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Failure Scenario Tables


from

Guidelines for Design Solutions for Process Equipment Failures


by the Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Copyright 1997 American Institute of Chemical Engineers 345 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017 Disclaimer It is sincerely hoped that the information presented in this material will lead to an even more impressive safety record for the entire industry; however, neither the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, its consultants, the Center for Chemical Process Safety, its Subcommittee members, their employers, their employers officers and directors, nor Arthur D. Little, Inc., warrant or represent, expressly or by implication, the correctness or accuracy of the content of the information presented in this material. As between (1) American Institute of Chemical Engineers, its consultants, the Center for Chemical Process Safety, its Subcommittee members, their employers, their employers' officers and directors, and Arthur D. Little, Inc., and (2) the user of this material, the user accepts any legal liability or responsibility whatsoever for the consequence of its use or misuse. How to use this disk This disk, which is provided with Guidelines for Design Solutions for Process Equipment Failures, is intended to be used as a series of files that can be copied for use in process hazard evaluations or into existing safety review files on failure scenarios that they have experienced on the same or similar equipment systems. The books failure scenario tables for each of the ten equipment types are included on a 3.5 diskette as Microsoft Word and rich text format (RTF) files. The term (T) included in the tables under some item numbers indicates that that particular item number was discussed in some detail in the text portion of the equipment chapter in the book. It is expected that the book will be used to acquaint the disk users with the techniques and systems recommended by the books authors for making risk-based decisions (Chapter 2.) and in the application of this technique to two worked examples (Appendices A and B). CCPS would greatly appreciate if individual companies using the disk would include their own failure scenarios into the existing tables and provide CCPS with this additional information for inclusion in a new edition of the book when it is needed. Call CCPS at (212) 705-7319, if you have a problem with this disk. Introduction The book, Guidelines for Design Solutions for Process Equipment Failures, is the result of a project begun in 1994 in which a group of volunteer professionals representing major chemical, pharmaceutical, and hydrocarbon processing companies, worked with Arthur D. Little Inc., the contractor, to produce a book that attempts to describe the ways that major processing equipment can fail and be the cause of a catastrophic accident. The book then identifies the available design solutions that might avoid or mitigate the failure in a series of options ranging from inherently

2 safer/passive solutions to active and procedural solutions. The book is concerned with engineering design that reduces risk due to process hazards only. It does not focus on operations, maintenance, transportation, or personnel safety issues, although improved process safety can benefit each area. Detailed engineering designs are outside the scope of the work, but the authors have provided an extensive guide to the literature to assist the designer who wishes to go beyond safety design philosophy to the specifics of a particular safety system design. By capturing industry experience in how major processing equipment can fail, the book provides a very useful tool for the selection of process safety systems that should be of service to process design engineers as well as members of process hazards analysis teams. The inherently safer solutions that are suggested may, in some cases, come as a surprise to the process and design engineer in that they may in fact be the most cost effective solution as well, if a true life cycle analysis is made of the cost of maintaining add-on safety systems or the resulting cost of operator failure to carry out procedural controls is considered. In other cases the procedural solution may be the best choice, because it involves operators so that they may better understand and therefore better control the process as opposed to the replacement of operator intelligence with process interlocks. The book offers engineers inherently safer/passive, active and procedural design solutions, but ultimately engineers must make the case for the solutions that best satisfy their companys requirements for a balance between risk reduction and cost. The major equipment categories that are covered are: Vessels, Reactors, Mass Transfer Equipment, Heat Transfer Equipment, Dryers, Fluid Transfer Equipment, Solid-Fluid Separators, Solids Handling and Processing Equipment, Fired Equipment, and Piping and Piping Components. The potential equipment failure scenarios and design solutions for each equipment category are provided in tabular form in each equipment chapter. To facilitate use of this information, particularly in hazard identification studies such as HAZOPs, these tables are being provided in electronic format on a 3.5 diskette as Microsoft Word and rich text format (RTF) files, as an insert to the book. It is hoped that this will encourage the expansion of these tables based on the users experience and that companies will incorporate these tables into their inhouse hazard reviews as appropriate. Acknowledgments The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) and those involved in its operation wish to thank its many sponsors whose funding made this project possible, the members of its Technical Steering Committee who conceived of and supported this Guidelines project, and the members of its Engineering Practices Subcommittee for their dedicated efforts, technical contributions, and enthusiasm. The subcommittee played a major role in the writing of the book by suggesting examples, by offering failure scenarios for the major equipment covered in the book, and by suggesting possible design solutions. It is their collective industrial experience captured in this book that makes the book especially valuable to the process and design engineer. The members of the subcommittee wish to thank their employers for providing time and support to participate in this project.

3 The members of the Engineering Practices Subcommittee were: Robert H. Walz, ABB Lummus Global Inc. (Chair) Laurence G. Britton, Union Carbide Corp. Stephen E. Cloutier, UOP Glenn R. Davis, DuPont Kenneth W. Linder, Industrial Risk Insurers Peter N. Lodal, Eastman Chemical Co. Joseph B. Mettalia, Jr., CCPS Staff John A. Noronha, Eastman Kodak Co. Carl A. Schiappa, Dow Chemical USA Technical contributors and reviewers were: Steven R. Bruce, EQE International Myron Casada, JBF Associates Inc. William F. Early, Early Consulting, L. C. Rudolph C. Frey, The M. W. Kellogg Company John A. Hoffmeister, Lockheed Martin Energy Systems T. Janicik, Mallinckrodt Inc. Robert W. Johnson, Battelle Joseph Keel, The Bechtel Corporation D. Harper Meek, ARCO Chemical Company Mark A. Moderski, Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation Harvey Rosenhouse, FMC Corporation Stanley J. Schecter, Consultant Adrian L. Sepeda, Occidental Chemical Corporation Anthony A. Thompson, Monsanto Company Lester H. Wittenberg, CCPS The Engineering Practices Subcommittee is particularly indebted to its chair, Bob Walz, for his leadership, and to Peter Lodal of Eastman Chemical Company and Joe Keel of The Bechtel Corporation for their dedicated efforts in preparing the VCM/HCl fractionation worked example in the book. Dennis C. Hendershot of the Rohm and Haas Company wrote the foreword to the book and is appreciated for his ongoing interest in this project and his able assistance and review of the work as it was being produced. Sanjeev Mohindra, P. J. Bellomo, and R. Peter Stickles directed the project at Arthur D. Little Inc. and were the authors of the risk-based design technique described in Chapter 2. Stanley S. Grossel, consultant and former chair of the Engineering Practices Subcommittee, was the author of Chapter 4 (Reactors), Chapter 7 (Dryers), Chapter 9 (Solid-Fluid Separators), Chapter 10 (Solids Handling and Processing Equipment), and the Batch Reactor worked example.

Failure Scenario Tables Table of Contents Equipment Category


Dryers File Name (Ch. No.) dryers7.doc Operational Deviation Overpressure Underpressure High Temperature Overpressure Underpressure High Temperature Low Temperature Low Flow Low Level Wrong Composition Overpressure High Temperature Low Flow Reverse Flow Overspeed Loss of Containment Wrong Composition Overpressure Underpressure High Temperature Low Temperature Wrong Composition Loss of Containment Overpressure Underpressure High Temperature High/low Level Wrong Composition Page No. 1-9 9 9-12 1-4 4 5-6 7 7 8 8-10 1-2 3-4 4-5 5-6 6 7-8 8 1-4 4 5 6 6 7-8 1-3 3 4-5 5 6-9

Fired Equipment

firdeq11.doc

Fluid Transfer Equipment

fluidtr8.doc

Heat Transfer Equipment

heattr6.doc

Mass Transfer Equipment

masstr5.doc

Failure Scenario Tables Table of Contents (2) Equipment Category


Piping File Name (Ch. No.) piping12.doc Operational Deviation Overpressure High Temperature Low Temperature High Flow Reverse Flow Loss of Containment Wrong Composition Overpressure High Temperature Reverse Flow Wrong Composition Overpressure High Temperature Loss of Containment Overpressure High Temperature Loss of Containment Vessels vessels3.doc Overpressure Underpressure High External Level High Temperature Low Temperature Over-fill Low-level Loss of Containment Wrong Composition Less Agitation Page No. 1-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7 8-10 11 1-8 8 9 9-10 1-2 3 4-6 1-4 5-7 8 1-10 10-13 13 14-16 16-18 19-20 21-22 22-26 27-28 29

Reactors

reactor4.doc

Solids-Fluid Separators

sol-fl9.doc

Solids Handling and Processing Equipment

solhan10.doc

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