High-integrity pressure protection system(HIPPS)

 

High-integrity pressure protection system(HIPPS) 

 

A high-integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS) is a type of safety instrumented system (SIS) designed to prevent over-pressurization of a plant, such as a chemical plant or oil refinery. The HIPPS will shut off the source of the high pressure before the design pressure of the system is exceeded, thus preventing loss of containment through rupture (explosion) of a line or vessel. Therefore, a HIPPS is considered as a barrier between a high-pressure and a low-pressure section of an installation.

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Contents

1 Traditional systems

2 Advantages of HIPPS

3 Components of HIPPS

4 Diagram

5 Standards and design practices

6 External links

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Traditional systems

In traditional systems over-pressure is dealt with through relief systems. A relief system will open an alternative outlet for the fluids in the system once a set pressure is exceeded, to avoid further build-up of pressure in the protected system. This alternative outlet generally leads to a flare or venting system to safely dispose the excess fluids. A relief system aims at removing any excess inflow of fluids for safe disposal, where a HIPPS aims at stopping the inflow of excess fluids and containing them in the system.

Conventional relief systems have disadvantages such as release of (flammable and toxic) process fluids or their combustion products in the environment and often a large footprint of the installation. With increasing environmental awareness, relief systems are not always an acceptable solution. However, because of their simplicity, relatively low cost and wide availability, conventional relief systems are still often applied.

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Advantages of HIPPS

HIPPS provides a solution to protect equipment in cases where:

high-pressures and / or flow rates are processed

the environment is to be protected

the economic viability of a development needs improvement

the risk profile of the plant must be reduced

HIPPS is an instrumented safety system that is designed and built in accordance with the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 standards.

The international standards IEC 61508 and 61511 refer to safety functions and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) when discussing a device to protect equipment, personnel and environment. Older standards use terms like safety shut-down systems, emergency shut-down systems or last layers of defence.

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Components of HIPPS

A system that closes the source of over-pressure within a specified time with at least the same reliability as a safety relief valve is usually called a HIPPS. Such a HIPPS is a complete functional loop consisting of:

sensors, (or initiators) that detect the high pressure

a logic solver, which processes the input from the sensors to an output to the final element

final elements, that actually perform the corrective action in the field by bringing the process to a safe state. In case of a HIPPS this means shutting off the source of overpressure. The final element consists of a valve, actuator and solenoids.

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Diagram

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Example of a HIPPS system

The scheme above presents three pressure transmitters (PT) connected to a logic solver. The solver will decide based on 2-out-of-3 (2oo3) voting whether or not to activate the final element. the 1oo2 solenoid panel decides which valve to be closed. The final elements consist here of two block valves that stop flow to the downstream facilities (right) to prevent them

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♣ Reference Site : https://www.ringospain.com/types/hipps-samson-ringo/