BIOCONSERVACION S.A.U.– C/ Vapor 12. P.I. El Regàs 08850 Gavà (Barcelona), Spain

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Safety and Corrosion Protection in Refineries

2021-10-04 12:15:18

The environment in a refinery is highly corrosive, which makes it necessary to implement control systems not only to protect people but also the equipment that controls the processes to ensure their reliability.

 

Bioconservacion has equipment specially designed for the safety of people, to protect against corrosion in control rooms and cabinet pressurization equipment. Some CEPSA refineries in Spain have installed some of this equipment.

 

Specifically, the CEPSA Gibraltar San Roque refinery in Cadiz was equipped with a packed bed system for personal safety, specifically a Packed Bed System (PBS).

 

The packed bed system includes the following filters:

- G4 particulate filter, this is a pre-filter that collects dust and traps larger particles, protecting grids and granulates.

- Vertical beds, the air passes through the holes in the perforated plate and passes through the BION filter media, which are determined according to the pollutants to be treated.  The filling of these vertical beds is a relatively simple job. No tools or highly skilled specialists are required.

- Final particulate filter type F7, this is a higher efficiency filter for particulate removal.

The equipment has to protect a room of 155 cubic meters where, if necessary, seven to nine people would be accommodated for a time of 20 to 30 minutes.

This time should be achieved with two different contamination scenarios:

- Scenario 1, 10280.00 mg/m3 SH2 80%+various hydrocarbons 20%.

- Scenario 2, 10900.00 mg/m3 HF.

 The CEPSA Tenerife refinery has installed a UPP (Positive Pressurization Unit) where part of the outside air is taken, cleaned and pressurized in a control room of about 60 square meters. Additionally, a part of the air is used to re-circulate and clean the air from possible indoor contaminants and door openings.

 

It is designed to provide positive pressurization with air free of corrosive gases in environments containing computers, control rooms, motor control centers and electronic or electrical equipment.

 

There are two types of configurations: horizontal and vertical. However, the equipment is tailor-made according to the customer's particular needs and desired specification.

 

There are different filter media to remove various types of gases. The most common are: hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, chlorine compounds and ammonia.

 

In the refinery there is a set of transformers that switch from 220 to 110 v.

The electrical cabinet pressurization equipment installed there must meet two requirements: it must be sufficiently ventilated so that the equipment does not heat up and the air introduced into it must be cleaned.

 

Bioconservacion has a fully equipped laboratory to ensure good corrosion control. By analyzing coupons, corrosive agents are characterized and the aggressiveness of the environment is classified according to the ISA 71.04 standard.

 

The laboratory is also capable of measuring the remaining life of filter media, a service it offers to its customers to ensure timely replacement of media.

 

 

 

 

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