This incident was process related and involved a process safety system; however, the process was NOT PSM/RMP covered. The incident is process-related and many of the PSM/RMP management elements could have prevented this incident.
An electric sweet gas heater ruptured from overheating releasing sweet gas into the building. The cause of the incident was likely the lack of temperature controls.
This electric seal gas heater is used to heat sweet gas, which then is piped downstream to provide positive pressure on seals for a turbo expander as a part of a compressor. Therefore, the heater is called a “seal gas heater”. In regular operation, sales gas (gas where the hydrogen sulfide is removed, also called “sweet gas”) flows typically continuously through the heater, which uses an electric heating element within the heater’s 4-inch shell to heat the sweet sales-gas for further use downstream. This unit is designed to have a high-temperature shut-down limit switch to prevent overheating of the electric heater in the event of loss of gas flow through the heater.