UK refinery to get improved, high-integrity alarm system 07 December 2010
Safety monitoring systems integrator Hima-Sella has received an order for, and commenced construction of, a high integrity alarm system for an unnamed major UK refinery.
Due for installation in Q1 2011, the system, which is replacing ageing equipment for which support is no longer available, is being built around Hima's HIMax PES (programmable electronic system).
The refinery will get protection to SIL 3, with the system interfacing to nine legacy alarm systems, each covering up to 120 alarms around the refinery, and an alarm status workstation.
Eddy Turnock, Hima-Sella's sales and marketing director, says it will also include dedicated workstations for the refinery's two independent process streams.
"We're particularly proud of this project as it follows on from the refinery's acceptance of a functional design specification we were asked to produce earlier in the year," comments Turnock.
"In addition, while we've installed HIMax systems in the UK before, the system cabinets have typically been constructed by Hima in Germany. This project marks the first time we've built the system here in the UK."
HIMax employs Hima's XMR architecture, where the 'MR' stands for modular redundancy and the 'X' denotes that it can run with up to four CPUs; as opposed to fixed triple or quadruple modular redundancy (TMR and QMR).
Each I/O module also has its own microprocessors, giving it the integrity and diagnostic capabilities to meet SIL 3 requirements.
Says Turnock: "The high integrity alarm system will provide non-stop operation and greater levels of redundancy and fault tolerance than the system it replaces. Also, the addition of the workstations in the process trains makes for a far better fit to the refinery's operational requirements."
Brian Tinham
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