High Integrity Pressure Protection Solutions

Environmental Release & Personnel Injury

If a burst disk or relief valve opens, it may discharge environmentally unfriendly substances into the surrounding air, leading to consequential problems of spillage, pollution, environmental damage or personnel injury. In many older plants, many processes are still operated manually which means more humans are working around pressure vessels. Any release of flammable or toxic contents into the surroundings may also endanger the personnel working in the area.

Fire and Explosion

If the released material is an explosive material then releasing large quantities of it through relieving devices can increase the risk of fire or explosion. It may also endanger the personnel who may rush to that area to replace the burst disk.

Replacement problems

When a burst disk operates, the equipment of part of the pipline gets shutdown. Replacing it and starting the plant again entails a lot of use of resources. Sometimes, it is challenging to find out why a burst disk burst at a particular time and place. Nowadays there is an arrangement where when a burst disk bursts, a pressure switch senses the bursting and generates an alarm in the control room to alert the operator. Even then, it may be difficult to find the root cause of the bursting. It may be due to a genuine overpressure condition, or it may be that the particular burst disk operated a slightly lower pressure than it was designed to-it is difficult to pinpoint.

The HIPPS solution

To avoid all these problems, users today are now actively accepting the HIPPS alternative. A typical HIPPS is shown below. In case of overpressure in the line, the quick shutoff valves close the line in a matter of seconds, preventing the overpressure condition from traveling further downstream. Note that the HIPPS shown below can be considered as a special case of a Safety Instrumented System.