Safety Alerts 9

Pumps

• Waterflood pump plunger broke (blocked outlet?) releasing H2S laden water. H2S detectors were not regularly tested and didn’t alarm. Personal H2S detector was not used. Pumper fatally injured. Better ventilation of pump house or open-air installation of pumps

• Common spare pump serving 2 different services may save a little money. But inadvertent wrong line up + inability to trip the pump on LALL/ PAHH have caused accidents and losses. Avoid

• Reverse rotation: On power failure, Delayed Coker feed pump reverse rotated due to discharge check valve failure under discharge pressure + 30 bar BFW injected to furnace coil to purge it. Pump and its motor damaged. Provide remote operated discharge valve for bigger pumps

• Pumps are involved in a number of major fire/ explosion incidents as they can spray liquids onto hot surfaces or create vapor cloud when pumped liquids flash

• Seals: (1) using a redundant pump with seal not suitable for the pumped fluid (2) nature of pumped fluid has changed viz pumping light ends with a pump specified for heavies as in a Flare KOD

• Seals: Use the right seal system to suit fluids pumped. Light HC may leak in seal system designed for heavies. If you see a liquid pool near a pump, check for seal damage. Seal leaks quickly get worse and lead to fire

• Seals: Propane Circulation Pump Seal failure. PDA unit destroyed

• Seals: Olefins plant seal leak ignored. Counting on prevailing wind direction and dispersion, production was continued. Wind direction changed and leak size increased. Unconfined VCE

• Seal: LPG pump seal leak. Pump tripped and isolated with suction MOV and discharge closed. Suction blinded. After seal replacement, spec blind was removed. Suction MOV was opened before suction flange bolts were tightened. LPG leak and fire

• Seal: Excessive axial movement of Vacuum Column Bottoms centrifugal pumps resulted in primary seal faces to separate during rotation and gradually fail due to solid particle contamination of the faces causing wear and seal leakage failures. (Abdulrahman Alkhowaiter)

• Seal: Frequent startup and shutdown thermal cycling loosened seal assembly bolts of CDU Column pump. Seal failed and hot oil leak ignited. BP

• Seal: Due to low liquid level in upstream, a pump operated with low inlet pressure for nearly two hours. Cavitation, vibration. Damaged pump’s bearings. Resulting stress caused pump’s mechanical seal to fail. Hot HC at 310°C (autoignition 250°C). Fire. LAL and Vibration alarms ignored as another pump was not available. Critical High High vibration alarm didn't function. CSB

• Pump started with discharge valve open but suction valve at the tank closed. Suction bellows failed on pressure surge wave. Gasoline spill. BP

• CDU: Long residue pump drain line was open but plugged with solidified residue after maintenance. Plug melted as the pump was recommissioned, spraying 330°C residue. BP

• CDU: Cold Crude Oil Pump bearing failure. Oil release ignited by friction from the failed bearing. 

• Similar, seal failure of a Top Pumparound Pump. Oil release ignited by frictional heat within the seal. 

• Similar, leak from Long Residue mechanical seal leak; at suction filter flange; bearing failure. Remote isolation and secondary sealing recommended in critical service. BP

• CDU/VDU: Changeover of Desalted Crude Pumps increased feed rate and light ends to VDU. Loss of vacuum and VDU RV release to atmosphere. BP

• VDU: Pump casing drain suffered severe sulfidation corrosion, its threaded connection was blown out. Hot fluid at 360°C released and ignited. BP

• VDU: Hot oil warm-up bypass from a running pump escaped from a standby Vacuum Residue Pump suction strainer pump. Rate suction side to discharge pressure. BP

• VDU: Leakage from a light compression fitting on a seal oil return line, ignited by Residue Pump casing. Avoid this type of vulnerable compression fitting. BP

• VDU: HVGO Reflux Pump. Screwed nipple in vent failed. Corrosion and vibration. Oil release. Fire. BP

• Pump gasket failed. Diesel leak and fire. Inspect regularly abrasion failures in pumps, compressors, tanks and pipelines

• Excessive wear and tear + loose bearing lock nut caused pump damage and oil release. Heat from metal-to-metal contact in pump seal ignited the oil. CSB

• Pump strainer maintenance. Block valve failure. Oil spill that auto-ignited and destroyed VBU. Fire spread by Fire Water application

• Pump suction strainer choked with debris. On opening its upstream valve debris were blown out. BP

• Pulsation Dampener Failure: (1) Dampener disconnected on excessive vibration, spraying condensate on nearby heater treater exhaust stack. Ignition. Protect hot piping from liquid spill or leak (2) After dampener failed, bladder filled with pumped fluids. Ambient at (-) 35°C. Fluid froze and dampener exploded. Shrapnel damaged pump house (3) N2 charged dampener and pump froze on low ambient temperature. Dampener failed and N2 bladder exploded. Caution: Freezing in cold climate

• HP LPG Recip: Failure of gland packing studs. Leak and fire. Missing: F&G; ESDs and ventilated location

• Ethyl chloride reactor circulation pump. Ethyl chloride mix of a liquefied flammable gas HCl. Corroded discharge flange + failure of discharge flexi pipe. Leak. Have remote SDV with significant inventory + proper drainage slope

• FPSO: Condensate pumped by Recip Pump with discharge valve closed. Leak. Fire due to static developed by fire hose water sweep action

• Water pumps have exploded, when ran with inlet and outlet closed. Pumped energy heated up trapped water with high thermal expansion. Take care of auto-start / remotely switched on pumps

• Butane pump blocked with hydrate. Cleared with steam hose. Released butane ignited by a furnace 40m away. Explosion. WWW

• To flush a Caustic solution pump, before opening it, firewater was used. Pump plastic casing was unable to take FW pressure and ruptured, spraying Caustic solution. CSB

Compressors

• Compressor Outlet Pipe: Vibrations let a bolt cut thru Hydrogen piping. Leak

• Compressor vibration resulted in crack cavities in discharge thermowell. Leak

• Poor recycle/ suction pressure control, in a LP compressor led to air suck-in and explosion

• Lightning: Black DCS Screen. Induced high voltage impacted C2+ plant compressor control devices. Excessive recycle / RV chattering cracked weldolets in flare lines. Root cause: Poor grounding of cables to control room

• Lube Oil: Compressor head developed was low. Unable to inject gas. Third stage FT error resulted in anti-surge valve NOT opening under low/ no flow. Blocked outlet temperature rise resulted in HC gas release that auto-ignited. Process gas reached via dry gas seal Lube Oil Tank, that exploded. Compressor tripped. Plant blowndown. Emergency Lube oil pump continued to add fuel to fire

• Lube Oil: air mixture in the suction piping in test loop, ignited by compressor friction. Detonation. BP

• Shaft seal: Oil: air mixture in discharge piping an air compressor, ignited by high discharge temperature. Detonated. BP

• Seal Oil: Process gas with return seal oil can cause lube oil tank explosion when breather is clogged or unable to cope

• Static Electricity: Air entered lubricating oil reservoir via leaks in the return oil piping or tank breathing during shutdown or from an open manhole or filling connection during maintenance. Gas via degasser if the loop seal between degasser and reservoir was dry or if the degasser was not operating efficiently or operation of the buffer gas system or pressure in the compressor casing in combination with an oil system shutdown and leaking compressor seal. The oil system was started before buffer gas was turned on, and the seal oil system was in operation just prior to the failure. Gas could have entered the reservoir before the start of the seal oil system from the other machines through the common vent header. Static electricity and explosion. BP