(57z) Fire Proofing Cost Reduction Measures for LNG Plant

The current industry practice in designing fireproofing requirements for LNG facilities follows the traditional approach of “Liquid Pool Fire”. The industry standard for fire proofing design criteria defines a fire potential equipment (FPE) as the equipment that handles flammable liquid above a specific threshold volume. The FPE generates fire scenario envelope whose dimension ranges are recommended by API 2218. Equipment and structural supports that falls inside the fire envelope are considered for fire proofing. In reality, the LNG plants are handling products such as LNG and other refrigerants with very low boiling point, and any leak to atmosphere results in an instant flashing into vapor phase or aerosols. Our recent works on pool fire consequence modelling using industry approved modelling tool proved that most of the currently considered fire potential equipment seldom create pool fire. This clearly demonstrates that the current fire proofing design is an overdesign and not cost effective. Considering the current economic trend, a change in fire proofing design approach using consequence modelling tools will effectively result in considerable cost savings in the future LNG projects.