2025 Spring Meeting and 21st Global Congress on Process Safety
(120a) Isd (Inherently Safer Design) Considerations for Blue Ammonia Projects
Author
As the energy industry is exploring new opportunities in the Blue Ammonia productions, we need to be aware of the Inherently Safer Design (ISD) considerations especially in the front end of the project development where there is the greatest opportunity to implement ISD measures. A typical integrated Blue Ammonia production and export facility would consist of Nitrogen extraction via processes such as Air Separation Unit (ASU), Hydrogen Production, Ammonia Synthesis as well as Ammonia storage and offloading. The hazards of each of these process modules may not be always well recognized. As a result, the front end engineering phase may miss the greatest opportunity to introduce corresponding ISD measures that will greatly reduce the required engineering barriers identified in the later project phases. For example, an ISD layout developed in the front end of the project could potentially reduce the potential severity of a major LOPC (Loss of Primary Containment) event, which would lead to lower SIL requirements for SIFs in LOPA during FEED (Front End Engineering Design) or DE (Detailed Engineering) phases.
This presentation aims to illustrate a risk-based approach on this process, starting with the hazard identifications followed by ISD goals identifications and implementations. The presentation will also share some key lessons learned where some of these key ISD measures could be missed by the typical engineering contractors, and what are some of the key focus areas process safety engineers should be addressing in Pre FEED to mitigate the process safety risks of a typical integrated Blue Ammonia production facility