 60079-14.

ZONE 0 ZONE 1 ZONE 2

Ga Gb Gc

Da Db Dc
 Equipment Protection Level (EPL)

DEFINITION

Ga Equipment for explosive gas atmospheres, having a "very high" level

of protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal operation,
during expected malfunctions or during rare malfunctions

Gb Equipment for explosive gas atmospheres, having a "high" level of

protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal operation or
during expected malfunctions
Gc Equipment for explosive gas atmospheres, having a "enhanced"
level of protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal
operation and which may have some additional protection to
ensure that it remains inactive as an ignition source in the case of
regular expected occurrences (for example failure of a lamp)
 Equipment Protection Level (EPL)

DEFINITION

Da Equipment for explosive dust atmospheres, having a "very high"

level of protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal
operation, during expected malfunctions, or during rare
malfunctions
Db Equipment for explosive dust atmospheres, having a "high" level of
protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal operation or
during expected malfunctions
Dc Equipment for explosive dust atmospheres, having a "enhanced"
level of protection, which is not a source of ignition in normal
operation and which may have some additional protection to
ensure that it remains inactive as an ignition source in the case of
regular expected occurrences (for example failure of a lamp)
 Selection of Equipment
ZONE SYMBOL TYPE OF PROTECTION
ia Intrinsically safe apparatus or system
0
s Special protection (certified for use in zone 0)
Any explosion protection suitable for zone 0
d Flameproof enclosure
ib Intrinsically safe apparatus or system
px Pressurisation with shutdown
py Pressurisaton with alarm component change to Gc
1
pv Dilution
o Oil-immersion
m Encapsulation
q Sand filling
e Increased safety
Any explosion protection suitable for zone 0 and zone 1
n Type of protection "n"
2
Pressurisation with alarm component change to non-
pz hazardous
 Marking of Equipment

SAMPLE OF MARKING PER IEC

Ex d [ia Ga] IIC Gb alternate Ex db [ia] IIC

Ex e px IIC 125 °C (T4) Gb alternate Ex eb pxb IIC 125 °C (T4)
Ex d e IIB T3 Gb alternate Ex db eb IIB T3
Ex d II (NH3) Gb alternate Ex db II (NH3)
Ex ma IIIC T120 °C Da alternate Ex ma IIIC T120 °C
IP68 IP68
Ex ia IIIC T120 °C Da alternate Ex ia IIIC T120 °C
IP20 IP20
Ex t IIIC T225 °C T500 320 °C Db alternate Ex tb IIIC T225 °C T500 320 °C
IP65 IP65

Note : the maximum surface temperature TL shall be shown as a temperature

value in degrees Celsius and the unit of measurement °C, with the layer depth
L indicated as a subscript in mm, (e.g. T500 320 °C)
 Ventilation

• Purpose: to dilute explosive vapors with air to prevent explosion and

to confine the hazardous flammable mixtures.
• Open air plants are recommended - average wind velocities are high
to safely dilute volatile chemical.
• If the plant must be located indoors, local and dilution ventilation
systems are required.
• Local ventilation - the most effective method, example: the fume
hood. A hood is a device that either completely encloses the source
release point and/or moves the air in such a way to carry the
flammable gas release to a safe location.
• Dilution ventilation - used since the potential points of release are
usually numerous. Dilution ventilation always requires more air flow
than local ventilation.
 Ventilation

Ventilation data for handling flammable materials

 Mitigative Barrier
Sprinkler Systems

❑ The system consists of an array of sprinkler heads connected to a water

supply. Activated by:
▪ melting of a fusible link
▪ from a common control point, connected to heat and/or smoke
detector

❑ Sometimes, vessels need water protection to keep the vessel walls cool
during fires. High surface temp. can result in metal failure due to
pressure [Max. allowable working pressure]
Mitigative Barrier

Fixed pipe system connected

to a reliable source of fire
protection water supply and
equipped with water spray
nozzles for specific water
discharge and distribution
over the surface or area to be
protected.
Mitigative Barrier
Mitigative Barrier
 Conclusion

▪ For any fire or combustion explosion to occur, 3 conditions must be met as

shown in the Fire Triangle. If the conditions are eliminated, a fire or
explosion cannot occur.

▪ A robust design in preventing fire & explosion is

▪ Prevention on the existence of flammable mixtures as the primary
control,
▪ Elimination of ignition sources as a secondary control.

▪ The flammability diagram is important for determining whether a flammable

mixture exists and for providing target concentrations for inerting and
purging procedures. The objective is to avoid the flammable region.

▪ Strategy used to limit the potential damage from fires and explosions:
▪ Prevent the initiation of the fire or explosion (fire prevention)
▪ Minimize the damage after a fire or explosion has occurred (fire
protection)
End of Topic
Thank you