HAZard & amp; Operability (HAZOP) Study For Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited – Secunderabad Terminal

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has an existing installation at Ghatkesar Secunderabad Terminal, for the purpose of receipt, storage and dispatch of petroleum products (POL), such as Motor Spirit (MS), High Speed Diesel (HSD), ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel), Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO), Ethanol, Biodiesel, MTO and Hexane. It also consist of Vapour Recovery Unit (VRU).

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) being keen on increasing the safety culture of the plant, has entrusted IFluids Engineering to carry out the Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study at the Ghatkesar Secunderabad Terminal.

HAZOP study is carried out to carefully review a process or operation in a systematic manner to determine whether deviations from the design or operational intent can lead to undesirable consequences. This technique can be used for continuous or batch processes and can be adopted to evaluate written procedures. The multi-disciplinary HAZOP team lists potential causes and consequences of the deviation as well as existing safeguards protecting against the deviation. When the team determines that inadequate safeguards exist for a credible deviation, it usually recommends the action be taken to reduce the risk.

The HAZOP study has been initiated by a team of experts from Ifluids Engineering along with the HPCL team with a Kick off meeting. The methodology of how the study would be performed is explained and the inputs required for the study are proposed. Further the HAZOP study is performed by interpreting every aspect of the plant and reviewing previous hazard occurrences. The team reviewed the number of documents which has been provided and had a controlled technical discussion about the outcomes which are possible hazards to the people and environment. With the help of software the team recorded the outcomes and provided suitable recommendation where they felt the safeguard was inadequate. The recorded discussion is reviewed by the experts of iFluids engineering and the report is produced to HPCL. The methodology and results proposed by the Ifluids team were accepted by HPCL for the identification and minimization of risk which paved way for a successful completion of the project.