(132c) Assessing Electrification of Conventional Combined Heat and Power Unit (CHP) through the Retrofitting of Power Plant: A Step Towards the Integration of Green Electricity.
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2024
2024 Spring Meeting and 20th Global Congress on Process Safety
Process Development Division
Advanced Carbon Reduction Technologies II
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 - 4:30pm to 5:00pm
The risk tends to be overlooked when it is in a tolerable zone due to low risk. What this paper proposes is Risk Criticality Assessment and Management (RCA&M). The methodology is that even if risk is in acceptable zone, it must be assessed and managed for Major Accident Events (MAEs) or types of accidents with high risk criticality, which are which are relatively high risk distribution. When it comes to the Quantitative Risk Assessment(QRA) results of the Gas, Petrochemical, Refinery etc. plant, including the Air Separation Unit (ASU), the ASU plant has a relatively low risk, so detailed analysis of the risk of Nitrogen tends not to be dealt with. This paper was inspired by the need to enhance understanding of potential risk of Nitrogen by introducing various sensitivity analysis results based on ASU QRA.
Nitrogen is a commonly used as utility, IA/PA in many industries and is also used as a purge for equipment and piping, which is as an inert gas that suppresses the risk of fire by removing oxygen. It is not a toxic gas, but because of potential hazards, it has are causing many casualties from leaks. Although much effort is being made to prevent and manage accident on asphyxiation, many fatalities caused by Nitrogen have been continuously reported.
Following the RCA&M methodology, the risk criticality of each MAE for ASU process, sensitivity analysis for high criticality scenarios, and mitigation measures for each risk are presented.
From the results in this paper, it can be seen that the consequences of asphyxiation and cold burn etc. can create life-threatening situations, even though the risk is very low. So, understanding of potential risk of Nitrogen and safety precautions are of paramount importance for sustainable safety.