Shutdown / decontaimination best pratice advice

[mrtangent]

Dear All,

Over the last few years one process we started up/designed. .. We have improved and added several decontamination lines and methods. Originally it was quite hard to shutdown and turnaround. Does anyone know of some good articles I should read to help us continue to improve our process (or web sites etc).

For examples we found were.

We added several pump maintenance lines.

On pervious plants the pipework could be blown through the process. We found with 4-inch/ 10-inch pipework blowing 10cst viscosity fluid the nitrogen would skim over the surface and leave the pipe full of material.

 

[Fzob]

I can't tell if this idea is applicable in your process, but I have found that the use of vacuum can be an excellent method for decontamination / maintenance prep.

We use it for cleaning vessels/pipelines by pulling a deep vacuum and then breaking it with air or some other appropriate material. Sometimes this is done three or four times depending on the material

This is almost always quicker than purging.

This is of course process specific. (And always ensure the vessel is vacuum rated)