PROCESS

ECONOMICS
BY
AKHILESH GUPTA
GENERAL DESIGN CONSIDERATION

• Fire and explosion hazard

Besides toxic emissions, fire and explosion are the two most dangerous events likely to occur in a chemical
plant. These two hazards account for the major loss of life and property in the chemical and petroleum industry.
For a fire to occur, there must be three sources namely: fuel, oxidizer and an ignition source. In addition, the
combustion reaction must be self sustaining. If air is the oxidizer, a certain minimum concentration of fuel is
necessary for the flame to be ignited. While the minimum concentration required depends upon the temperature
of the mixture and to lesser extent on the pressure.
The minimum concentration of fuel air mixture for ignition at ambient temperature is known as the lower
flammable limit also known as the Lower Flammable limit (LFL).
The concentration above which ignition will not occur is labelled as Upper Flammable Limit (UFL).
If the concentration of fuel is within the flammability limits and the temperature of the
mixture is high enough, the mixture will ignite.
The temperature at which ignition will occur without the presence of a spark or flame is
designated as the autoignition temperature.
FIRES are classified into four groups:
Class A: fires are those burning liquids or gases; Class B fires are those burning liquids or
gases; Class C fires are those that burn either Class A or Class B fuels in the presence of live
electrical circuits; and Class D fires consume metals. Fire protection systems can be divided
into two large categories : passive and active. Active systems are include such agents as
water sprays, foam and dry chemicals; these require that some action be taken, either by
plant personnel or as a response by an automatic fire protection system. Passive fire
protection do not require any action at the time of the fire. They are designed and installed
at the time the plant is built and remain passively in place until needed.
An explosion is a sudden and generally catastrophic release of energy, causing a pressure
wave. An explosion can occur without a fire such as the failure through overpressure of a
steam boiler.
Detonation and deflagration
PERSONNEL SAFETY

• Safety regulations
OSHA
Code of Federal Regulations
Federal Register
LOSS PREVENTION

• The phrase loss prevention in the chemical industry is an insurance term where the loss represents the
financial loss associated with an accident.
• Loss prevention in process design can be summarized under the following broad headings:
1. Identification and assessment of the major hazards
2. Control of the hazards by the most appropriate means; for eg. Containment, substitution, improved
maintenance etc.
3. Control of the process i.e. prevention of hazardous conditions in process operating variables by utilizing
automatic control and relief systems, interlocks, alarms, etc.
4. Limitations of the loss when an incident occurs.
HAZOP STUDY

• The hazard and operability study which is commonly known as the HAZOP study, is a systematic technique for identifying all plant or equipment hazards
and operability problems.

In this technique each segment (pipeline, piece of equipment, instrument etc.) is carefully examined and all possible
deviations from normal operating conditions are identified. This is accomplished by fully defining the intent of each
segment and then applying guide words to each segment as follows:
No or Not- no part of the intent is achieved and nothing else occurs (eg. No flow)
More- quantitative increase (eg. Higher temperature)
Less- Quantitative decrease (eg. Lower pressure)
As well as- qualitative increase (eg. An impurity)
Part of- qualitative decrease (eg. Only one of two components in mixture)
Reverse- opposite (eg. Back flow)
Other than- no part of the intent is achieved and something completely different occurs (eg. Flow of wrong material)