The Inspection and Maintenance of Large Oil Storage Tanks

The Inspection and Maintenance of Large Oil Storage Tanks

This article is about construction safety control of large oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects in petrochemical enterprises.
 
Risk Analysis of Oil Products in Large Oil Storage Tanks
 
The oil products in large oil storage tanks are characterized by flammability, explosiveness and toxicity, and their dangerous characteristics are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
 
1. Volatility of oil products. Most light oil is easy to evaporate, such as gasoline vapor. With the increase in temperature, its actual evaporation rate is obviously accelerated. In a windless environment, it can spread out 50 m along the ground, and it mostly stays in the ground and low-lying areas in the storage area, increasing the fire risk.
 
2. Flammability and explosiveness of oil products. Volatile oil vapor is fused with air to form combustible mixed gas. When it reaches a certain concentration, it will burn in case of fire, and explode in case of fire source at a certain mixing proportion. The risk of the explosion itself is mainly related to the lower explosion limit and explosion range.
 
3. The asphyxiation of oil poisoning. Oil vapor has certain toxicity, and oil vapor enters the human respiratory system, which can cause organ damage and poisoning. Chronic oil poisoning can cause dizziness and tiredness. If you contact with oil for a long time, your skin will be dry and dermatitis. In an environment where the concentration of oil is too high, the oxygen content is reduced, which can make people suffocate quickly.
 
Importance of construction safety management and control of large oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects in petrochemical enterprises
 
A large-scale oil storage tank mainly refers to a container whose actual capacity exceeds 100 m3, which is mainly composed of a tank top, tank bottom, tank wall, etc. If the oil storage tank accidentally produces a fire, it will have a large burning area in a short period, and it will be difficult to put out the fire, resulting in a large loss in the end. As a comprehensive and complex work, the inspection and maintenance project of large-scale oil storage tanks in petrochemical enterprises mostly stores flammable and explosive media such as crude oil and gasoline, and the actual storage density is relatively high. In particular, crude oil and heavy oil contain certain moisture, and once a fire occurs on the spot, it will splash continuously, which will cause a larger area to be affected. After the oil storage tank has been put into operation for a period of time, with the actual production and operation, problems such as corrosion and deformation of the tank body and its accessories occur. It is necessary to carry out inspection and maintenance work in combination with the actual situation, so as to eliminate all kinds of unsafe hidden dangers and ensure that the large oil storage tank is always in a safe operating state. The inspection and maintenance of large-scale oil storage tanks involve electricity consumption, hot work and other links. The whole construction process is complicated and dangerous, and a large amount of flammable gas or liquid is easily generated in the construction process, which is easy to form explosive mixed gas. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the whole oil storage tank inspection and maintenance project, it is necessary to comprehensively manage and control the site construction safety, always establish the construction concept of safety first, rationally allocate the site personnel, strictly control all dangerous points, eliminate the adverse risks brought by them, and make all links of construction more standardized. Therefore, the content of maintenance work is complicated, and the construction period is long. Actively managing the site safety can reduce the occurrence of bad conditions, improve the construction efficiency and quality of maintenance projects, promote the management level of petrochemical enterprises, and maximize economic benefits.
 
Common Problems in Construction Safety of Inspection and Maintenance Engineering of Large Oil Storage Tanks in Petrochemical Enterprises
 
In the actual construction of large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects in petrochemical enterprises, there are great risks, and the possibility of accidents is prominent. It is necessary to further grasp the current situation of safety management and control in the construction, so as to explore the causes and take effective prevention and control measures, create a safe working environment for the inspection and maintenance workers, and improve the construction efficiency and quality of large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance project. According to the analysis of safety accidents of maintenance and repair projects in the petrochemical industry, there are still the following deficiencies in site construction safety management:
 
1. Enterprise red line safety awareness needs to be strengthened. The maintenance engineering construction has not correctly understood the correlation between safety and development and benefit from the ideological aspect, and there is still a phenomenon of safety marginalization. For example, the enterprise lacks pertinence and perfection in the formulation of safety technical measures for the maintenance engineering of large oil storage tanks, and the supervision of the implementation of safety technical measures on-site is ineffective, all of which lead to poor results on-site safety management.
 
2. Insufficient understanding of the superimposed influence of safety risks in the maintenance and repair of large oil storage tanks. In the implementation of large-scale oil storage tank maintenance projects, there are many specialties at the same time. High-risk special operations such as high-altitude operation, confined space, hot welding and so on account for a relatively large proportion. Due to the external adverse weather interference, the safety risks of the oil storage tank maintenance project are superimposed. Some enterprises lack accuracy in risk identification in the whole process of inspection and maintenance, the on-site safety risk analysis is not in place, and the control measures are not in place. They pay more attention to the construction progress of the whole project, excessively pursue short-term benefits, ignore the safety production rules, and easily lead to all kinds of safety accidents.
 
3. The management of oil storage tank inspection and maintenance is not standardized. In the process of actual inspection and maintenance of oil tanks, there are clear operation specifications and requirements in various operation links, which require a higher ability of managers. Only when managers master various knowledge contents and implement them in strict accordance with relevant requirements can they avoid risks. In practice, the professional level of managers is uneven, the key management elements are easily ignored in the direct operation, and various explicit problems cannot be accurately identified. Smaller problems can also lead to larger accidents.
 
Construction safety control measures for inspection and maintenance of large oil storage tanks in petrochemical enterprises
 
When petrochemical enterprises carry out large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects, it is necessary for many departments to cooperate with each other and actively grasp the core factors of accidents in construction, so as to realize the standardization and standardization of maintenance process management, ensure the strong implementation of safety technical measures in all aspects of inspection and maintenance, and effectively strengthen the whole life cycle management of inspection and maintenance. Petrochemical enterprises should fully study and formulate effective preventive measures in the process of oil storage tank maintenance, fully make up for shortcomings and deficiencies, strictly do a good job in the whole process of oil storage tank maintenance, ensure construction safety, realize controllability, and lay a foundation for the sound development of petrochemical enterprises.
 
1. Strict contractor entrance clearance. It should be correctly understood that the contractor's safety management is a major risk. The overall comprehensive strength level of the contractor's construction team directly determines the whole life cycle safety management of the inspection and maintenance of large oil storage tanks. The higher the quality of its team members, the less difficult it is to manage. On the contrary, the management difficulty is significantly increased, which may easily lead to various safety accidents. Before the formal admission of the contractor, it is necessary to strictly examine the contractor's own qualifications according to the actual situation, and screen out the contractors whose qualifications are not up to standard. During the construction process, it is necessary to examine the qualifications of personnel for special types of work, such as electrical welding and aerial work, all of which need to be examined and filed, and it is necessary to ensure that they are on duty with certificates, so as to help standardize the operation of various inspection and maintenance work. All on-site maintenance and repair construction personnel should fully combine the related operations involved in the actual maintenance and repair project of large oil storage tanks to carry out targeted training so that the person can clearly grasp their own construction responsibilities, and how to operate can ensure the safety. Only after passing the examination can they enter the on-site construction. During the actual maintenance and repair of large oil storage tanks, the construction tools should meet the basic safety requirements, especially for the nature of the medium used for maintenance of oil storage tanks, which is usually flammable and explosive. It is suitable for the selection of specialized tools. The electrical equipment and lighting lamps used in confined spaces should all meet the basic explosion-proof requirements. The fire-fighting facilities and testing equipment should be comprehensively inspected to ensure that they meet the relevant requirements before they can be used on the construction site. The inspection work should be actively done at the source to avoid accidents in the construction of large oil storage tanks.
 
2. Strictly control risk identification. Petrochemical enterprises should gradually establish the safety management concept of risk identification, correctly identify the dangerous and harmful factors in the process of inspection and maintenance of large oil storage tanks, and be aware of the seriousness of the problems of incomplete risk identification and inadequate safety control measures. There are many construction links in the inspection and maintenance project of large-scale oil storage tanks, covering many high-risk operations. Usually, the most likely accidents are fire and explosion, poisoning and suffocation, mechanical injuries, etc. Such risks coexist with the construction operations, so it is necessary to actively identify and screen their accuracy, especially for the cleaning and replacement of oil storage tanks. Because of the formation of oil and gas, it is easy to explode when encountering all kinds of open flames, and the suffocation accidents of construction workers increase. Before the formal operation, the risk analysis should be done systematically, targeted preventive measures should be formulated, the measures should be reviewed and discussed, and the optimization and upgrading should be carried out continuously to promote its operability. First of all, before entering the oil storage tank, it is necessary to actively disconnect its inlet pipeline, take measures such as adding water to remove the remaining oil inside it, and select a blower for ventilation after oil extraction to ensure that the air replacement effect reaches the standard. Operate in strict accordance with Sinopec's technical safety regulations for oil tank cleaning, and the ventilation time should exceed 24 hours. During tank cleaning, we should pay attention to all risks caused by oil and gas in internal accessories. During tank cleaning, inspection and maintenance, we can configure the corresponding alarm device for continuous monitoring of combustible gas concentration according to its internal structure, and dynamically grasp the corresponding alarm data information. If there is an abnormal situation, we can transmit the alarm signal to the monitor terminal as soon as possible. In case of alarm, we need to terminate the operation as soon as possible. It should be emphasized that before the formal construction, the safety technical disclosure should be done actively so that the contractor can master all aspects of risks, countermeasures and points for attention. Before the construction every day, the pre-shift meeting should be used to emphasize the operation risks, so as to continuously enhance the safety operation awareness of the construction personnel and avoid accidents to the greatest extent.
 
3. Strictly control the implementation of safety measures. In the construction process of large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects, the safety measures are not in place, so it is difficult to keep the safety in a dynamic control state, and it is impossible to obtain the safety and reliability from the essential level. There are many high-risk risks involved in the inspection and maintenance of large oil storage tanks. For the core measures of risk management and control in operation engineering, it is necessary to continuously strengthen the management measures to implement them. First of all, it is necessary to actively implement the construction permit system. Before the formal construction, it is necessary to strictly follow the construction measures in the work permit, and sign and confirm it in an all-round way, so as to ensure that the safety measures of the site construction are implemented. Secondly, the on-site double-monitoring system should be implemented. On-site monitoring personnel should do a good job of monitoring the construction site, comprehensively check whether the safety measures are fully implemented and implemented in the construction process, whether the working conditions meet the relevant specifications and requirements, whether the personal protective measures of the construction personnel are in place, and whether there are three violations during the operation. The above-mentioned conditions require full life cycle control by both guardians, and the problems should be corrected at the first time to be contained in the bud. Finally, the on-site management personnel should fully conduct regular inspections on the construction site, focusing on checking whether there are three violations by the construction personnel in the operation of large oil storage tanks, and confirming whether the safety technical measures are implemented. Through regular inspection and patrol, ensure that safety measures are fully implemented, and ensure the safety of construction personnel and the job site.
 
4. Serious safety assessment. Construction personnel's own professionalism and safety awareness are different. In order to ensure the construction safety and reliability of the whole large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance project, in essence, it is necessary to fully and seriously assess the on-site construction personnel, so as to make their own operations more standardized and standardized, thereby reducing the illegal phenomenon. It is necessary to actively combine the strengths of all parties, formulate corresponding reward and punishment measures in combination with the current actual situation, improve the professional quality of construction personnel in essence, and build a construction team for oil storage tank inspection and maintenance in the new period. The construction unit should strictly implement the relevant assessment system, carry out the construction site inspection irregularly or regularly, focus on the high-risk operation links and the weak links prone to accidents, take a "zero tolerance" attitude towards the potential safety hazards on the construction site, make serious punishment for all illegal operations on the site, actively urge the site construction personnel to make timely rectification, enhance the initiative and enthusiasm of the site management personnel, and standardize the behavior of the construction personnel by relying on the serious assessment, so as to avoid all kinds of accidents. According to the actual situation, a perfect safety assessment benchmark should be formulated, and the implementation of construction safety protection measures should be monitored by information technology, which should be taken as the key indicator of the final assessment. For example, a two-dimensional code should be pasted on the safety helmet of construction workers, and a computer should be used for background operation, so as to know whether the safety protection measures of workers themselves are reliable and reduce all kinds of adverse accidents.
 
5. Pay attention to the formulation of emergency plans. There are many safety risk points in the construction process of large-scale oil storage tank inspection and maintenance projects. If a safety accident has occurred, a large loss will be caused, and the lack of an emergency plan will prompt the loss-affected area to expand continuously. We can actively summarize the current practical experience, constantly improve and flexibly adjust the emergency plan, which can be used as a support for accidental accidents. We can actively carry out on-site drills, combine with the implementation status of on-site inspection and maintenance work, and master the key internal danger points, so as to carry out corresponding emergency drills, enhance the emergency handling ability of construction personnel, and constantly strengthen their own safety awareness. Petrochemical enterprises can combine the actual results of the drill, continuously study and analyze the plan, and fully adjust and optimize it to ensure its strong operability, reduce the area affected by the accident, and realize the controllability of the accident.
 
Conclusion

The maintenance and repair engineering construction of large oil storage tanks in petrochemical enterprises is complicated and high-risk. If the risk control is not in place, and comprehensive risk analysis is not carried out, it will easily lead to various accidents. It is necessary to actively strengthen the ideological concept, combine it with the actual situation of petrochemical enterprises, and actively implement the risk prevention measures. It is necessary to continuously control the safety of key links, strictly grasp the process management, eliminate potential safety hazards in construction, and ensure the reliability and safety of construction according to the actual specifications and requirements of on-site inspection and maintenance work.
 



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