A high-integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS) is a type of

safety instrumented system (SIS) designed to prevent overpressurization of a plant, such as a chemical plant or oil refinery.
The HIPPS will shut off the source of the high pressure before
the design pressure of the system is exceeded, thus preventing
loss of containment through rupture (explosion) of a line or
vessel.
Therefore, a HIPPS is considered as a barrier between a highpressure and a low-pressure section of an installation.

Traditional systems
In traditional systems over-pressure is dealt with through
relief systems. A relief system will open an alternative outlet
for the fluids in the system once a set pressure is exceeded,
to avoid further build-up of pressure in the protected system.
This alternative outlet generally leads to a flare or venting
system to safely dispose the excess fluids. A relief system
aims at removing any excess inflow of fluids for safe
disposal, where a HIPPS aims at stopping the inflow of
excess fluids and containing them in the system.

Conventional relief systems have disadvantages such as

release of (flammable and toxic) process fluids or their
combustion products in the environment and often a large
footprint of the installation.
With increasing environmental awareness, relief systems are
not always an acceptable solution. However, because of their
simplicity, relatively low cost and wide availability, conventional
relief systems are still often applied.

Advantages of HIPPS

HIPPS provides a solution to protect equipment in cases

where:
high-pressures and / or flow rates are processed.
The environment is to be protected.

The economic viability of a development needs improvement

The risk profile of the plant must be reduced.

HIPPS is an instrumented safety system that is designed

and built in accordance with the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511
standards.
The international standards IEC 61508 and 61511 refer to
safety functions and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS)
when discussing a device to protect equipment, personnel
and environment.
Older standards use terms like safety shut-down systems,
emergency shut-down systems or last layers of defence.

Components of HIPPS
A system that closes the source of over-pressure within 2
seconds with at least the same reliability as a safety relief
valve is usually called a HIPPS. Such a HIPPS is a
complete functional loop consisting of:
Sensors, (or initiators) that detect the high pressure,
A logic solver, which processes the input from the sensors
to an output to the final element,
Final elements, that actually perform the corrective action
in the field by bringing the process to a safe state. In case
of a HIPPS this means shutting-off the source of
overpressure. The final element consists of a valve,
actuator and solenoids.

Example of a HIPPS system

The scheme above presents three pressure transmitters (PT)
connected to a logic solver. The solver will decide based on
2-out-of-3 (2oo3) voting whether or not to activate the final
element.
The final elements consist here of two block valves that stop
flow to the downstream facilities (right) to prevent them from
exceeding a maximum pressure.
The operator of the plant is warned through a pressure alarm
(PA) that the HIPPS was activated.

This system has a high degree of redundancy:

Failure of one of the three pressure transmitters will not compromise
the HIPPS functionality,
as two readings of high pressure are needed for activation.
Failure of one of the two block valves will not compromise the HIPPS
Functionality, as the other valve will close on activation of the HIPPS.

One must not confine self to the above design as

the only means of materializing the HIPPS

definition. One must always think of the HIPPS
generically, as a means of isolating a source of a
high pressure when down stream flow have been
blocked, isolating the upstream equipment (source
of the high pressure) in a highly reliable manner.

Be this source of the high pressure a pump (in case of

liquid) or a gas compressor (in case of gas), the aim of

the HIPPS in these cases is to reliably shut down the

pump or the gas compressor creating the high
pressure condition in a reliable and safe manner.

Standards and design practices

The ever-increasing flow rates in combination
with the environmental constraints initiated the

widespread and rapid acceptance in the last

decades of HIPPS as the ultimate protection
system.

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has

introduced the IEC 61508 and the IEC 61511 standards in 1998
and 2003. These are performance based, non-prescriptive,

standards which provide a detailed framework and a life-cycle

approach for the design, implementation and management of
safety systems applicable to a variety of sectors with different
levels of risk definition. These standards also apply to HIPPS.

The IEC 61508 mainly focuses on electrical/electronic/

programmable safety-related systems. However it also
provides a framework for safety-related systems based on
other technologies including mechanical systems. The IEC
61511 is added by the IEC specifically for designers,

integrators and users of safety instrumented systems and

covers the other parts of the safety loop (sensors and final

elements) in more detail.

The basis for the design of your safety instrumented system is

the required Safety Integrity Level (SIL). The SIL is obtained
during the risk analysis of a plant or process and represents the
required risk reduction. The SIS shall meet the requirements of
the applicable SIL which ranges from 1 to 4. The IEC standards
define the requirements for each SIL for the lifecycle of the
equipment, including design and maintenance. The SIL also
defines a required probability of failure on demand (PFD) for
the complete loop and architectural constraints for the loop and
its different elements.

The requirements of the HIPPS should not be

simplified to a PFD level only, the qualitative
requirements and architectural constraints form an
integral part of the requirements to an instrumented

protection system such as HIPPS.

The European standard EN12186 (formerly the DIN G491)

and more specific the EN14382 (formerly DIN 3381) has
been used for the past decades in (mechanically)
instrumented overpressure protection systems. These
standards prescribe the requirements for the over-pressure
protection systems, and their components, in gas plants. Not
only the response time and accuracy of the loop but also
safety factors for over-sizing of the actuator of the final
element are dictated by these standards. Independent design
verification and testing to prove compliance to the EN14382
standard is mandatory. Therefore the users often refer to this
standard for HIPPS design.