Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Process hazard analysis (PHA) is required by U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) regulations, as indicated in Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), 29CFR,
Standard number 1910.119, Process Safety Management (PSM) of Highly Hazardous Chemicals.
This section of the standard contains requirements for preventing or minimizing the
consequences of catastrophic release of toxic, reactive, flammable or explosive chemicals. Such
releases can result in hazards from toxicity, fire or explosion. A PHA identifies and evaluates
potential hazards and risks to safety, health and the environment, and identifies safeguards and
additional corrective measures to improve safety.
One of the many PHA methodologies is the hazard and operability study (HAZOP). Hazard
identification and what-if scenarios are high-level hazard identification methodologies.
HAZOP is a systematic hazard identification methodology designed to identify hazardous events
that could occur during operation of a facility that might be caused by deviations from design
intent. In the study, the potential causes and consequences are identified, and a judgment is made
as to whether additional design features should be incorporated to safeguard against identified
scenarios.
HAZOP serves as one of the final safety reviews in the engineering design phase before the prestartup safety review. It is a qualitative analysis focusing on operating facilities that involve
hazardous chemicals such as using, storing, refining, petrochemicals manufacturing, moving,
handling and others.
U.S. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119 PSM states that the facility owner is responsible for performing
and managing the HAZOP, which must be conducted by a team with expertise in engineering
and operation. The initial HAZOP is conducted during the engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) phase of a project or facility planning (Figure 1). The required core members
of this team are an independent facilitator, a technical recorder (scribe), at least one employee
with operation experience and knowledge of the facility (operator), process engineers and
controls/ instrumentation/electrical engineers. Other parties, such as mechanical and maintenance
engineers, may also be included. The HAZOP is to be updated and revalidated at least every five
years after the initial study is completed.
ROLE OF VALVES
The role of valves in a HAZOP is very important. The HAZOP team only evaluates what could
happen and what the consequences would be if the valves do not work properly or they fail to
work as they are intended. Outside of the HAZOP, it is the valve experts and engineers
responsibilities to figure out what might cause valves to fail the original design intent, as well as
to come up with solutions to fix the potential problems in design.
The valves discussed in a HAZOP typically include the control valves and critical manual
valves. The HAZOP team identifies and documents consequences when those valves fail the
design intent.
For example, under initiating causes, the list would include:
Many critical valves are in place for safety, which falls under safeguards. They include:
Supplemental questions related to valves may be asked to facilitate discussion of the team. Some
typical questions excerpted from Guidelines for Hazard Evaluation Procedures, 3rd Edition are:
1. Can bypass valves (for control valves or other components) be quickly opened by operators?
What hazards may result if the bypass is opened (e.g., reverse flow, high or low level)? What
bypass valves are routinely opened to increase flow? Will properly sized control valves be
installed?
2. How are the positions of critical valves (e.g., block valves beneath relief devices, equipment
isolation valves, dike drain valves) controlled (by car seals, locks, periodic checks)?
3. Are critical isolation valve actuators powerful enough to close the valves under worst case differential pressure conditions (including backflow) in the event of rupture?
4. Are chain operators for valves adequately supported and sized to minimize the likelihood of
valve stem breakage?
5. How are the positions of critical valves (e.g., EIVs, dump valves) indicated to operators? Is the
position of all non-rising stem valves readily apparent to the operators? Do control room displays
directly indicate the valve position, or do they really indicate some other parameter, such as
actuator position or torque, application of power to the actuator or initiation of a control signal to
the actuator?
6. Are block valves or double block and bleed valves required:
7. How will control valves react to loss of control medium or signal? Do the control valves:
After the HAZOP review meeting, a HAZOP report is generated and filed. All the findings and
recommendations of the team must be documented and resolved. As general practice for
projects, HAZOP action items and recommendations are usually resolved before piping and
instrumentation diagrams can be issued for construction.
Examples include: control valves, their bypass, isolation valves; relief and de-pressuring valves
and emergency shutdown; trip and anti-surge valves; liquid cargo transfer valves for
hydrocarbon.
Category 2 Not critical for normal operations, but required for routine operations and
maintenance. These would be used frequently (at least once in a six-month period).
Examples are: sewage treatment valves; condensate drain valves; service oil valves; potable
water valves; ship service air valves; hydraulic service; frost gas valves; manual valves for
normal startup/shutdown; drains and vents (1-inch) or less with flange and cap end.
Category 3 Normally non-operating valves that are used in particular circumstances on an
infrequent basis.
Examples are valves used in dry dock only for:
CONCLUSION
To summarize, the role of valves in HAZOP studies and improving the safety and environment
of plants is as follows:
All types of valves play an important role in the facilitys safety and environmental compliance.
The risks are prevented or mitigated through engineering and valve design, construction of
materials, selection, sizing, placement, etc. Key tools used in the design stage include:
Early hazards identification at the detailed engineering phases can offer great opportunities
for various engineering disciplines to apply inherent safer design principles or risk tolerable
solutions to prevent or mitigate the potential safety and environmental hazards.
Correct placement and selection of valves can reduce the size of spills and prevent or lessen
the potential for catastrophic losses.
Tight shutoff valve quality will ensure reduced downtime and improved revenue savings in
the life of plants.
In formal risk analysis, the resulting consequence is normally calculated and based on inventory
and chemical and physical properties of the released hazardous material. EIVs also play an
important role in calculating the inventory and total potential leak quantities.