Gas reception terminal briefing document

Introduction

Gas (which is the primary product of the plant) will be brought to shore in a 400mm diameter
pipeline operating at 100barg. The gas enters a slugcatcher1 where the natural gas liquids (NGLs) are
separated from the gas. The gas leaving the slugcatcher will go for further processing. The NGLs from
the slugcatcher are sent to a stabilizer where they are separated into a mixed (propane and butane)
LPG product and stabilized condensate.

The LPG product is stored in 4 x 500 te capacity pressurized spheres. The spheres are protected from
fire by a water deluge system which is manually initiated from the control room.

The stabilised condensate is stored in 2 x 25m diameter, 10m height, floating roof atmospheric
storage tanks (each designed to contain up to 2,500te of condensate). Each tank is fitted with an
internal foam injection system designed to extinguish a full surface fire. The system is manually
initiated from the control room. Each tank is contained within a square bund (40m x 40m). There is no
fixed fire system to extinguish a bund fire.

Both products will be transferred offsite by pipelines to a nearby refinery for further processing.

A fire and gas detection will be installed across the whole site, so that any leak or fire will be rapidly
detected.

The site layout is shown in Figure 1.

The PFD of the stabilization unit is shown in Figure 2, please note this does not show the pipeline
entering the slugcatcher or the gas pipeline leaving the slugcatcher; neither of these is relevant to the
assignment questions.

1
https://www.enggcyclopedia.com/2012/02/slug-catcher/
 Slugcatcher

Control
Room
and Admin
Stabilisation Unit Building

Maintenance
Yard
20m

Condensate
LPG Storage
Storage

Figure 1 Site Layout.

 Condenser E103

PRV1 Reflux Drum

Slugcatcher V101 LICA1 Toflare V103
LIC2

HC1 ESDV
3

ESDV1
CV5
CV6 LPG to storage

MP steam Stabiliser Column

TIC1
Supply CV2
V102

CV1 Feed Preheater PIC1

E101

MP steam
Reboiler E102 Supply
CV4

FrC1 CV3

ESDV2

Condensate to storage

Figure 2 PFD Stabilisation Process

The slugcatcher (V101) is designed to remove liquids from the gas during normal pipeline operation and
to receive a slug of liquid when the pipeline is pigged. Unstabilised condensate is transferred from the
slugcatcher under level control to a preheater (E101) where the temperature is raised to 100oC. From
there it transfers to the stabilizer column V102.

The column overheads are condensed by a water-cooled condenser (E103) and collect in the reflux
drum (V103). A portion of the overheads is returned to the column as reflux. The reflux flow rate is set
manually. The LPG product is transferred to the storage spheres under reflux drum level control via
CV6. Note that the maximum flowrate through CV6 (i.e. when the valve is fully open) is limited to
70% of the total feed flowrate into V102.

The column bottoms are heated by a reboiler (E102) which maintains the column pressure at 10barg.
Condensate leaves the column under flow ratio control. This sets the amount of stabilised condensate
(C5+ components) leaving the bottom of the column to equal the same amount of C5+ components
which enter the column. The condensate is subsequently cooled and passes to the stabilised
condensate storage tanks.

A pressure relief valve (PRV1) on the stabilizer is set to operate at a pressure of 15barg, which discharges
to a flare system.
In the event of a low liquid level in the slugcatcher an alarm will sound in the control room. Operating
instructions require the operator to initiate a unit Emergency Shutdown which closes valves in the
slugcatcher liquid outlet (ESDV1) and product lines to storage (ESDV2 and ESDV3).

All alarms and emergency shutdown systems are proof tested every 6 months.

Personnel distribution

During working hours (08:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday), there will be 20 people inside the control
room and admin building and 10 people working outside at the maintenance yard. At other times there
will be 10 people in the control room and admin building and no one at the maintenance yard. All
workers work 8 hours per day and 240 days per year.

A small village of 100 people is located 100 m directly to the South of the site. A second larger
residential population of 1000 people is located at a distance of 500m directly to the West of the site.
Residential population may be assumed to be present all the time. At all times, 10% of the population
can be assumed to be outdoors and 90% indoors.

Table 1 shows the separation distances (in metres) between sources of events and potential target
populations.

Table 1 Separation Distances in metres

Distances (from event centre)

North South
Stabilisation
To target location (nearest point) LPG Storage Condensate Condensate
Unit
storage storage

Control Room and Admin Building 60 60 85 120

Maintenance Yard 40 60 70 100
Village to South 150 180 170 130
Village to West 300 240 240 240

Meteorological Data
The average temperature is 20oC. The dominant average wind speed is 7m/s with D atmospheric
stability. Atmospheric stability F also occurs for 20% of the time, with a corresponding wind speed of
2m/s. Table 2 gives the annual average probabilities of wind from each direction.

Table 2 Wind direction probabilities

Direction (from) N E S W
Probability 20 30 15 35
% % % %
Risk Studies Data

The following data has been gathered in preparation for conducting various risk studies on the facility.

Table 3 Fault and Event Tree Data

Parameter Value Units Comments

Failure rate of relief valve 0.01 per year 80% lifts lights, 20% stuck in closed position
Failure rate of level indicator 0.02 per year 50% reads high/low
Failure rate of pressure indicator 0.01 per year 50% reads high/low
Failure rate of temperature indicator 0.01 per year 50% reads high/low
Failure rate of alarm 0.05 per year 100% fails to sound
Failure rate of flow ratio controller 0.005 per year 50% adjusts ratio too high/low
Failure rate of control valve 0.03 per year 50% fail in open/closed position
Failure rate of emergency shut down valve 0.1 per year 50% fail in open/closed position
Operator fails to initiate safety system 0.001 per demand
Frequency of major fire in condensate storage area 2.E-04 per tank year 90% are full surface tank fires, 10% are full surface bund fires
Reliability of foam injection system 0.99 Conditional on being initiated
Reliability of water deluge system 0.95 Conditional on being initiated

Table 4 QRA Event Data

Hazard Range
Frequency
Event Comments
per year Effect Effect Distance
Effect description
value Units (m)
35 65
Jet fire from LPG pipework failure 7.0E-03 Thermal radiation
12.6 kW/m2 80
Flame length = 61m

D7
210 Cloud width = 100m
weather
Vapor cloud from LPG pipework failure 3.0E-03 Vapor cloud dispersion LFL
F2
790 Cloud width = 700m
weather
50% 510 Assume 50% lethality applies to both indoor and
LPG Bleve fireball 1.0E-05 Thermal radiation 10% lethality 680 outdoor populations and 10% and 1%
1% 840 lethalities apply only to outdoor populations.
300 70
Stabilisation Unit VCE 3.0E-04 Blast overpressure mbar
70 125
35 50
Thermal radiation - downwind
12.6 kW/m2 75
Condensate Tank Fire* 1.8E-04
Thermal radiation - all other wind 35 25 Average range for cross wind and up wind
directions 12.6 kW/m2 45 directions
35 80
Thermal radiation - downwind
12.6 kW/m2 120
Condensate Bund Fire* 2.0E-05
Thermal radiation - all other wind 35 45 Average range for cross wind and up wind
directions 12.6 kW/m2 60 directions
*Frequencies apply separately to both the North and South condensate tanks and bunds
 Table 5 Vulnerability Data

Fatality Rate
Effect type Effect Level Range Comments
Indoors Outdoors
Thermal radiation for pool and jet fires >35kW/m2 1 1
Applies to onsite and offsite populations
<35 kW/m2, >12.6kW/m2 0 0.1
Applies to onsite and offsite, indoor and
BLEVE Fireball >50% lethality 0.7 0.7
outdoor populations
Applies to onsite and offsite outdoor
<50% lethality, >10% lethality 0 0.3
populations
Applies to onsite and offsite outdoor
Flash fire <=LFL 0 1
populations
>300mar 0.3 0 Control room designed to resist 200mbar
Blast overpressure on onsite populations
<300mbar, >70mbar 0.1 0 overpressure.
>300mar 0.7 0
Blast overpressure on offsite populations Domestic houses
<300mbar, >70mbar 0.3 0