Abstract
The choice of the type of Passive Fire Protection (PFP) for the protection of structural steel or process vessels in Oil & Gas or petrochemical plants depends on a number of different factors. The most obvious are related to the performance of the PFP versus its cost, but in world-scale Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) projects the choice of one PFP must also take into account problems related to availability of the material in the specific country of construction, logistics and issues related to shipment, construction schedule, contractual agreements in place. Moreover, the requirements to fireproof structural steel of process vessels are project specific as they usually derive from application of international standards (API 521, 1997; API 2218, 1999), legislation in the country where the plant will be constructed, guidelines from Oil&Gas International companies and from the final Client, Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) studies.
The present paper presents a case of five process vessels processing natural gas and required to be fireproofed after a QRA study. The paper summarizes the analysis of possible types of PFPs that were considered for the protection of the vessels and illustrates how, in the case under study, the choice of mineral fibres has proven the best compromise between required performance and costs, minimizing at the same time the impact on construction schedule and logistics.
