EVALUATION OF HYDROCARBON GAS DISPERSION AND EXPLOSION ON GAS PROCESSING PLANT

• Main Author: Rismayasari, Dwita
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/38902
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Gas leakage is one of hazard sources in gas processing plant, where the released gas may form vapor cloud, then either dispersed or accumulated. In certain concentration, the vapor cloud may induce fire and explosion, which harm personnel, equipment, and environment. The effects of the incidents may be estimated to determine the consequences and to improve the plant design. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models are appropriate to perform 3D modeling of major events with all necessary details. The CFD simulation results may help to understand the dispersion and explosion behaviors in real configuration. The purpose of this study was to implement gas dispersion model and to estimate the effects of gas dispersion and explosion caused by flammable gas release. In detail, the dispersion results were used to evaluate the quantity, location, and detection time of existing gas detectors. In this study, the real 3D plant geometry and FLACS software were utilized to run the CFD model simulation. There were three units evaluated consist of 6 leak sources, which are varied by wind speed and leak size. The dispersion result in separation unit shows that the quantity and location of exsisting gas detectors are acceptable. Meanwhile in booster compressor unit, relocation of 2 exsisting gas detectors and addition of 2 gas detectors are required. Two additional gas detectors are required in gas turbine generator unit, as well. Nine out of 54 leakage scenarios could not be detected by the gas detectors due to the short coverage and the small volume of the cloud. Three scenarios from each unit were then evaluated from possible explosion. The results show that the effects of explosion from these three scenarios are predicted to be not able to cause steel frame distortion or eardrum rupture. Hence, the evaluation using CFD 3D model might give improvement from former 2D method and might ensure the plant safety by giving the real behavior.