Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) is a Government of India Enterprise with a Maha Ratna Status company. IOCL Ahmedabad LPG Bottling Plant is located at Sanand Taluk, Ahmedabad District, Gujarat. The LPG Plant was commissioned in the year April 1997.
IOCL operates Ahmedabad Bottling Plant in Sanand for Storage of LPG and supply of filled LPG cylinders to Ahmedabad, Himmatnagar, Banashkantha, Mehsana, Surendranagar, Patan, Vododora, Sabakantha, Bharuch district of Gujarat and Aravalli, Dungarpur, Jalor, Sirohi & Udaynagar districts of Rajasthan by Stake Tank Trucks. It occupies an important place in the Indian Oil distribution network.
There are 4 nos. of bullets and 3 Horton Spheres and three electronic carousels each with 24 points for LPG cylinder filling. IOCL has installed an LPG compressor with the required capacity in place of an existing compressor, a cylinder filling platform and a cylinder filling facility. The cylinder repainting facility has been automated.
1. Receiving
At present Ahmedabad BP receives LPG through KGPL Pipeline and bulk Tanker Trucks from IOCL Dumad, Kandla Import Terminal, Essar, ONGC Dahej and from Porbander.
2. Storage
The plant has total 4 nos of above ground Bullets & 3 Horton spheres. On top of each Above Ground Bullets two nos. of safety relief valves are provided. All Bullets are provided with two independent level indicators and high-level alarm. Remote operated valves are provided in liquid and vapour lines of each storage vessels.
3. Filling Shed
The plant has 3 Nos of 24 Point HTPC Make Carousels. All three carousals have required safety interlocks as per requirement of OISD-144 such as interlock of vapour extraction unit with carousal filling machine, earth fault tripping etc. It has integrated weight correction unit, Valve leak detector, “O” ring leak detector, valve changing machine without evacuation, water bath, sealing unit, QC check unit, evacuation unit etc.
4.Product Pump House
There are two product pumps. The LPG pumps are provided with safety tripping such as; dry run protection, methanol level and mechanical seal failure. There are five LPG vapour compressors with safety tripping device such as; low lube oil pressure, high discharge pressure, low suction pressure, knock off drum level, high discharge temperature & cooling water.
5. Utility Facility
There are three Screw air compressors for controlling the pneumatic equipment in the plant. It has safety tripping device such as; low lube oil pressure, high discharge pressure, low suction pressure, cooling water & high discharge temperature.
6. Filled LPG Cylinders
Filled cylinders are kept as per prevailing guideline and loaded in stake trucks through chain conveyer system telescopic conveyor manually.
7. Statutory Testing Plant for Cylinders
Statutory Testing Plant by the side of Cold repair shed has been commissioned in the Location recently which has a facility for degassing of empty cylinder, hydro-testing, refitting of Valve and Painting.
8. Upcoming facilities at IOCL-Sanand LPG Bottling Plant
1. Kandla Gorakhpur LPG pipeline Receipt Facility.
2. Bulk LPG Loading facility in existing Unloading Facility.
3. Installation of LPG pump for Bottling purpose.
QRA Objective
The major goal of this study is to show that individual risks are within generally accepted ranges and to estimate the potential risk levels for workers that could result from the unintentional release of hazardous materials from facilities in the event of a loss of containment. The following is an outline of QRA‘s goals:
- Acknowledging dangers and noteworthy instances of containment loss (LOC)
- Estimation of Jet Fire, Pool Fire heat radiation distances, Flammable Gas Dispersion distances, and Overpressure Explosion distances for physical consequences of failure case scenarios
- Evaluation of Failure Frequency
- Calculate societal risks and project possible fatalities.
- Perform a risk assessment to make sure the risk can be reduced in line with the UK HSE risk acceptance criteria and the ALARP concept.
- Suggest risk-reducing measures to ensure that all dangers are inside the Acceptable area or the ALARP.
RESULTS OUTCOMES
Location Specific Individual Risk
The likelihood that an individual may suffer an accident within a year if they stay unprotected and permanently in a particular place. Each location around a specific plant has a varied danger for an individual.
The Location Specific Individual Risk Per Annum for the people at the risk ranking location considered for the Study lies in the ACCEPTABLE region and all other risk ranking location comes in the ALARP region.
Individual Risk for the people
The Individual Risk (IR) provides an estimate of the risk that, regardless of population, will be present at each location (or, in this case, every area).
The Individual Risk Per Annum for the people at the risk ranking location considered for the Study lies in the ACCEPTABLE region and all other risk ranking location comes in the ALARP region.
Societal Risk
The Societal Risk gives the relationship between frequency and the number of people suffering from a specified level of harm in a given population from the realisation of specified hazards. It is concluded from the study that the societal risk for the overall population considered for the study falls in the ALARP region
Recommendations
Based on the observations following are the recommendations of the study
1. Personnel entering the hazardous area shall be ensured not carrying any ignition sources like Mobile phone, lighter, smoking or inflammable materials etc.
2. Mock drills to be organized at LPG Bottling Plant to ensure preparation of the personnel’s working for handling any hazardous situation.
3. Ensure early detection of an undesirable event (HC leak, Flame etc.) by deploying suitable detectors and development of subsequent isolation mechanism shall be ensured in the stations.
4. Ensure portable gas detectors are provided within the site in order to facilitate manual gas leak monitoring and regular leakage checks.
5. A detailed preventive maintenance plan and “Work Permit” procedures to be followed by maintenance personnel for protection of property from damage and fire etc.
6. Tank cleaning jobs – Separate Confined space & Excavation jobs to be issued as a certificate by Area Authority and it has to be approved by Plant manager to have better control over the critical jobs along with relevant work permits.
7. Ensure that the existing fixed fire protection systems installed in the Plant conform to OISD 144 – Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Installations.
8. Ensure the practice of ‘Calibration plan’ for meters, gauges and other instruments affecting quality and safety of system.
9. Plan for regular functional testing of the control equipment (Active / Monitor Regulator, MOV, ROV, TRV, control valves etc.).
10. Ensure arrangements and procedures for periodic proof testing of storage tank overfill prevention systems are in place to minimize the likelihood of any failure that could result in loss of containment.
11. Ensure Lock out and tag out (LOTO) procedure are being followed in operation of tank drain, dyke drain and other critical valves with supervisory control and mechanically locking option.
OBJECTIVE HAZOP
By identifying risks, predicting the chance that an incident will occur in the plant, and evaluating the existing safeguards to protect people, property, the environment, and plants from harm, HAZOP research aims to manage risk.
The following is HAZOP‘s objective:
1. Determine the facility’s hazards
2. Identify the reason that is most likely to have an impact or cause an accident at the location.
3. Make suggestions if needed to lower the dangers the establishment is exposed to.
4. From time to time, HAZOP discovers items that have the potential to improve unit operations and facility efficiency.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The HAZOP study identified the recommendations for reducing the likelihood of a hazardous event occurring or reducing the severity of the consequence, should such an event occur as the existing safeguards were not found to be adequate.
1. Ensure periodic maintenance is carried out for Fire and Gas Detection system