Air Products Process Safety Design for World-Scale Air Separation Plants, As Applied on the Jazan Project

Air Products has designed and is currently constructing six 3500 metric ton per day (mtpd) Air Separation Units (ASUs) to produce 18,500 mtpd Oxygen at up to 83 barg and 56,500 mtpd Nitrogen at various pressures up to 172 barg (with most delivered at 44 barg) to supply the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle electric power plants under construction in the Jazan Economic City, Saudi Arabia. The ASUs will be commissioned during 2018.

Safe and reliable production and supply of large volumes of high-pressure oxygen requires specialist knowledge of the unique hazards associated with the cryogenic air separation process, which is based on over 75 years of design and operating experience in the industrial gas industry.

This paper describes the world-scale Air Separation facility, provides an overview of the core technologies used, and includes an in-depth discussion of the hazards associated with the production of large volumes of pressurized oxygen, and the safeguards used to mitigate those hazards. The paper discusses hazard identification, the risk analysis methods that were used to assess in-plant and off-site risk, and facility siting considerations. The major hazards presented in the paper, and the safeguards associated with those hazards, include reboiler safety, materials selection for high purity oxygen streams, storage of large volumes of liquid oxygen and the prevention of spills, and additional hazards and mitigations for ASUs located in close vicinity to hydrocarbon process facilities.

The description of safeguards covers both the design and operational requirements for long-term safe operation of the facility.