2013 Spring Meeting & 9th Global Congress on Process Safety

(95b) Quality Assurance and Quality Control of Pressure Relief Studies

Author

Kale, S. - Presenter, Lloyd's Register Energy Americas



This work describes the Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) process for pressure relief studies.  Definitions are given for the terminology used for the QA/QC process of pressure relief system studies. A sample workflow of a typical pressure relief system analysis is given.  Different sections of the pressure relief analysis are briefly described and sample work instructions are given for each section.   A typical set of the documentation required for a pressure relief system study and a typical sequence of the documents therein are described. Work instructions are given for the QA/QC process in the different sections of the studies- setup, overpressure contingency analysis, concerns identification and the final documentation.  The final deliverables and a typical approval procedure for the final documentation is also given. The storing and maintaining the pressure relief studies is covered briefly. Lastly, some common pitfalls observed in QA/QC of hundreds of pressure relief systems from commercial refineries and petrochemical plants are described.