Barauni refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) was established at Barauni, Bihar in the year 1964.AVU-I was commissioned to process sweet crude from Assam oil field with design capacity of 1 MMPTA. With the growing demand of petroleum products in the country, AVU-II & AVU-III came into picture in Barauni refinery which enhances the crude processing capacity to 3 MMTPA. Barauni refinery revamped further to reach current level of refining capacity of 6 MMPTA to meet the growing demands of petroleum products.
IOCL Barauni refinery is one of the oldest refineries in the country which was setup with primary processing unit i.e., Atmospheric & Vacuum Unit (AVU-I), with the growing demands of petroleum products two other primary processing units AVU-II and AVU-III were commissioned later. Conventional secondary processing units of refinery such as Catalytic Reforming Unit (CRU), Delayed Coker Unit (DCU), Diesel Hydrotreatment Unit (DHDT), Residue Fluid Catalytic Unit (RFCC), Hydrogen Generation Unit (HGU) and Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU) are also setup in the refinery complex.
Barauni refinery has Oil Movement & Storage (OM&S) facility to store and transport crude oil and finished product. Refinery complex consists of state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) to treat the effluent.
IOCL has awarded iFluids Engineering to carry out Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study for process units and other associated facilities of IOCL Barauni Refinery.
HAZOP is a systematic and qualitative technique used to check for the deviation in plant’s normal operating conditions which can lead to hazardous situations or operating issues in the plant. Guidewords (low, high, less, more) can be used with parameters such as pressure, temperature, flow-rate and level to find out the hazards and operational upsets in the plant.
HAZOP study for any facility gives an insight into plant’s normal operation as well as overall safety aspects of the plant. Some of the important features of HAZOP are mentioned below
- Identification of hazards and operating problems.
- To recommend the changes in design, procedure, etc to improve safety.
- Identification of hazards from equipment failure, instrument malfunction and operational issues
- HAZOP study is carried out during design and procurement stage to examine the P&ID in detail for identification of deviations from normal operations that may cause operational issues or hazards.
- In addition to these, HAZOP can also be used to suggest recommended safety studies for consequences which cannot mitigated by using existing safeguards or by recommending new safeguards.
HAZOP study for process units and other associated facilities of IOCL Barauni refinery was conducted in Barauni refinery with participation of concerned people from different departments.
Units covered in HAZOP Study are as below:
- AVU-I
- AVU-II
- AVU-III
- RFCCU
- DHDT
- CCRU
- CRU
- MSQU
- HGU-I
- HGU-II
- DCU
- OM&S
- S-Block
- TPS & Utilities
- MSQ N2 Plant
- CRU N2 Plant
- ETP
- Indjet
- LRU, LTU & ATU
- Biturox
HAZOP study findings were recorded by the team and suitable recommendations were also made based on the mutual discussion with the team members. The study was conducted unit wise using basic engineering documents like PFD, P&ID, Process Design Basis (PDB) and recommendations were made based on the findings during the HAZOP session. Some general recommendations were also proposed for all the units of refinery complex.