FIRE SAFETY IN

PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

FIRE SERVICE TRAINING INSTITUTE

 WARMING UP
What is black gold?
 INTRODUCTION

 Vast underground deposits of liquid hydrocarbons

 Mainly Alkanes, found in many regions of earth.
 These are often locked under the dome shaped
impervious rock.
 When drilled out of the mines, the oily mixtures of
hydrocarbons in its crude form is called petroleum or
crude oil.
 In Latin words Petra means – Rock.
 Oleum means – oil
 Accompanying the reservoirs of petroleum is natural
gas.
 Consisting of gaseous hydrocarbon largely methane.
 AIM
To know about the Petrochemical Industries
and its hazards and fire safety.
 OBJECTIVE
On completion of the session, participants will
be able to know:-

 What is Pteroleum
 Composition of petroleum/ Natural gas
 Characteristics of Prtroleum Products
 Flammable Limits, Flash Point, Fire Point, Auto
Ignition temperature, Self dilution Point,
 Classification of Petroleum Products
 Hydrocarbon Industries, Hazards and fire safety
 PETROLEUM

 In Latin words Petra means – Rock.

 Oleum means – oil
 Accompanying the reservoirs of
petroleum is natural gas.
 Consisting of gaseous hydrocarbon
largely methane.
THE ORIGIN:
 The origin of petroleum lies in plants
and animals which lived on earth and in
the sea many millions of years.
 These organisms died and their remains
became buried under the earth.
 Due to the bacterial decomposition and
under the action of earth’s heat and
pressure these converted to liquid
hydrocarbons ie.. Petroleum.
COMPOSITION OF PETROLEUM
 Petroleum is an extremely complex mixture
made up of hundreds of compounds, mostly
hydrocarbons.
 It consists of Alkanes, cycloalkanes, and
aromatic hydrocarbons.
 The ratio of the various components much
depends on the origin of the oil.
 Alkanes (30 – 70 % )
 Cyclo Alkanes or Naphthalene's ( 16 – 64 % ).
 Aromatic Hydrocarbons ( 8 – 15 % ).
COMPOSTION OF NATURAL
GAS
 It is found above the petroleum
deposits in mines called Natural gas.
 It is a mixture of low molecular
weight Alkanes
 It is composed primarily of Methane
(80%),
Ethane (13%), Propane (3%),
Butane (1%), C₅ - C₈ Alkanes (0.5%) and
Nitrogen (13%).
CHARACTERISTICS
 Petroleum (Crude Oil ) is found as an
unstable highly flammable, corrosive
liquid.
 It has a dirty black color and nauseating
odour.
 It is essential for the fire man to have a
good knowledge of the characteristic of
petroleum oil and able to recognize the
condition in which source of ignition,
hydrocarbon vapours will fire or explodes.
VAPOUR FORMATION
 Petroleum oil at temperature below their
boiling point vaporize only at the surface
and in the presence of vapour space.
 E.g... A small quantity of ether will vaporize
almost immediately when exposed to air.
 Petrol requires a larger time
 Water will take larger still.
 This tendency of a liquid to vaporize is
called it’s volatility.
FLAMMABLE LIMITS
 It is the vapour which is given off
from a flammable liquid that burns
when combined with air.
 Oil which is not vaporizing or has no
vapour space above it, cannot burn.
 Air and vapour must be in certain
proportions in order to burn.
 The concentration varies for different
vapours
 For e.g..,. The flammability range of
petrol vapour in air is between 1.4, the
lower limit & 5.9 the upper limit,
percent of petrol vapour by volume,
 i.e... The petrol vapour requires
maximum of 98.6% and a minimum of
94.1% of air to support combustion.
FLAMABILITY LIMIT OF SOME
HYDROCARBONS
Hydrocarbons Lower Upper limit
limit
Methane (Gas ) 5.0 15.0
Ethane (Gas ) 3.0 12.5
Propane (Gas ) 2.4 9.5
Petrol ( Liquid ) 1.4 5.9
Petrol Naphtha 1.1 4.8
Kerosene 0.7 5.0
Hydrogen 4.1 74.0
( Gas )
Acetylene 2.5 80.0
 A gas or vapour with wide limits of
flammability is potentially more
dangerous than one which has a
narrow flammable range.
 For e.g.…. Hydrogen which are 4.1 –
74% by volume
FLASH POINT
 The flash point of a liquid is the lowest
temperature at which sufficient vapour is
given off to flash on the application of a
flame in the presence of air.
 The flame can be an arc, spark, naked flame
or any other source of direct ignition.
 The flash point of some hydrocarbons is well
below freezing point
 For e.g... Petrol has a flash point of about
-45°C.
 Flammable liquid with high volatility
generally have low flash point ( More
Hazardous) than flammable liquids
with low volatility which usually have
high flash point i.e.,.. Lubricating oils,
heavy fuel oil, diesel etc…
 The characteristic gives low volatility of
oils a greater degree of safety with
relation to fire.
SELF IGNITION TEMPERATURE
 This is the lowest temperature to which a
solid, liquid or gas requires to be raised to
cause self sustained combustion with out
initiation by a spark or a flame.
 For e.g. some petrol vapour is leaking and
is diluted with air to within its flammable
range and then comes into contact with a
source of heat such as hot brick work or
pipes which are above 246°C then the ignition
will occur automatically.
 SELF IGNITION TEMP OF SOME HYDROCARBONS

HYDROCARBONS CHENICAL SELF IGNITION TEMP DEGREE

FORMULA CENTIGRADE

Methane CH₄ 538

Ethane C₂H₆ 514
Propane C₃H₈ 466
Petrol 246
Kerosene 254
Lubricating oil 370/416
Fuel oil 260/407
Paraffin wax 245
Hydrogen 585
 CLASSIFICATION OF PETROLEUM OILS
According to the flash point of the oils the petroleum oils are divided into
three classes.
Class A: These are light fractions with a flash point below 22.8 degree
 E.g. LNG ( Methane & Ethane )
 LPG (Propane & Butane )
 Aviation Spirit
 Pentane
 Benzene
 Coal tar
 Crude Petroleum
 Heptanes
 Hexane
 Octane
 Petrol (Motor Spirit, Benzene, gasoline )
 Petroleum ether
 Petroleum Naphtha
 Toluene
 Xylene
 Some jet aircraft fuel
 Special care should be taken with LPG
and LNG as within their explosive limit
in the presence of air, they will flash
when ever there is any source of
ignition present.
 Petroleum Crude Oil has no particular
flash point, but more hazardous than
any other liquids in class A.
Class B
 Medium oils which have a flash point
between 22.8 degree & 65.5 degree.
 E.g. Jet fuels (Kerosene)
 White Spirit ( Turpentine substitute )
 Tractor Vaporizing oils
CLASS C
 Class C petroleum liquids have a flash
point above 65.6 degree & includes
gas oils, diesel oil, heavy fuel oils &
heavier lubricating oils.
 These oils will not give rise to a
flammable vapour mixtures unless
they are heated & brought to a
temperature above their flash point
i.e. 260 degree C.
 FIRE SAFETY- Hydrocarbons Industries
 Safety is an integral part of any industry
 Its need in petroleum industry is of prime
importance.
 In pipelines, highly inflammable hydrocarbons
are stored and handled in installations and
transported through cross country pipelines
which travels through different locations and
varied terrain.
 Though all safety precautions are taken in
operation and maintaining the installation and
the pipeline, incident of fire leakage at the
station or the main line can’t be ruled out.
 Hence continuous efforts are needed to
upgrade safety standard.
 Further modern technologies have been
introduced and existing ones have been
modified.
 A through update knowledge of safety
is highly essential in order to generate
greater safety awareness and improve
safety attitude amongst the employees.
PROBABLE DISASTER
 A disaster in a pipeline & associated
facilities could occur due to any of the
following reasons:-
 Fire
 Leakage of oil & damage
 Operational
Fire at stations:-
 due to leakage of oil,
 short circuit from engine
exhaust
 mechanical seal failure.
 Fire at mainline:-
 Leakage
 Pilferage
 Sabotage
 Burst of pipelines etc..
 Oil spillage:-
 Leakage at stations due to line
breakage.
 Or open valves
 Or over flow of tanks
 Leakage from main line due to
corrosion.
Man made :-
 Sabotage
 Pilferage
 War
 Riots
 Civil commotion
Basic of fire & fire
Prevention:-
 Chemistry of fire
 Classification
 Fire prevention
 Fire triangle
 Fire control
 Fire extinguishment principle
 Fire extinguishing methods
 Different agents of fighting fire
Fire protection facilities:-
 Fire water storage
 Fire water pumps
 Fire water networks/ring mains
 Fire hydrants/ monitors
 Fire extinguishers
 Water spray systems for exposure
protections
 Fixed/ semi fixed foam pourer system
 Automatic fire detection systems
REVISION
Today we have discussed :-
 What is Pteroleum
 Composition of petroleum/ Natural gas
 Characteristics of Prtroleum Products
 Flammable Limits, Flash Point, Fire Point, Auto
Ignition temperature,
 Classification of Petroleum Products
 Hydrocarbon Industries, Hazards and fire
safety
CLARIFICATIONS

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THANK YOU