Layout issues in petrochemical control rooms
Thread Content
Our company is located in Jiangsu Province and operates in the fine chemicals industry, designed in accordance with petrochemical standards. Originally, the design institute planned to place the control room in a control building within the production area, with the control building being designed to be blast-resistant. Last week, an evaluation meeting was held, during which experts suggested eliminating the control building and placing the control room inside the complex building outside the second security gate, without the need for blast protection measures. The basis for eliminating the control building is the Guidelines on Improving the Inherent Safety Level of Hazardous Chemical Enterprises, Su Emergency [2020] No. 1 (Su Emergency [2020] No. 1). 1. Optimize the layout of the enterprise’s facilities. The overall layout of the enterprise must comply with the **requirements of fire and explosion prevention standards and regulations. The central control room should be located in the administrative area. Control rooms for production units and storage facilities that pose a risk of fire or explosion should not be placed within the unit areas; if it is necessary to locate them there, they must be designed, constructed, and reinforced in accordance with the \"Code for Explosion-Resistant Design of Petrochemical Control Rooms\". I asked some previous design firms and DCS manufacturers, and they have all encountered situations in the past two years where the petrochemical industry has placed control rooms in buildings in the front area of the plant, without implementing any explosion-proof designs. However, the design firm we hired did not focus on explosion resistance; the specifications for the design of petrochemical control rooms, namely SH/T3006-2012 and HGT 20508-2014, also provide rather vague guidelines on this matter. It seems that explosion resistance design is indeed necessary... Has anyone encountered a similar situation and how was it resolved in the end? Thank you so much!
This post was last edited by lotos1987 on 2020-4-28 00:28. As a colleague in a design firm, I can’t understand what this firm is struggling over. In the definitions provided by the two standards, terms such as control room, central control room, and field control room all refer to locations \"within the installation\" or \"within the plant\"; applying the provisions related to blast resistance design from the standards to such locations located outside the second set of doors is unnecessary and yields no practical benefit. With local regulations providing support and the owners’ backing, it’s only logical to give in… Here is a paper for reference
It is understandable that the design institute is afraid of taking responsibility. Hehe.
Brother, the mindset of the design institute is understandable. Without doing any calculations, it’s not certain that the front area of your factory cannot be blown up. So one needs to understand. Find a way out; presumably they need a basis as well. Shirk one’s own responsibilities.
But I feel that if the control room needs to be blast-resistant, then the administrative building should be even more so... there are more people there, and it also houses managers... :lol
Check the HaiChuan WeChat official account; there’s a relevant article on the layout of control rooms, and it received a lot of attention at the time!
Okay, I’ll go take a look. Thank you
Hello, I couldn’t find it by searching in the control room... Do you still remember the title of the article? Thank you so much!
https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-1808484-1-1.html The key information is here. I remember that WeChat once published related articles, but it’s not possible to search for such content on official accounts!
I personally understand the difficulties faced by design institutes. There is only one reason why blast resistance design is necessary: to determine whether an explosion will cause damage to the control room. I remember someone on the forum mentioned this before; it’s very difficult to calculate. Well, the design institute will directly design a blast-resistant version for you.
https://mp.wei*n.qq.com/s?src=11×tamp=1585712546&ver=2251&signature=VlJA7d2WcRe4lddG8uq-DbGSepEwWgmkqKARXfl6muAOQEC*ttFlLlLNGwJK-uW6*lDKvNnymkTyUa3z0mfUeKPmNeVHQr8bF9m3sNG33T2JY1tuaqVYtbpCFr6iDefB&new=1 An explosion-proof assessment for the control rooms in coal chemical plants is essential; more details are provided here for reference!