Emergency Shutdown and Depressuring System Design
Shutdown philosophy, isolation, blowdown and what happens after the button is pressed
Emergency shutdown design covers more than a trip signal. This course addresses shutdown hierarchy and philosophy, isolation valve selection and fire survivability, depressuring rate calculation, and the consequences of a shutdown that leaves the plant in a worse state than it started.
This course sits alongside our Emergency Shutdown System Design consulting work, so what is taught is what we do.
Who should attend
Course content
Every module is taught with worked examples and exercises drawn from real plant, and adapted to your own process where the course runs in house.
Shutdown philosophy
- Levels of shutdown from unit through to total plant and their triggers
- Cause and effect matrices and keeping them readable
- Interaction with the basic process control system
- Manual initiation points and their placement
Isolation
- Emergency shutdown valve selection, leakage class and closure time
- Fire safe and fire tested valve requirements
- Actuator selection, fail position and stored energy
- Inventory segmentation and how sectionalising limits the release
Depressuring
- Blowdown rate selection and the API 521 basis
- Vessel wall temperature during depressuring and low temperature embrittlement
- Flare loading from simultaneous blowdown
- When depressuring makes the situation worse
After the shutdown
- Safe state definition and whether the plant actually reaches it
- Restart sequence and the hazards introduced during recovery
- Testing shutdown functions without creating a production incident
What you receive
- A shutdown philosophy and cause and effect template
- Depressuring rate and vessel temperature worked examples
- An isolation valve specification checklist
- Assessment result and attendance record
What changes afterwards
- Shutdown hierarchy is deliberate rather than accumulated over time
- Isolation valves are specified for the fire exposure they may see
- Depressuring rates account for wall temperature rather than only flare capacity
- Restart hazards get designed for instead of discovered
Standards and references
We teach Emergency Shutdown and Depressuring System Design against API RP 521 for pressure relieving and depressuring systems and the codes listed with it, at the edition current when you run it.
Run Emergency Shutdown and Depressuring System Design for your team
We will come back with dates, the pre-reading it needs and a cost per head. Tell us who is attending, what they already do day to day and whether you want it at your site or delivered online.
Ask about dates and cost