Discussion on the calibration cycle for safety valves in LNG receiving stations

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This post was last edited by leifanshuai on 2017-3-23 at 21:43. The LNG receiving station in question has nearly 300 safety valves in total. Following the traditional approach, it is necessary to remove almost all of these safety valves every year and send them to the local inspection agency for calibration, which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Recently, the department head has been considering whether it is possible to delay the inspection of the safety valves, so that they can be inspected only once every three years. After conducting a detailed investigation into the standard regulations applicable to safety valves, the findings are summarized as follows: 1. Pipeline safety valves – Pipeline safety valves account for a large proportion of the safety valves used in LNG receiving stations, and they require the most extensive calibration work. I checked the applicable standards, which are TSG D0001-2009 \"Regulations on Safety Inspection of Pressure Pipelines – Industrial Pipelines\", and TSG ZF001-2006 \"Regulations on Safety Inspection of Safety Valves\". The latter addresses the issue of extending the inspection period for safety valves; it states that safety valves should generally be inspected once a year, and the inspection period can be extended appropriately under certain conditions, but it does not specify by how much the period can be extended. 2. Safety valves for fixed pressure vessels: The fixed pressure vessels at LNG receiving stations mainly refer to the vast majority of pressure-bearing storage tanks. The standard applicable in this case is TSG21-2016, \"Regulations on Safety Supervision of Fixed Pressure Vessels\". This regulation specifies that, provided certain conditions are met, safety valves can be inspected every three years, or even every five years. However, the requirements are quite stringent, and it is estimated that it is difficult for the entities using ordinary safety valves to meet all of them. The question now is whether it is feasible to conduct safety valve inspections every three years, while still meeting the requirements set by current standards and ensuring the compliant operation of enterprises. Are there any other LNG receiving stations or chemical companies that have implemented such inspections every three years, or even every five years? We welcome everyone to share their valuable opinions for discussion. LNG Process Discussion Group