Compression system check-valve failure hazards

Processes that utilize multistage compression systems (olefins plant compression systems, gas processing, integrated refrigeration systems, etc.) have the potential for overpressure due to single or multiple check-valve failure. Catastrophic equipment failure resulting from overpressure can potentially occur due to compression system discharge, interstage, and/or suction check-valve failure, coincident with compressor shutdown. Depending on system design and application, overpressure values approaching or exceeding 300% of equipment design are possible, while for some equipment, even limited overpressure can result in catastrophic vessel failure due to brittle fracture. Additional hazards associated with compression system fail-to-check scenarios include risks associated with excessive flare loading and compressor rotor reverse rotation. In the case of an ethylene refrigeration compressor at a typical ethylene plant, rotor reverse rotation can potentially exceed overspeed limits.This paper provides risk assessment results based on analyses performed on the three primary compression systems in six ethylene plants. The methodologies used for risk identification screening, detailed risk assessment and evaluation of system dynamics are all presented. Alternative methods for mitigating risks are also discussed, along with check-valve reliability data. An overview of applicable overpressure protection requirements defined in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is provided. This paper will be of interest to anyone who designs or operates multistage compression systems in the chemical, petrochemical or refining industries.     

Quantitative risk assessment: How realistic are those frequency assumptions?

Although much has changed in recent decades in how the consequences are treated in risk assessment of major industrial accidents, estimation of frequencies still appears to be largely based on values from several decades ago. This paper reviews briefly some of the implications of this, drawing on lessons not only from the process industries but also from other not so obviously relevant fields such as aerospace and finance, where the significance of such factors such as organizational culture, normalization of deviance, ownership, demographic change, etc. is becoming increasingly recognized in the analysis and hence the control of risk.Failure to consider such factors and their effects can pose a problem, because risk assessment is not simply an abstract concept but can have a real influence on the level of risk. If protective measures such as the safety culture of the site, etc. can be shown to significantly change the risk zone, this can persuade the risk generator to improve those factors or take other steps to reduce the risk such as reducing the inventory in the process. Conversely, assessments conducted for well-run companies may misrepresent the risk if the site ownership changes to a financial holding company with a focus on maximizing short-term profit and resale of the assets, and it can be difficult even for well-motivated management to justify protective measures if they produce no apparent difference in the risk.This paper introduces these and other issues for consideration in the symposium which follows.     

Evaluating the potential for overpressures from the ignition of an LNG vapor cloud during offloading

Ignition of natural gas (composed primarily of methane) is generally not considered to pose explosion hazards when in unconfined and low- or medium-congested areas, as most of the areas within LNG regasification facilities can typically be classified. However, as the degrees of confinement and/or congestion increase, the potential exists for the ignition of a methane cloud to result in damaging overpressures (as demonstrated by the recurring residential explosions due to natural gas leaks). Therefore, it is prudent to examine a proposed facility’s design to identify areas where vapor cloud explosions (VCEs) may cause damage, particularly if the damage may extend off site.An area of potential interest for VCEs is the dock, while an LNG carrier is being offloaded: the vessel hull provides one degree of confinement and the shoreline may provide another; some degree of congestion is provided by the dock and associated equipment.In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLACS is used to evaluate the consequences of the ignition of a flammable vapor cloud from an LNG spill during the LNG carrier offloading process. The simulations will demonstrate different approaches that can be taken to evaluate a vapor cloud explosion scenario in a partially confined and partially congested geometry.     

2-氨基-2,3-二甲基丁酰胺氧化合成热危险性研究

为研究2-氨基-23,-二甲基丁酰胺氧化合成的热危险性,采用差示扫描量热仪(DSC)测试2-氨基-2,3-二甲基丁腈和2-氨基-2,3-二甲基丁酰胺的热分解情况,采用反应量热仪(RC1)研究反应温度、双氧水滴加速度和氢氧化钠用量对反应的影响。研究结果显示,2-氨基-2,3-二甲基丁腈吸热热分解温度为149.5℃2,-氨基-2,3-二甲基丁酰胺表现为吸热和放热2段分解过程,吸热和放热分解温度分别为234.4℃和456℃。反应放热速率主要为加料控制,但是,存在一定的热累积。热失控体系最高温度(MTSR)低于2-氨基-23,-二甲基丁腈和2-氨基-23,-二甲基丁酰胺的分解温度,高于体系沸腾温度,在热失控的条件下,反应体系容易导致冲料危险;在优惠的工艺条件范围内,提高反应温度,延长滴加时间,可降低反应的MTSR,提高热转化率和反应安全性。     

Extreme weather events and related disasters in the Philippines, 2004–08: a sign of what climate change will mean?

Being an archipelagic nation, the Philippines is susceptible and vulnerable to the ill-effects of weather-related hazards. Extreme weather events, which include tropical cyclones, monsoon rains and dry spells, have triggered hazards (such as floods and landslides) that have turned into disasters. Financial resources that were meant for development and social services have had to be diverted in response, addressing the destruction caused by calamities that beset different regions of the country. Changing climatic patterns and weather-related occurrences over the past five years (2004-08) may serve as an indicator of what climate change will mean for the country. Early recognition of this possibility and the implementation of appropriate action and measures, through disaster risk management, are important if loss of life and property is to be minimised, if not totally eradicated. This is a matter of urgent concern given the geographical location and geological characteristics of the Philippines.     

Land cover change and abrupt environmental impacts on Javan volcanoes, Indonesia: a long-term perspective on recent events

Based on a presentation of the spectacularly abrupt environmental and societal processes occurring on Java since the 1990s, and using that as an analogue to compare their consequences with the known environmental history of the island, we unravel the relative contributions of natural and human impacts in shaping the environment of Java. Our work is based on remote sensing, Geographical Information System analysis, field-based observations and measurements of responses to abrupt land cover changes in the last 10 years. Ecological disturbance has been endemic to the long-term history of Java, but montane forests on volcanoes have since ca. 1990 become the last frontier of colonisation and are for the first time rapidly receding. We reveal how human disturbance of natural ecosystems, today as in the past, tends to be the greatest where resistance is the least. This appears true within the regional setting of Southeast Asia, where Javan forests since the last glaciation have constituted a biogeographical ecotone with a limited natural ability to regenerate after some imbalance. It is equally true at the scale of single events where humans will turn a natural disturbance to their own advantage. Overall, it remains difficult to deconvolve the signals of spontaneous human impacts and of localised natural events such as volcanic activity, El Niño-related forest fires or longer climatic anomalies because humans are opportunistic in their attitudes to natural variability and so the two are often inextricably linked. The clearest impact on land cover and land degradation comes from the history of state-organised deforestation, whether colonial or indigenous, because its impact has been systematic, pervasive and regionally consistent. Javan environments have shown astonishing signs of resilience under the abrupt, cumulative impacts that have been inflicted over the last four centuries in successive iterations, possibly because the high-energy tropical and volcanic environment is a system in which sediment turnover is naturally rapid and where past scars of land degradation either heal rapidly or are soon destroyed by younger events. However, the volcanoes are the island’s keystone reservoirs of water, sediment and biodiversity and command the geomorphic metabolism of the lowlands. By removing forests from increasingly crowded mountain slopes, Javanese society is following a trajectory in which new nonlinear responses to environmental hazards and change may limit our capacity to anticipate and contain environmental risk to human life and property.     

某催化裂化装置生产过程中职业病危害因素调查

通过对催化裂化装置生产过程中职业病危害因素调查,找出职业病危害的关键控制点,并提出防护要求。     

天然气加气子站危险有害因素分析及安全设施

对压缩天然气加气子站的主要工艺技术特点、主要危险有害因素及安全设施设置情况进行了介绍与分析。     

环境样品中多氯联苯的分析技术

作为一种持久性有机污染物,多氯联苯在地球上的分布十分广泛。然而由于多氯联苯在环境样品中残留浓度低、干扰物质多且组成复杂,必须对环境样品进行预处理。目前较为常用的含多氯联苯样品的前处理技术有：溶剂萃取技术、固相萃取技术、固相微萃取技术、超临界萃取技术、微波萃取技术和加速溶剂萃取技术等,分析经过技术处理以后的样品常用的方法有化学分析方法和生物分析方法,化学方法包括气相色谱法,气相色谱质谱分析法等;生物方法有生物传感器测定法、表面胞质团共振检测、以Ah受体为基础的生物分析法和酶联免疫检测法。中国在这方面的研究投入不够,应加大人力、财力和物力的支持,提高环境样品中多氯联苯的检测水平。     

石化企业检维修单位在线作业过程的危害识别与风险评价

运用工作危害分析方法对在线检维修作业活动进行危害识别与风险评价,对重大风险提出有效的控制措施,以杜绝和减少事故的发生.