Quantitative Risk Assessment of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil at an Oil and Gas Company

Introduction: An oil and gas refinery operates various equipment with specific functions for different processes. Each piece of equipment has potential hazards that can damage the equipment and injure or kill workers. This study focuses on the hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) export facility from the jetty loading area at an oil and gas company that processes flammable liquid using various equipment. Methods: The HAZOP method determined the hazardous spots, and the probability of each equipment failure corresponding to the system was also determined using fault tree analysis (FTA). Furthermore, every event tree analysis (ETA) output probability was also determined. The probability and radius of pool fire varied for different leak hole scenarios. The final steps are individual risk per annum and potential loss of life to measure the risk level of the system. Results: Based on HAZOP deviation scenarios, every operating equipment can potentially cause a pool fire. In FTA, scenarios were developed based on different leakage hole sizes, ranging from 1-3 mm, 3-10 mm, 10-50 mm, 150 mm, and >150 mm. The results indicated that leakage could occur across all operating equipment. Similarly, the ETA applied the same bore size scenarios. The consequence analysis yielded a worst-case outcome of pool fire and a best-case outcome of un-ignited fluid release. Subsequently, the pool fire output was modeled using ALOHA, which resulted in three heat flux zones: the red zone (10 kW/m²), the orange zone (5 kW/m²), and the yellow zone (2 kW/m²). Smaller leak holes had a higher probability but smaller pool fire radius. The initial risk of the export facility was unacceptable. Furthermore, insufficient safeguards contribute significantly to the resulting high-risk level. Two mitigations were implemented: adding safeguards and reducing worker hours. Conclusion: The final results showed that for every piece of equipment, the overall risk of the export facility became acceptable after mitigation..