Practical Experiences with the Assessment of Safety Valve Design in Chemical Plants

• Main Authors: Frank Westphal, Monika Christ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 2016-04-01
• Series: Chemical Engineering Transactions
• Online Access: https://www.cetjournal.it/index.php/cet/article/view/3382

Over the last few decades most of the chemical companies have started a complete re-assessment of their pressure relief devices. The main reason for these sometimes extensive projects is to meet the state of the art, aiming for a comprehensive documentation as claimed in technical guidelines. Consilab has been involved in re-assessing pressure vessel safety in many chemical plants throughout the past 5 years. One of the major objects was the calculative inspection of rupture discs and safety valves as well as their inlet lines and vent lines. A database supported documentation of assumptions, results and, if necessary, measures was customized to provide the operating companies with reliable and comprehensive information about their state of safety. Interesting facts on how the awareness of safety in chemical plants changed over the decades could be derived from the comparison of the results of the last 5 years to statistics from the 1990s, published by Köper and Westphal (2001). The latest statistics can help to answer questions such as which errors in the design of pressure relief devices are most likely to occur in a typical chemical plant and which are the most decisive. These answers should provide measures for safer chemical production sites in all areas.