P 123 J3 Portable gas Detector system

P 123

J3 Portable gas detector system

As said, none had any clear picture of how to proceed forward! The crux of the issue was , that people could not distinguish the difference between sourcing only portables, what they used to do in original refineries  with that of having a  system where  regular bump test can be executed and data gathering for the last six months of each portable device  is feasible and one can ensure to transfer them to central server for data history and track. People concerned could not appreciate its value  but I alone had different ideas.

So, with a statistical data analysis of number of personnel associated with each PIB/Control room, we arrived at the requirement of 4X portables(Personnel protection) with quadgas  for each building.and with operation/s inputs, arrived at the requirement of all other multi gas detectors meant for area check and  work permit clearance etc.. When it came for 4X , with the vendor input data of 30-40 secs for each portable bump test time taken and no. of 4X bump modules, we  calculated the number of Galaxy module requirement, taking max. of 10 portables to be bump tested in each galaxy at every shift beginning. That means approx. 3 -4  min.time slot to take for 10 personnel to have their respective bump tested device in possession to move into field at their shift beginning. Once we could arrive at the Galaxy requirement and portables both personnel (4X) and other multi gas portables requirement  for each building , we could freeze the corresponding gas canister type(quadgas and other specific gas for respective building) requirement and portable  power chargers easily.

With that, the project could give the PR to procurement to commit the order. As usual, there was confusion for the codification of each item in SAP database. Added to the mess, since these were all new in nature and SAP codification responsibility was with COE-HSE group for these safety devices, we were forced to exert more efforts to sort out. But ultimately we could complete this task by mid-November 2015.

Thereafter the vendor indicated that the production will take place in first week of December and he would like to complete the order before that year X-Mas holidays (before 22nd Dec.2015) and clear for shipment. When the project and procurement lead took up the matter for factory inspection schedule and identify the team for deployment, two issues arose.

1. Somehow the local rep. of the vendor did not have any idea about the vendor data submission/approval process and he was furnishing only standard sales catalogue for review/approval.  It forced me to take up the matter directly with their Dubai office and HQ factory since the  person concerned was not technically qualified and could not understand the matter.

2. Sh.B Narayan  felt there was no necessity for any factory acceptance at all since we have placed the order on one of the world's reputed firm and their internal quality assurance must be excellent.
Over&above, considering  internal personality differences and potential capability issues, he concluded that nobody need to make the travel to USA.

So it became a No-GO situation! At that time only, RPMG management issued a circular that all employees have to necessarily take that year PL before 31st Dec. failing which they will forego their earned PL for that year. As I was also one in that listing, it forced me to avail my leave. As I did not have any plan at all, it was utter confusion then.  All of sudden I decided that I will go to USA alone and spend some time with my two sons at New Jersey; as my aged in-laws are permanently staying with us, my wife could not accompany me. As I could get very cheap to&fro ticket through my travel agent, I planned to leave immediately by Nov. end itself.
                                                                                                               Contd.....
Key Aspects :-  Incident analysis,  Lack of experience, Responsible, Technical issue

P 122 J3 Sourcing Gas Detector portables

P  122

J3 Sourcing Gas Detector Portables

After freezing the various combination of multi gas type and quadgas type, the issue cropped up that from which factory of M/S MSA they have to be sourced by Reliance. None in the entire set-up, be it MSA management, or Reliance end user or procurement group looked into the aspect of  Country of origin, not having the actual manufacturing facility for these devices at their German establishment, issue of multiple transfers for these sensitive equipment and corresponding gas canisters etc.
The vendor be it their India office or Dubai/Germany office could not even understand the implied
constraints and were going with Reliance's procurement dictates! Reliance procurement team had only the sole objective of European Credit facility  ignoring the country of Origin issue and multiple transits.  As usual I became a bad boy while putting my condition that these have to be sourced only from their original manufacturing establishment, here it is Pittsburgh,USA. Finally, on my sole insistence on technical grounds, they were forced to look into sourcing them directly from their factory at USA,their HQ. But on prestige, they retained to go with Euro order instead of US $.Since that did not affect the technical aspects, I allowed it to go.

How we arrived at the initial qty. requirement ?
After successfully scuttling all the controversies, I shifted the scene to Jamnagar to associate the field team- ultimate stake holder/s to identify and arrive at the quantity requirement of various types. As help I had the services of Ms Leena Thomas and Sandesh Tikhe. Though both of them did not have
any back ground knowledge on the specifics, they applied themselves to extract the input from respective plant/PIB in-charge  to identify the quantum requirement of quadgas personal safety device. When I created such an atmosphere of interest to participants, they did their homework as far as opertional team members and volunteered to present/justify their requirements. There were meaningful hot discussions where to keep the bump test modules  and how many such modules required etc. So with meaningful deliberations, we arrived at identifying locations not only in PIBs but also in control rooms and some common places. There the arugument arose, when a person report for duty from home, how safe he can be until he reach his point of reporting for duty to pick up his safety device. Discussions on those three days at Jamnagar made everyone aware and conscious about the impact by the treacherous toxic gases in the field.

During that stage, they came out with 850 numbers of quadgas detectors and about 250 numbers of all other combinations having 5 gases /2 gases sensor.  For gases like Cl2,Ammonia, we opted for 2 gas combination.

The funniest thing was , nobody could arrive at the final number of Galaxy bump modules and corresponding gas canister combination.to be placed in any of the PIBs or control rooms. Even the vendor reps. did not have an iota of the picture, since their company did not have any experience in
handling such a big project order. So, when I assumed that responsibility to work out the same with my team members, people in RCP felt that I am exceeding my limits of authority and helping the vendor out of the way. During that stage of my career, several camps got formed in RCP  to disgrace me. Without analyzing, some people raised the bogey  that I have gone ahead in accepting Zone'1' certified devices and it should have been only zone'0' approved! All of them were carried away by M/S Honeywell/s claim of Zone '0' certification requirement. It forced me to go deep in reviewing the requirements and also look at all Honeywell Test certificates for those family of detectors. Honeywell was claiming that they are the only party in India who has got Zone'0' approval from PESO department. Funnily I noticed then, that even they do not have Zone'0' ATEX certification for the detectors with IR sensor! and they have misrepresented the case to statutory authorities and got certification.. As I have to save my repute and being the person who was a party in drafting the Statutory Rules for the country, I took up the matter with that time CCE and got their certification reversed then. That made many people unhappy in the house.
Even at that stage, we could not freeze the order since galaxy bump modules and gas canister quantity were not frozen.  Then came the twist!
                                                                                                                               Contd......
KeyAspects :-  Accountable, Communicate, Conviction, Critical challenge, Human relations,
Incident analysis, Initiative, Leadership, Reputation, Technical issue, Team building

P 121 Gas Detector Portables

P 121

Gas Detector Portables

Post retirement from an active career life of 49 years in industry, this is the first time I am attempting
to continue my blog writing. Let me see how my fond experience memory sustain !

Coming to the quantity estimate of detector sourcing, though I was recommending to opt for 4000 nos. of Quadgas personnel safety portables, JMD Process and Safety  management had different view
to approach the issue. 1) They openly expressed that they have a budget issue ;2) They were fearing that if a safety portable is linked to an individual, the safety management cannot track whether that individual has carried out the bump check at regular intervals (similar to ensure our smart phone battery power check);3) whether that individual has kept it safely and carry everytime when he goes in the field etc. So they suggested , why not we go with the shift hirarchy and have one common device for each position in a shift + take inputs from maintenance for their estimate of manpower in field- both departmental and permanent contract employess + some common stock in pool for the commissioning state of expatriates, senior management at site, HO personnel coming to site + some vendors specialist coming to field services/inspection etc. As their logic was convincing, though I had different line of thinking (which I shall  cover later), I readily agreed with them.

On day 1 of the kick-off meeting with the identified vendor,I ensured that alomost all plant operational team members, Process system leads &maintenance leads of all disciplines and safety team personnel  along with my team from RCP to be present .

Before going into that aspect, let me bring out, why and what made me to choose that party MSA over their fiercest competitors M/S Honeywell and Dragor?
When it came to Honeywell, though they had some superlative devices in multi-gas category that too with Zone '0' approval, they did  not have uniformity of device models  and corresponding check/calibration  standards ! In the case of quad gas, they did not have the requisite combination of
%LEL with Methane as reference gas, CO in ppm,H2S in ppm and O2 % -in their portable combination as single device.
In case of Dragor, though they had this combination of portable,  they did not have any standard bump module rig and standardized calibration set-up!

Honeywell were convassing to opt for dual gas type portables instead of quadgas combination.
More than these, MSA scored over others in their special feature of silent no distarbance alarm factor.
As usual ,when I gave this TBE recommending to go for a single vendor selection to procurement for
commercial negotiation, there was hue and cry. But Jamnagar safety group and operations were very happy ,since I looked into their ultimate objective and safety conscience. Here I have to bring out one important aspect. At this time of issuing the TBE, none had any idea about the total requirement of multi-gas portable  and their corresponding bump test modules, gas cylinder/canister requirement and battery chargers etc. As the whole effort was evolving, one calling for some basic engineering with vendor participation to arrive at the combination by respective area operations team, corresponding bump test module- gas type and rechargeable qty. etc. we proposed to procurement to freeze the unit price at the time of issuing Letter of Intent  and keep the order development under HOLD until the completion of basic engineering.
As the subject is new and both Reliance and MSA India team did not have prior knowledge on these aspects, there was a big hue and cry! Procurement group was refusing to issue the LOI in the absence of PR (Purchase requisition )in SAP system. Typical of AR, I have to brief Sh B Narayan and seek his help. He being a chemical engineer and had functioned as project manager, could appreciate the facts immediately and ordered the concerned to go ahead committing the LOI on the identified party.
At that stage, came another hurdle!

Key Aspects :- Conviction, Critical challenge, Faith,  Incidence analysis, lack of experience,
Technical issue, Team building

P 120 J3 Gas Detectors-Portable

P  120


J3 Gas Detectors Portable

When we started looking for sourcing these portables in 2015, many of us were not conscious enough about the knocking effect of toxic gases.As most of the team members were from oil refinery back ground, they were giving importance  only for flammability of hydrocarbon release, be it in liquid state or gaseous vapor. So they were going with area classification criteria for device selection and qty. requirement depending on likely peak manpower present in a zone that too for % LEL consideration as basis.

Here I have played some important role in highlighting the nausea factors of toxic vapors of H2S and CO as well as carcigenic nature of Benzene and Toluene. Dr JV Kelkar, with his rich knowledge and experience in handling ethylene cracker and we both  having worked together in implementaing naphtha cracker at IPCL Baroda, brought out the importance of having multi point GC for Benzene in both ROGC and PX IV. Since that being afixed installation, we asked the Instrumentation group to carry out that. At that state, I took the call by summoning plant wise/ area wise Operation& Process system personnel and deliberated to understand the possibility/probability of presence of gas release in earmarked zones covered by respective PIB building.

Why PIB Wise?
As I was told that every field engineer in operations will report for duty only in their earmarked PIB & then only move into the field, we decided to opt for PIB wise type selection for  muliti gas type portable catering to that earmarked zone  and quantitiwise personal safety portable based on number of people estimated.
The multi gas portables are essential for specific pre-check in field for the absence of identified (listed) gas presence in that area before releasing a work permit to any maintenance team-both cold and hot works of all mainteance discipline, be it handled by company employess or contracting agency.
When it come to personal portables, we followed OSHA guideline of opting Quadgas detector - % LEL (Methane as basis), CO,H2S & %O2 for all areas .Since presence of hydrocarbon is there everywhere in JMD Complex, we chose % LEL sensor methane basis, even to take care of C2/C3 vapor presence in air. As we have introduced coke gasification in J3, the importance of monitoring CO and H2S  presence in any area ,that too in ppm increased. Syn.gas contain CO and H2  when it is purified , but in Gasifier area there are possibility of H2S presence also.

Additionally, there can be Ammonia, HCN, Cl2,SO2 etc. in gasification complex and all these were covered under multi gas detector portables.

How we arrived at the total quantity requirement for quadgas portable in each PIB area?

To start with I was planning to source 100% qty. based on estimated total manpower attached to respective PIB + some spare inventory. Based on that time estimate, it was coming to 4000 numbers exclusively for catering to manpower attached to all PIBs.  Over& above that, there are personnel attached to various control rooms, plant managers, top management in operation, maintenance personnel,  contract personnel presence on permanent basis, people regularly visiting from HO and visitors  etc.Had we struck with that , it would have come to 7000 or so.
My objective was  ,to start with, it would be a possession by each individual for his personal safety similar to his employment identity badge.

Key Aspects :-   Accountable. Attitude, Codes&standard,  Incident analysis, Lack of experience,
Leadership, Technical issue

P 119 Gas Detectors-Portable

P  119


Gas Detectors Portable Contd.

Let us analyze what is the fundamental difference between Zone'0' and Zone'1' conditions .
As per API/IEC/IS ,
Zone'0'-Hazardous Area   that part of the plant hazardous area in which a flammable atmosphere is present continuously  or for long period or frequently.
In refinery/ petrochemical complex, that sort of condition prevail only in underground open pits or inside atmospheric tanks or columns/vessels/drums. Yes, all electrical &instrumentation device fixed in those areas have to necessarily meet that zone classification strictly. But when it comes to portable devices to be possessed by each individual , does it call for Zone'0' rating? The answer is big NO for the following reasons:
1) No one is supposed to go to those areas when hydrocarbon inventory is present in that zone area.
2) Assuming somebody has tresspassed into that area without knowledge, the device will go into alarm mode  and he has to escape.
3) The fundamental issue of change of zone status will never be noticed and demarkation limit will not be known to anybody.

Zone'1'- Hazardous Area  that part of hazardous area in which a flammable atmosphere is likely to occur  in normal operation occassionally.
These condition can occur near any equipment/device having several flange joints or valves, where gasket failure or gland packing release develop . That time, it is essential for operations/ maintenance to visit that spot to undertake emergency actions to prevent any unsafe condition in operations/atmosphere. Here only there is an absolute need for a person to possess a bump tested gas detector portable for his/her personal safety. If he carries a zone'1' certified device, the moment he approaches that sensitive area, if there is any flammable gas or toxic gas release present beyond the set alarm limit, the device will go into alarm mode and caution that person. That means that he comes to be cautioned for the change of zone - from normal zone'2' to zone'1' and he can think of emergency steps of operation/escape/evacuation etc.

Under normal operations of a hydrocarbon processing operations only Zone'2' condition will be prevalent. Zone'2' Hazardous Area   that part of hazardous area in which a flammable atmosphere is not likely to occur in normal operations and if at all arise, it will persist for a short period only.
That is the condition that normally prevail in the complex where steady state operations take place with good house keeping and having high Reliability Assurance program.

But somehow the CHSEE group could not appreciate the importance of this zone transition indication requirement essentiality between Zone'1' to Zone'0'  and through S&OR management insisted to opt for Zone'0' approval only! All these happened since the interested vendors wanted to push their bid. and our team  could not understand the essential safety requirement. Because such a mandate has come from the top,  we had to abide that for the top-up requirement; but that has created  another dispute.

Before going into that aspect, let us look ,how we arrived at the various grouping in each plant area
and how we arrived at the quantity requirement  for each plant area and where the bump module for each group have to be located with what gas canister and how many?
For that , one should understand the function of bump module, its configuration  and how it functions
& its essentiality for signalling the device status and data gathering etc.
                                                                                                                     Contd......

Key Aspects :- Incident analysis, Technical issue

P 118 Gas Detectors- portable

P 118

Gas Detector Portables

In J3, as  Reliance has gone in implementing mega petrochemicals  producing C2/C3 basic production from the refineries' off-gas  and their corresponding down stream products of MEG, LDPE, LLDPE and IIR/HIIR in petrochemical group and Coke gasification to generate Syn. gas for usage in power plants and heater burners as fuel, we identified the possibility of several gases- hazardous in terms of flammability or toxic in nature  release in the plant atmosphere.
With the services of core process team we drew the complete listing of them.  When it came to fixed
metering arrangement concerned , the core instrumentation team took care with the services of rspective DEC but the responsibility to identify and source the requirement for portables fell on RPMG LP team.

I took the call and gathered the total type listing from the core process team  that too plantwise/area wise. The various gases/vapors are :

Ammonia
Benzene
Butadiene
Butane
Mercapton
CO2
Cl2
HCN
CO
SO2
Cycloxexane
Toluene
EO
Ethane
Ethanol
Ethylene
Propylene
Ethylene Glycol
Gasolene
Glycol
Heptane
Xexene
Hydrogen
H2S
Peroxide
Isobutane
Jet fuel
Diesel
Kerosene
 Naphta
Methane
Methanol
Pentane
Octane
Hcl
LPG family
Xylenes
Phenol
Nitrogen......

It took considerable time for me to group them for area specific requirement  and arrive at the type of device to be chosen for area monitoring as well as to be issued to each individual for his/ her personal safety. While carrying out this exercise, I became knowledgeable that each competing vendor has got different special features to offer. It became a challenge to me  to select which of the special features to be given special merit while freezing the specification and develop the TBE to be issued to procurement.  I did not want to go with multi vendor selection option for the specific reason of accumulating the data in single server for plant performance analysis  during steady state operating conditions. As an experienced petrochemical instrumentation engineer with 47 years project exposure in refinery projects, I decided that we can go with Zone '1' approved devices , though a particular vendor claimed that he has got zone'0' approval for some of their devices but not all. Even for that vendor, when I went deep in analyzing his claim  by reviewing their ATEX certificates, I noticed the folly and warned that vendor for their  false statement and forced to withdarw the claim then.
There came a controversy! The core CHSEE  did not believe my contention and raised technical objection of opting Zone'1' instead of zone'0'. Fortunately BNarayan and DDutta being chemical engineers by qualification, understood the situation and cleared my stand  and backed me.
                                                                                                              Contd....
Key Aspects :- Accountable, Critical challenge, Incident analysis, Responsible, Technical issue

P 117 BA Stn .Implementation

P  117

BA Stn. Implementation

Having conceived the breathing air requirement and number required  & location identified in gazification complex/s, a fresh point arose! Somebody in the group questioned, what will you do
if the utility air compressor  supply air quality deteriorate and toxic rich  supply air is present in the distribution header?  That too somebody is utilizing the BA take off provision in field at that time  for his operation/maintenance task in the field. That was a valid question  and a practical one. So the team  carried out a logistic movement study calculation.  As it is we have planned to make provisions of emergency situation air bottles  with harness assembly  placed at strategic points at ground elevation. When we did a calculation on the basis of normal human being air consumption, a 2 kgs filled air bottle can help a person for 14.5 minutes time breathing  to escape from that unsafe area.
Taking that as back up, we decided to put 2 kgs air bottle as emergency back up in all BA take-off points which are at elevation more than 15 M from ground level.

Having decided that way, we went in to analyse the changeover switch provision in the harness assembly.The two vendors who competed technically had that issue addressed already and they were the people who insisted that the supply air pressure should be at least 6 kg/cm2 g pressure. So that solved our worry.

With all these home work , my team could arrive at the total MTO for the components that form the BA station assembly. Through system they could raise the MR, to enable the procurement to commit the supply order on the recommended bidder. The recommendation was on M/S MSA and the party wanted to take the order to be executed from their Germany office, who source the  air filter assembly &regulator package from M/S Parkar, world famous reputed source. But in the process there was a catch! Until that moment, all concerned were focused  on component selection only but not as Breathing Air Assembly!

For procurement sake, the engineering team was forced to look into component wise and generate their SAP code but nobody have looked the requirement of finished/tested assembly package ! Unfortunately even the two bidders who were technically acceptable, did not think of the task of design/fabrication of container indigenously  and assembling the sourced components and test. In Reliance, people concerned could not distinguish the scope and responsibility difference between component supply and field assembly / testing!

Added to misery, MSA was banking upon their local distributor only to undertake that task as they do not have their own resources to undertake that assignment in India. But RPMG management was hell bent to give the order only direct to MSA. Here I was forced to play the balancing game in handling the situation  and made sure that the MSA Indian distributor carry out the design from fundamentals
and I personally reviewed the assembly drawing features , especially with respect to interface issue with the main header piping , relative location of hose drum assembly with filter/regulator etc. That party got the containers fabricated at a shop in Ankleshwar , got them inspected by TPI and carried out the field assembly and testing at JMD. In the bargain I became a bad boy  in the eyes of RPMG management! Moreover, when it came to ordering, procurement made the blunder of including field erection  of assembled containers in various positions even at high elevations under the scope of MSA. Strictly speaking, it should have gone under the scope of pipe erection contractor in respective area. So I have to interfere on that account; but the construction management group have understood rightly and included that in piping contractor scope and got executed.
                                                                                                                              Contd.....
Key Aspects :- Incident analysis, Leadership, Proactive approach, Responsible, Technical issue