HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
TITLE:
FRACTIONAL DISTILLATION PROCESS
CONTENTS
1. Title………………………………………………………………………….1
2. Summary…………………………………………………………………….3
3. Introduction of Case Study…………….…………………………………….4
4. Risk Scenario Development…….…………………………………………...5
5. Justification of Fault Tree Analysis…………………………………………6
6. Procedures of Fault Tree Analysis…………………………………………..7
7. Fault Tree Analysis…………………………………………………………8
8. Possible Risk Associated with Hazards….………………………………...11
9. Accident Consequences…………………………………………………….13
10. Method to Control the Risk………………………………………………...15
11. Solution to Minimize the Risk……………………………………………..17
12. ...view middle of the document...
It is one of the most important major processes in the oil and gas industry. Basically there are two types of fractional distillation which are in laboratory fractional distillation and industrial fractional distillation. Both have different method of conducting the process but utilize the similar concept. Industrial petroleum refining involves the separation of different length of hydrocarbon chain into specific refinery column which will produce products such as petrol, naphtha, kerosene and diesel.
However petroleum refining has its own hazards and risk. It is highly flammable and could cause a major catastrophe to the plant. The purpose of this report is to study a case scenario involving the fractional distillation process and its potential hazards and risks.
INTRODUCTION
In 1859, the petroleum industry began with the successful drilling of the first commercial oil well and the opening of the first refinery to process the crude into kerosene. The development of petroleum refining from simple distillation to today's sophisticated processes has created a need for health and safety management procedures and safe work practices. Refining is the processing of one complex mixture of hydrocarbons into a number of other complex mixtures of hydrocarbons. In response to changing consumer’s demand for better and different products, petroleum refining has evolved continuously. The original requirement was to produce kerosene as a cheaper and better source of light than whale oil. The production of gasoline and diesel fuels resulted from development of the internal combustion engine. Nowadays, refineries produce a variety of products.
It was soon discovered that high quality lubricating oils could be produced by distilling petroleum under vacuum. For the next 30 years kerosene was the product consumers wanted due to two significant events, first is invention of the electric light decreased the demand for kerosene and second, invention of the internal combustion engine which created a demand for diesel fuel and gasoline, also known as naphtha. Most of our modern lifestyle depends on oil. The largest oil refinery is the Paraguana Refining Complex in Venezuela, which can process 940,000 barrels of oil each day.
Samuel M. Kier was the first person to refine crude oil and he used the flammable oil produced by his salt wells to light his salt works at night. The burning crude produced an awful smell and a great deal of smoke. In 1850, Kier started experimenting with distillation and his refining experiments were successful and by 1851, Kier produced a product called Carbon Oil, a fuel oil which burned with little smoke and odor. By the end of the 1860s, Samuel M. Kier spent a great deal of his life trying to make crude oil useful and valuable and along the way he gave birth to the U.S. refining industry.
A report based on fractional distillation or petroleum refining as a case study is used to determine the hazard and risk involve in the...