Explosion Protection and Risk Assessment: Application of ATEX Directive to a Refinery Plant
The basic characteristic of oil and petrochemical industry processes is the use of flammable substances at high pressures and flows. Despite the strict requirements enforced to build process equipment that will be used in these industries, the high risk of accidents involving explosions and fires draws the attention of researchers, because of the number of victims, material losses and environmental damages. Aiming at an increased safety in these environments, the European Community issued the Directives 1994/9/EC (also known as ATEX 95, establishing the requirements for equipment to be used in classified areas) and 1999/92/EC (also known as ATEX 137, establishing requirements for end users). In this work the ATEX directive was applied to a particular refinery plant, the desulphurization unit. Refinery process area and complete production plant are assemblies of equipment. They are constructed from numerous pieces of equipment, but they are not placed on the market as a product and are not subject as a unit to conformity assessment procedures. Yet it is possible to certify a complete plant as a unit, but on a voluntary basis and not by the law. In order to assess the explosion risks four steps were carried out. (1) Hazard identification: A systematic procedure for finding all of the hazards, which are associated with the products. Once a hazard was recognized, the design can be changed to minimise it, whether or not the degree of risk was estimated. (2) Hazard estimation: Determination of the Probability of occurrence of the identified hazards and of the levels of severity of the possible harm of the considered hazards. (3) Hazard evaluation: Comparison of the hazards estimated with criteria in order to decide whether the risk is acceptable or whether the plant management and design must be modified in order to reduce the risk. (4) Hazard reduction option analysis: The final step of hazard assessment was the process of identifying, selecting and modifying design changes which might reduce the overall risk. Although risks can always be reduced further they can seldom be reduced to zero except by eliminating the activities.
ATEX refinery explosion risks hazard assessment
BEVILACQUA M CIARAPICA FE
Energy Department, University Politecnica delle Marche, via Brecce Bianche, Ancona, Italy
国际会议
The 2010 International Symposium on Safety Science and Technology(2010 安全科学与技术国际会议)
杭州
英文
974-980
2010-10-26（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）