RISK ANALYSIS OF A METHANOL PRODUCTION VIA SYNTHESIS GAS USING ORA PROCEDURE

Abstract

The Chemical industry as a whole responsible for preventing major accidents not only to prevent human fatality and injury but also to protect the environment and to improve public perception of chemical engineering as a favorable and integral part of society, special in oil and gas production facility play a vital role. There are many safety instrumented system are used in this facility. The choice of this ORA procedure for a risk analysis of methanol production by synthesis gas due to very less work done on the safety purpose for that unit. In this work, the risk analysis of a methanol production via synthesis gas using an optimum risk analysis (ORA) methodology is considered. It is readily available in the literature that such industries are highly vulnerable to accidents and need elaborate safety arrangements. The damage potential of these units is such that its impact would permeate far beyond the plant boundaries and would cause damage to near by areas. The hazards in terms of probable damage are expressed here by FEDI and TDI indices. The estimates of risk and reliability of various units of the plant are presented. Also, HAZOP analysis is performed for the various hazards present in the reactor of the plant. The storage tank that contains methanol is observed to be at high risk, where the values of the heat intensities are found to be 71233 kJ/m2, 16730 kJ/m2, 7169 kJ/m2, 2438 kJ/m2, 578 kJ/m2,134 kJ/m2 at 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, 25 m, 50 m, 100 m, respectively away from this unit. A storage tank containing carbon mono oxide is observed to be less reliable (reliability = 0.4861) than the other units of the plant.