Spacing and layout

Space needs to be provided for the auxiliaries, including the lube oil and seal systems, lube oil cooler, intercoolers, and pulsation dampeners. A control panel or console is usually provided as part of the local console. This panel contains instmments that provide the necessary information for start-up and shutdown, and should also include warning and trouble lights. Access must be provided for motor repair and ultimate replacement needs to be considered. If a steam turbine is used, a surface condenser is probably required with a vacuum system to increase the efficiency. AH these additional systems need to be considered in the layout and spacing. In addition, room for pulsation dampeners required between stages has to be included. Aftercoolers may also be required with knockout dmms. Reference 8 describes the requirements of compressor layouts and provides many useful piping hints. 

Lewis, D. J. (1979). The Mond Fire, Explosion and Toxicity Index Applied to Plant Layout and Spacing. i3th Annual Loss Prevention Symposium, April 2-5, 1979, Houston, TX, 20-26. Loss Prevention, No. 13. New York American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 

Inadequate plant layout and spacing may lead to congested process and storage areas, lack of isolation for e.xtra liazardous operations mid areas, sources of ignition that are too close to liazm ds, and lack of proper emergency facilities. 

Several industry standards, codes, and company internal standards were used in developing the information in Table 1.2. These include internal company standards NFPA 30, Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code (Ref. 22) NFPA 59A. Liquefied Natural Gas (Ref. 23) API 2510, Design and Construction of Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG) Installations (Ref. 24) iRlnformation IM.2.5.2, Plant Layout and Spacing for Oil and Chemical Plants (Ref. 25), and Factory Mutual 7-44, Spacing of Facilities In Outdoor Chemical Plants (Ref. 26). 

IRInformation IM.2.5.2. Plant Layout and Spacing for Oil and Chemical Plants. Hartford, CT Industrial Risk Insurers. 

Lewis, D. J. (1979b) Loss Prevention No. 13 (AIChE) 20. The Mond fire, explosion and toxicity index applied to plant layout and spacing. 

The indexes can be used to identify those units which require the highest priority for attention from a viewpoint of safety review. They are also useful in designing layout and spacing of equipment in process plants to avoid domino effects following an incident [2,3,252-254]. 

From the perspective of process safety, key considerations with respect to site selection, layout, and spacing can be summarized as... 

Layout and spacing review Conceptual fire water design and computer model Inherently safer design review Develop specification for ... 

This section discusses general layout and spacing guidelines as they apply to fire protection issues. For complete discussion of facility siting and layout, refer to Guidelines for Facility Siting and Layout (CCPS, 2003b). 

The purpose of layout and spacing is to design a workplace that will minimize personnel injuries, overall property damage, and related business interruption resulting from potential toxic releases, fires, and explosions. Areas to address during layout and spacing include both those that will minimize the incident size and those that will minimize the incident impact. The magnitude of a potential incident may be reduced by ... 

Details of normal GMP (perhaps specific to that particular industry) should be highlighted, such as machine layout and space floor and wall conditions segregation and separation of material in storage, work or awaiting use level of lighting material and work identification quarantine areas etc. 

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