An increasingly competitive environment has put intense pressure on Oil & Gas operators to design and operate facilities in a more cost efficient manner without compromising safety. Fire and gas detection systems play an important role as a safety barrier in process safety management and the adequacy of detection coverage is crucial. PETRONAS has developed 3-D visualization software to accurately quantify detector coverage for correct detector placement.
This software provides a quantitative means of evaluating flame and gas detector coverage which is not available via conventional engineering methods. It also improves accuracy over conventional 2-D methods, evaluating coverage around irregular-shaped equipment at different elevations. PETRONAS' Fire and Gas Mapping software can be used to evaluate detection of various hazards by different detection technologies such as combustible gas (point, open path and ultrasonic), flame (UV, UV/IR, IR3 and CCTV) and toxic gas (point and open path). It has been successfully deployed to 27 downstream and upstream sites and counting, covering both green field and brown field facilities.
With a greater emphasis on safety and economics in Oil & Gas facility design and operations, fire and gas mapping is an invaluable technical solution and will become the benchmark in determining detector placement for the industry.
