P 92
JERP Execution Fire Water System &Safety features
Though we had engineered robust fire water system , during plant commissioning trials we faced certain tricky situations. In spite of having sufficient hydrant points and monitors in ISBL, we faced shortage of water throw quantity during emergency or accessibility restrictions. To find resolution for those challenges, Dilip Patel of Bechtel, me combined with JMD Fire leads took field rounds and identified the dark spots where suitable provisions have to be made and how portable trolley arrangement with sufficient take-offs for hydrant/monitor point provisions can be made.
That resulted in development of MHO (Multiple hydrant off take ) with X'Mas tree arrangement, portable trolley with different take-off hydrants/monitors etc. These became handy when there was freak fire incident in Coker plant commissioning trials.
But still there was a major challenge when it came to addressing the coke drum structure fire protection. There were several suggestions/options and each had its own limitations! One group suggested to opt for water spray system but that was ruled out from the angle of accessibility of nozzles for maintenance and nozzle choke due to coke dust. Another group came out placing several ground monitors; that was ruled out from emergency operability angle and throw reach to 55M height. There came Larry King with an ideal resolution. He proposed to try ROOMS with remote joystick arrangement.ROOMS is nothing but an oscillating monitor mounted at 20M high, which can be adjusted for spray range/direction and angle of throw etc. by a joystick placed at remote safe area.
Considering 110X55X55M coke drum platform we have gone for 6 numbers ROOMS strategically placed on either side of the structure. That solved our major worry.
Rim Seal Fire protection for large diameter floating roof tanks :
Though in DTA we had incorporated CHUBB make poly-urethene tubed rim seal fire protection system for all large diameter floating roof tanks, unfortunately that party went out of business and we had an issue. Somehow Praful got reference from Shell Scotland about a party named BLAZE and that was chosen. Instead of conventional sensor tubing, it had a balancing arm arrangement to sense and release the foam for fighting the rim seal fire. But it never worked at all and it was major blow.
Luckily that was the time the statutory authorities issued the gazette to relinquish its mandatory requirement. So we escaped then. But it is different story now,that OISD incorporated them back with specific type and made to be incorporated retrospectively even for small diameter tanks storing Class'A' liquid products.
One should remember and thank (Late) S Narayana for his acumen to recommend to opt M/S Rosenbauer for all fire fighting vehicles in JERP. The back ground may be that he has experienced major difficulty in financing the Indian party during DTA and quality control. But his decision was blessing in disguise.
Charted Engineer Audit
Though there is no statutory obligation to carry out pre-commissioning audit of fire fighting system for a hydrocarbon processing complex, following NFPA guidelines( Jurisdiction of Authority) Reliance/TechnoFire made it as standard practice to conduct Chartered Engineer Audit for all fire fighting systems. Mr TRA Krishnan, a chartered engineer by Registration is usually contracted to carry out the audit at engineering stage in DEC office and later to undertake field inspection as well as conduct spot trials of installation. Mr Krishnan being a thorough professional with repute, will go deep into design aspects and question the DEC/Bechtel/TechnoFire/Reliance (AR) for even minor discrepancies. Let me share some of my personal experience in his audit of JERP.
Contd....
KeyAspects :- Attitude, Conviction, Incident analysis, Initiative, Innovative, Technical issue, Team building
JERP Execution Fire Water System &Safety features
Though we had engineered robust fire water system , during plant commissioning trials we faced certain tricky situations. In spite of having sufficient hydrant points and monitors in ISBL, we faced shortage of water throw quantity during emergency or accessibility restrictions. To find resolution for those challenges, Dilip Patel of Bechtel, me combined with JMD Fire leads took field rounds and identified the dark spots where suitable provisions have to be made and how portable trolley arrangement with sufficient take-offs for hydrant/monitor point provisions can be made.
That resulted in development of MHO (Multiple hydrant off take ) with X'Mas tree arrangement, portable trolley with different take-off hydrants/monitors etc. These became handy when there was freak fire incident in Coker plant commissioning trials.
But still there was a major challenge when it came to addressing the coke drum structure fire protection. There were several suggestions/options and each had its own limitations! One group suggested to opt for water spray system but that was ruled out from the angle of accessibility of nozzles for maintenance and nozzle choke due to coke dust. Another group came out placing several ground monitors; that was ruled out from emergency operability angle and throw reach to 55M height. There came Larry King with an ideal resolution. He proposed to try ROOMS with remote joystick arrangement.ROOMS is nothing but an oscillating monitor mounted at 20M high, which can be adjusted for spray range/direction and angle of throw etc. by a joystick placed at remote safe area.
Considering 110X55X55M coke drum platform we have gone for 6 numbers ROOMS strategically placed on either side of the structure. That solved our major worry.
Rim Seal Fire protection for large diameter floating roof tanks :
Though in DTA we had incorporated CHUBB make poly-urethene tubed rim seal fire protection system for all large diameter floating roof tanks, unfortunately that party went out of business and we had an issue. Somehow Praful got reference from Shell Scotland about a party named BLAZE and that was chosen. Instead of conventional sensor tubing, it had a balancing arm arrangement to sense and release the foam for fighting the rim seal fire. But it never worked at all and it was major blow.
Luckily that was the time the statutory authorities issued the gazette to relinquish its mandatory requirement. So we escaped then. But it is different story now,that OISD incorporated them back with specific type and made to be incorporated retrospectively even for small diameter tanks storing Class'A' liquid products.
One should remember and thank (Late) S Narayana for his acumen to recommend to opt M/S Rosenbauer for all fire fighting vehicles in JERP. The back ground may be that he has experienced major difficulty in financing the Indian party during DTA and quality control. But his decision was blessing in disguise.
Charted Engineer Audit
Though there is no statutory obligation to carry out pre-commissioning audit of fire fighting system for a hydrocarbon processing complex, following NFPA guidelines( Jurisdiction of Authority) Reliance/TechnoFire made it as standard practice to conduct Chartered Engineer Audit for all fire fighting systems. Mr TRA Krishnan, a chartered engineer by Registration is usually contracted to carry out the audit at engineering stage in DEC office and later to undertake field inspection as well as conduct spot trials of installation. Mr Krishnan being a thorough professional with repute, will go deep into design aspects and question the DEC/Bechtel/TechnoFire/Reliance (AR) for even minor discrepancies. Let me share some of my personal experience in his audit of JERP.
Contd....
KeyAspects :- Attitude, Conviction, Incident analysis, Initiative, Innovative, Technical issue, Team building
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