Tag: Safety

Calgary-based Pieridae Energy Ltd says that it has hired a new Chief Operating Officer as from April 5th. Darcy Reding is a professional engineer with 30 years of experience in small and medium-sized private and public upstream oil and gas companies, 20 years of that in leadership roles. Reding spent the last decade at NAL Resources as VP of Operations and VP Operations & Geoscience. Prior to NAL, Reding held technical and leadership roles with Norcen Energy, Northrock Resources, Samson Exploration and Enterra Energy Trust.

With declining ore grade feed to a metallurgical smelting process comes an increase in impurity load in the gas cleaning/acid process chain. K. Hasselwander, L. Skilling and C. Bartlett of Metso Outotec discuss a range of process solutions and how to maintain high productivity while keeping costs in check.

Several safety risks threaten urea high pressure equipment such as high pressures, high temperatures, various kind of corrosion phenomena, crystallisation risks, and the release of large volumes of toxic ammonia in case of a leak. A significant number of serious incidents with high pressure urea equipment still occur in the industry and, in 50% of cases, a failing leak detection system was one of the main causes. UreaKnowHow’s Risk Register for a 316L urea grade reactor identifies 50+ safety risks of which 75% can be prevented by operating a proper leak detection system. In this article, UreaKnowHow answers some key questions about the importance of an effective active leak detection system.

Ammonia synthesis catalysts have long lives and catalyst replacement is an infrequent activity. Many people will go through their careers in the ammonia industry without ever having to replace a synthesis catalyst and the infrequent nature of catalyst replacement means that many plants may not have direct experience of this activity. Ammonia synthesis catalyst can present a range of hazards throughout the replacement process, from transport through loading, reduction, start-up, shutdown and discharge, but the good practice illustrated in this article, and collaboration between catalyst suppliers and end users can ensure safe and successful catalyst changeouts.

Automatic identification and optimum online monitoring using sonic velocity measurements can now be used to determine the concentration of both sulphuric acid and oleum.C. Kahrmann and T. Knape of SensoTech report on a new user-friendly method of measurement providing a significant step towards automated process control.

Fertilizer coatings play an integral role in minimising the degradation of fertilizers during transport, handling and storage. Increasingly, customers also want to know if the coatings they buy are sustainable too. But what exactly is a sustainable fertilizer coating – and how can its sustainability be properly defined and measured? Lucas Moore , director of coatings technology at Arkema-ArrMaz, weighs up these thorny questions and provides some clear-cut answers.

The quality of finished fertilizers can be maintained during transport, handling and storage by protecting the surfaces of granules and prills with coating agents. We survey the range of anti-caking, water repellent and anti-dusting additives currently on the market.

The year 2020 will be remembered as an uncertain, demanding and challenging year. When faced with a global pandemic, companies have adopted new approaches and remote inspection, monitoring and training using the latest digital tools has been key for the successful completion of projects. Stamicarbon, Casale and KBR share some of their experiences of the past year.

The following case studies describe serious incidents associated with leak detection system failures. Incident 4 relates to the failure of the active pressurised leak detection system for the loose liner of a urea reactor and Incident 5 relates to a passive leak detection system which failed to work leading to serious corrosion of the carbon steel wall of the HP scrubber.

Fires are known to occur in sulphur storage pits and tanks somewhat frequently due to the presence of both flammable material and air, so methods for preventing and extinguishing these fires are critical. D. J. Sachde, K. E. McIntush, C. M. Beitler, and D. L. Mamrosh of Trimeric Corporation review fire suppression methods used in the industry including snuffing/sealing steam, rapid sealing, water mist, and inert gas blanketing. Protective tank design features to reduce the likelihood of a sulphur fire are also reviewed. Benefits and limitations, design considerations, and recommended guidance for suppression and preventative measures are discussed.