Chemical Process Safety (PSM/RMP)

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on March 15, 2022, an employee, 30, disconnected nuts to a line for service and repair work. The employee was working to depressurize lines of ammonia for service work. The team had isolated, performed proper lockout/ tagout, and bled the line assigned for work off. The employee began disconnecting nuts on…...

When a facility’s hazardous materials piping is assembled with bolted flanged joints, it needs a maintenance procedure to properly assemble and disassemble these flanged joints.  Along with this procedure, a means to pressure/leak test the bolted flanged joint must be used to ensure leak tightness. Subject to code/regulatory requirements, the worker should establish:… Membership Required...

AMSE P-1, Guidelines for Pressure Boundary Bolted Flange Joint Assembly, is a MUST have (and read) for process safety professionals managing piping systems that have bolted flanged joints.  In fact, Chapter 15, JOINT DISASSEMBLY, has some specific requirements that a facility should adopt as part of its Line Break SWP for flanged joints. HINT: the…...

A RAGAGEP, which is often overlooked for pipe flanges but is fair game for OSHA and EPA to reference, is ASME PCC-1, Guidelines for Pressure Boundary Bolted Flange Joint Assembly.  The RAGAGEP outlines the training personnel needs to safely assemble and disassemble flanged joints in hazardous material(s) piping circuits.  A facility with flanged piping should…...

Training and qualified personnel must assemble flanged joints in hazardous materials piping systems (see Appendix A of ASME PCC-1). Consideration should be given to establishing a finished joint examination process as part of the facility’s QA/QC assurance program.  A leak or failure in a piping system can be a minor inconvenience for low-consequence fluids, or…...

There are many different pipe support designs, types, and styles. They include hanger type, support shoes, saddles, bearing surfaces (e.g., structural members, concrete plinth blocks, etc.), spring type, dummy legs (trunnions), slide plates, sway braces/snubbers/struts, stands, sleeves, rollers, straps, clamps, and restrictive guides or anchors. An understanding of the function and design of pipe supports…...

Flexible hoses are often used to temporarily transfer hydrocarbons and other process fluids to facilitate turnaround activities (clearing equipment, de-inventorying, purging, etc.) and transfer process fluids/products to rail cars and/or/or tanker trucks for shipment. Flexible hoses may also be installed within process piping systems to mitigate the effects of thermal expansion, vibration, or movement during…...

Facilities should have a written program to ensure flanges are properly made up. Proper makeup of every flange in a piping system is important for reliability. Proper makeup includes: … Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

The ever-controversial “check valve” has now been defined as to when it should be formally included in the piping MI inspection process.  As we have discussed many times, if we claim a check valve in our PHA and/or SOP as a “safeguard,” then by all means, this valve has been defacto identified as a “safety…...

The endpoint concentrations for regulated toxic substances under the risk management program rule (40 CFR Part 68 Appendix A) are listed in units of milligrams per liter (mg/L). Is this equivalent to parts per million (ppm)?… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Passive mitigation is defined in § 68.3 as “equipment, devices, or technologies that function without human, mechanical, or other energy input.”… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

According to the definition of “process” in 40 CFR §68.3, any group of vessels that are interconnected is considered to be a single process. If a stationary source has two interconnected vessels and one contains 6,000 pounds of BUTANE while the other contains 6,000 pounds of PROPANE, is this a covered process under 40 CFR…...