February 2022
Environment and Safety
Are hot pipes and equipment surfaces ignition sources in the HPI?
Most international and national standards used in the hydrocarbon processing industry (HPI) for conducting hazardous area classification do not provide any guidance or recommendation for non-electrical equipment, such as hot pipe and equipment surfaces, that can act as ignition sources.
The Authors
Babanna Biradaris a Principal Engineer with Bechtel India. He has 30 yr of experience in oil, gas and chemicals, infrastructure, metal and mining front-end engineering and detailed design and is a subject matter expert in fire protection and process safety. He holds an ME degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Roorkee, India (now Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee). He is a member of the NFPA technical committee “Electrical equipment in chemical atmosphere (EEC-AAA),” which is responsible for NFPA 496, NFPA 497 and NFPA 499 standards.
Animesh Agarwal is a Senior Process Safety Engineer with Bechtel India. He has 8 yr of experience in petroleum refining, petrochemicals, and front end and detailed design. He holds a BE degree in chemical engineering from Thapar University, Patiala, India.
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