Thursday, March 8, 2012

Piping Engineering Statutory/State and Local Body Regulations

A. Chief Controller of Explosives (CCE or CCOE)

i. These are statutory rules and come under the purview of Chief Controller of Explosives based in Nagpur. This is a Central Government Authority for whole of India. The regional offices of ‘CCE’ are located in each region. However, these regional offices do not have authority to approve the installations. They can only be consulted on matters relating to these regulations. The Authority for approval of the installations is vested only in the Chief Controller of Explosives (CCE) based in Nagpur.

ii. All liquid hydrocarbons (and some of the non-hydrocarbons as per the list available in the CCE’s Nagpur and other Regional Offices) falling in classes A, B, & C are required to be stored as per these rules. Hence the storages falling under the purview of these rules must be segregated from other flammable I non flammable liquids at the plot plan stage itself. This is a must from space allocation point of view also as the’ CCE’ storages require lot of space.

iii. It is essential to consult the CCE authorities, (either Nagpur or the Regional office) for non-hydrocarbons falling under purview of these rules.

iv. Generally CCE shall not allow other flammable liquids to be stored along with the liquids under CCE purview. However, there is a possibility that in some special cases he may allow this. Hence this aspect is needed to be discussed with CCE before the layouts are frozen. It should be kept in mind that reducing the number of storage installations always leads to space saving for the Client. Hence it is always preferable to try to club CCE and non CCE flammable storages with CCE’s prior approval for the same.

v. The liquids coming under CCE purview can also be stored in underground tanks. There are no written rules available from CCE for this type of installation. However, following are some of the conventions followed in such cases.

a. The underground tan~ edge to fence distance can be 2 to 3 meters. It is preferable to keep it 4.5 meters or more if the space allows.

b. The CCE regulations for distances from the loading I unloading points to fence have to be allowed.

c. The loading I unloading areas have to be located inside the protected area (fence)

d. Brick I masonry encl9sures and leakage detection systems are needed to be provided depending on nature of liquids.

e. Free access for fire fighting should be available at least on three sides of the installation, with roads.

f. The clear distance between the underground tanks shall be 1.0 m minimum.

vi. These storages are required to be located at certain minimum distances from other plant facilities, as per these regulations. The CCE shall not approve installations which are not located at such (applicable)
minimum distance from other facilities.

vii. All facilities inside a ‘Refinery’ (crude oil refinery) fall under the purview of these rules, irrespective of whether they are storages or process plants. Hence all layouts for a Refinery need CCE approval.

viii. Construction of these facilities is not allowed before drawings for the installation are approved by the CCE in writing.

ix. The installation under these rules require dyke walls around the tanks to curtain the liquids. The dyke capacities shall be as per Petroleum Rules.

B. Static and Mobile Pressure Vessels Rules (SMPV Rules)

i. These are statutory rules and come under the purview of CCE based in Nagpur. Other details as per A.1 above.

ii. These rules state-as- to worn pressurized storages fall under its purview and how these storages are to be located.

iii. It is essential to identify the storages falling under the purview of these rules at the plot plan stage Itself as these storages generally require lot of space.

iv. Generally the CCE shall not allow any other pressurized fluids to be stored along with the fluids under CCE purview. However, there is a possibility that in certain special cases he may allow this. Hence this aspect is needed to be discussed with CCE before the layouts are frozen.

It should be kept in mind that reducing the number of storage installations always leads to space saving for the Client. Hence it is always preferable to try to club CCE and non- CCE storages with CCE’s prior approval for the same.

v. Underground storage is not included just now in these rules. GCE should be consulted if any pressurized storage tanks are required to be located underground.

vi. Free access for fire fighting should be available at least on three sides of the installation with roads.

vii. These storages are required to be located at certain minimum distances from other plant facilities, as per these regulations.

viii. Construction of these facilities can be started only after the drawings for the installation are approved by the CCE in writing.

ix. The loading / unloading compressors (if any) required for storage installation shall be located inside the protected area (fence) with minimum 15 m distance (check with latest rules) between edge of bullet/sphere and edge of compressor house. The distance between compressor house and fence should be distance between loading / unloading point and fence as per the petroleum rules.

C. Oil Industry Safety Directorate (O.I.S.D.) Rules

i. These rules are not statutory in nature and hence not mandatory. However, these have to be followed if required by Client.

ii. These rules cover process plants. utilities and of sites, all storages for all types of plants including LPG storage / loading / unloading and flammable storages.

iii. The CCE has been considering to include these rules in the Petroleum Rules (CCE rules).

iv. For the choice between O.I.S.O rules and Petroleum Rules the Client should be involved as the O.I.S.O rules are generally more stringent and hence require more space for the storages. Hence unless made mandatory by CCE or Client, these rules should not be followed.

v. For LPG installations it has become a general practice in India to follow the O.I.S.O rules. As the distance requirements of these rules are generally more than the Petroleum (CCE) rules, there is no problem as far as CCE approvals are concerned.

vi. As per the conventional practice in the Oil Industry in India, O.I.S.O rules have to be followed for all crude oil Refinery Layouts.

vii. Even though O.I.S.O rules are used for layouts of hydrocarbon storage/refinery, the installation approval shall be by CCE only.

D. Indian Boiler Regulations (IBR)

i. These rules are statutory rules of the Central Government but the administration of the rules is at the state level i.e. there is a separate IBR authority for each state located in its capital. unlike CCE.

ii. Installations of all steam pipelines (coming under the purview of these rules) are required to be approved by the IBR authorities of the state in which the same are located.

iii. The IBR equipment and IBR piping items manufactured in a particular state shall be approved by the IBR authority of that state. The installation shall be approved by the IBR authority of the state in which the installation is located. All disputes in this regard have to be referred to the Central Boiler Board located in Delhi.

iv. Fabrication and installation of piping coming under purview of these rules shall not be started unless the construction drawings and other documents are approved by the state IBR authority.

E. Environmental and Pollution Control Regulations

i. These rules are statutory in nature and hence have to be followed.

ii. These are overlapping state and central Government regulations which control the following.

a. The location of the plant.

b. Acceptable level of pollutants in the atmosphere due to the plant.

c. The effluent treatment and acceptable quality of discharge of treated effluents.

d. Impact on the surroundings of the plant.

iii. To conform to these requirements. following norms shall be followed:

a. The liquid effluents shall be discharged to the effluent collection system leading to Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP). None of the effluents shall ever be discharged to storm water drains or any other natural drain channels.

b. The chimney height for boilers and incinerators shall be decided by the Boiler incineration vendor to suit the requirements of State Pollution Board.

c. The height of flare and the safety zone around it shall be decided by Process discipline/Process Licensor or the flare supplier to suit the requirements of State Pollution Board.

d. The pilot panel for flare shall be located outside the safety zone of the flare.

e. The Effluent Interceptors located either in the plant or storages shall be used only for the immiscible fluids.

f. The underground storages storing fluids hazardous to health, ground water and environment shall have a dyke around the tanks to contain any leakages. Also these underground enclosures shall have provision for testing the presence of leakages in the dyke to facilitate prompt corrective action.

g. The above underground storages which store fluids hazardous to ground water and health shall have concrete paved / epoxy coated floors, draining to sumps inside the dyke.

h. The process plants handling fluids hazardous to health shall be open type and well ventilated i.e. these shall never have walls as far as possible. These plants also shall never have enclosed staircases.

F. The Chief Inspector of Factories (The State Inspectorate of Health and Safety) Regulations

i. These rules are statutory in nature and hence mandatory.

ii. These are ‘Factory rules’ formulated and enforced by each state in the Indian Union. The review, inspection and enforcement machinery of each state is separate and is called the Inspectorate of Health and Safety.

iii. This State Directorate ensures that the plant / factory buildings, equipment arrangements and plant general environment is suitable for proper operations of the plants and good health and proper safety of
operating. personnel. These reviews and inspections are carried out as per the ‘State Factory Rules’.

iv. For each plant it is essential to obtain Factory Inspector’s approval for each non-plant building and all plant buildings. The open air plant layouts and operating platforms do not require this specific approval. However, these layouts also must conform to these rules as the same may be reviewed by this inspectorate for proper equipment arrangements and ease of operations i.e. provision of proper operating passages and distances between the equipment.

v. The most important of these rules are as follows:

a. All the machinery must have 1.0 m wide (minimum 900 mm) clear distance between itself and any building columns / walls / other equipment or any such obstruction for easy operability, maintenance and safety.

b. All the equipment shall have proper (1.0 m) passages / enough space around them for safe passage of operators, easy operation and maintenance.

c. The floor heights shall be fixed such that minimum clear head room as per the rules is available. However, for process plants this rule may not be followed as many times, the floor heights are governed by the process requirements. These deviations for process plants are generally acceptable to the inspectorate.

d. Drainage systems for proper drainage of plant effluents shall be incorporated.

e. The sizes of canteen and rest room, number and size of toilets. primary health facilities and change rooms are as per these rules based on number of workers per shift and total number of workers.

f. The plant has proper safety arrangements like fire fighting systems. For large complexes a separate office is required for the fire safety officer.

vi. The approval for all non-plant buildings is obtained by the Client by submitting architectural drawings for these facilities. For plant building requiring these approvals, the equipment layout drawings and architectural drawings are submitted by the Client to this Authority. The staircase location / nos. / width and type (closed or open) have to be as per the state factory rules.

G. S.I.D.C. (State Industrial Development Corporation) Rules or Local Body (Gram Panchayat etc.) Rules

i. These rules have been accorded the status of statutory rules by the Central Government and hence the same are mandatory. All deviations to these must have prior written approvals from these bodies.

ii. These rules generally govern the following:

a. The Green belt requirements around the plant within the plot.

b. The distance of a plant from the adjacent highway, main road or human settlements.

c. The requirements of free space in the plant area (i.e. ratio of free space to the built up space or FSI of the plot).

d. The type of process plant which can be located in that particular area.

e. The fire safety provisions for the plant

f. Relative locations of facilities with respect to the existing surrounding facilities e.g. the rules may not permit location of a new boiler just across the boundary near existing hazardous storage tanks of an existing facility.

g. Drainage facilities of the plant. The rules generally do not permit filling of an existing natural drainage nallah existing on the plot. The diversion may be allowed but requires prior permission.

h. The size vi water storage inside the plant requires approval of the S.I.D.C. if the water is drawn from the S.I.D.C. main. The same is true for size and location of electrical sub-station inside the plant.

i. For plants f complexes having high traffic of trucks/tankers, these rules generally require parking space to be provided inside the plant area. Use of the S.I.D.C. roads / highways or other roads for parking is not allowed.

H. Traffic Advisory Committee (T.A.C.) Loss Prevention Association -LPA) Rules

i. These rules are now called as Loss Prevention Association (LPA) rules.

ii. These rules are non-statutory in nature.

iii. Even though these rules are non-mandatory (Le. optional) in nature it is essential to follow these strictly in the layouts as the insurance premiums charged by the Insurance companies for a particular plant depend on:

a. Approval of the plant layout by the LPA.

b. Non-conformities with respect to these rules brought out by LPA after their review of plant layouts.

c. Loading of premium as suggested by LPA to take care of the nonconformities which in their opinion lead to additional risk to plant facilities.

iv. Not conforming to LPA rules leads to Client having to pay additional premium every year to insure the plant. Most of the times the additional loading of premium is avoidable if due care is taken in the layouts.

v. There are different types of rules for different types of plants i.e. rules for Petrochemical Plants are different than those for ordinary Chemical Plants.

vi. These rules relate to distances between various plant facilities like process plant, storages, flare, boilers / furnaces etc. Also these rules define the way the cables should be routed in the plants.

vii. The LPA rules for fire fighting systems lay down the conditions for approval of fire fighting systems for various types of plants. These rules generally govern the following.

a. The distances at which hydrants are located from each other and from the edge of buildings/facilities.

b. Fire pump capacities.

c. Number of fire water pumps.

d. Requirement of diesel engine driven pumps and electric motor driven pumps.

e. The capacity of fire water reservoir.

f. The type of construction of fire water reservoir.

g. Type of pump house and its location.

h. Type and number of staircases required or the buildings.

i. Control room location.

j. Requirements of perfect party walls/blast proof walls.

viii. The LPA has several regional offices in India. The plants in a particular region can be approved by the LPA in that particular region only.

I. Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Rules

i. These rules are statutory in nature and hence mandatory.

ii. These regulations shall apply when any structure in the plant exceeds 30 meters in height. Either illumination and/or painting shall be provided on such structure as per these rules. All structures of height 120 M or more shall be provided with aviation light irrespective of the location of the plant.

iii. If the plant site is near an airport. it is mandatory to obtain DGCA’s prior approval for locating the plant in that area.

J. Indian Electricity Rules

i. These rules are statutory in nature and hence mandatory.

ii. Following are some of the requirements for layout of Electrical areas:

a. Substation and Switchgear rooms shall be as close as possible to Electrical Load Centers.

b. Direction of wind shall be taken into account while locating electrical equipment near cooling tower dusty areas etc.

c. Electrical equipment shall be located relatively at higher level to avoid water clogging.

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2 comments :

  1. Item H above must be the Tariff advisory committee that decides on the applicable insurance risk assessments.

    Sajit

    ReplyDelete
  2. I believe its written same in different language. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

 

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