System Equipment

Explosion Isolation For all equipment systems protected by design safety measures it is also necessary to prevent the propagation of an explosion from these protected vessels into operating areas or equipment connectedviainterconnectingpipeline. Such an approach is referred to as explosion isolation. 

Install permanent bonding/grounding of equipment system with periodic testing... 

Avoid equipment/systems subject to covert (unannounced) faults... 

The standard requires appropriate statistical studies to be conducted to anal /ze the variation present in the results of each type of measuring and test equipment system. 

The Chemical Process Industry (CPI) uses various quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess the reliability and risk of process equipment, process systems, and chemical manufacturing operations. These techniques identify the interactions of equipment, systems, and persons that have potentially undesirable consequences. In the case of reliability analyses, the undesirable consequences (e.g., plant shutdown, excessive downtime, or production of off-specification product) are those incidents which reduce system profitability through loss of production and increased maintenance costs. In the case of risk analyses, the primary concerns are human injuries, environmental impacts, and system damage caused by occurrence of fires, explosions, toxic material releases, and related hazards. Quantification of risk in terms of the severity of the consequences and the likelihood of occurrence provides the manager of the system with an important decisionmaking tool. By using the results of a quantitative risk analysis, we are better able to answer such questions as, Which of several candidate systems poses the least risk Are risk reduction modifications necessary and What modifications would be most effective in reducing risk ... 

Nonprocess Refers to industries that do not comprise a part of the CPI as their primary function, but which use comparable or equivalent complex equipment systems to perform their function, such as nuclear power plants, fossil fuel plants, and offshore oil rigs. 

Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index [42]. Probably the most commonly used cost adjusting index printed/updated monthly is in Chemical Engineering Magazine send has established continuity over many years. Its breakdo vn component costs apply to plants and plant equipment/systems. 

API Recommended Practice S3, Second Edition Recommended Practice for Blowout Prevention Equipment Systems for Drilling Wells, May 1984. 

The various balance of plant equipment systems (BOP) consist of a wide range of post-boiler section equipment and associated pipework, including turbines, condensers, condenser cooling systems, and related components. 

Another approach to the design problem is to determine empirical correlations based on experimental work and to adopt these correlations for scale-up. In many of the published works the latter approach is investigated. The correlations are such that the volumetric mass-transfer coefficient is generally reported as a function of one or more of the equipment, system, or operating variables cited above. Empirical correlations can be used confidently for scale-up only for equipment that has complete geometrical similarity to the... 

Installation qualification (IQ). IQ demonstrates that the equipment/system has been installed correctly at the user site according to vendor standards. The vendor should install the equipment to demonstrate to the buyer that all the components are operating properly. The qualification process includes appropriate documentation of the system components, physical installation and hook-up, and a performance check to verify that the individual components operate and can communicate with each other. System component information, such as serial numbers, type of use, and user performance requirements, should be included in the metrology database for easy tracking and scheduling of maintenance and/or calibration. 

Figure 21.8 shows a typical sequence of the major equipment systems in a wastewater treatment plant.36 The function of primary treatment is to remove suspended solids from the wastewater, and then to remove organic materials by biological secondary treatment. Primary treatment processes used by kraft mills typically involve screening followed by either sedimentation or flotation.40... 

Most technology used for groundwater treatment was developed for wastewater facilities. Wastewater equipment is usually designed to last a minimum of 20 to 30 years. With continued maintenance, the equipment should survive this long. For the wastewater market, the design is based on the life expectancy of the equipment, not the waste stream. Groundwater treatment equipment systems will typically be in use for a much shorter time the controlling factor is the life expectancy of the project, not the equipment. 

Facilities and Equipment System This includes (1) buildings and facilities along with maintenance (2) equipment IQ, QQ, calibration, maintenance, cleaning, and validation of cleaning processes and (3) utilities such as HVAC, compressed gases, steam, and water systems. 

Although the Army anticipates procuring equipment, systems, and tools that are unique to closure operations, closure planning documents made available to the committee addressed this issue in a cursory way (U.S. Army, 2000c). Section 3.3 of the decommissioning plan simply states a requirement for vendor contracts and engineering guidance. WDC said, however, that it has a very extensive and sophisticated company procurement manual (O Shea, 2000). Because of the importance of materiel procurement, the Army should insist on full disclosure of the contractor process, and all interested parties must understand and... 

The validation master plan is a summary document stating the intention and the methods to be used to establish the adequacy of the performance of the equipment, systems, controls, or process to be validated. It is approved by the quality assurance, validation, production, and engineering groups. 

Where possible, each alarm and safeguard feature should be challenged by simulation of actual alarm conditions within the sterilizer equipment system. Where simulation of physical alarm conditions would be impractical, alarm circuitry may be challenged by use of electrical input signals. 

Equipment System Validation The GMP has special features regarding the equipment, setting several points for the validation, such as design qualification, installation qualification, operational qualification, and performance qualification. Each point must be given in a different document, so four documents must be generated for each equipment. Without any of these documents, the equipment cannot be considered adequate for GMP purposes. GMPs do not refer equipment validations nonetheless, they refer these four items, and therefore, equipment can only be considered validated after the approval of these four documents. 

At this point in the process, the equipment/system is able to be put into routine use. The final Q in the model, Performance Qualification, PQ, is about on-going compliance. Elements of PQ include a regular service programme, performance monitoring with warning and action limits (as defined in OQ). All of these elements need to be documented and individual log books for systems are useful for this purpose. PQ data should be subject to regular peer review. All instrument systems should be subject to a simple change procedure which may well be connected to the equipment log system. 

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