Handbook of Fire & Explosion Protection Engineering Principles for Oil, Gas, Chemical, & Related Facilities

Dr. Dennis P. Nolan has had a long career devoted to risk engineering, fire protection engineering, loss prevention engineering and systems safety engineering. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Business Administration from Berne University, Master of Science degree in Systems Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a U.S. registered professional engineer in fire protection engineering in the state of California.He is currently on the Executive Management staff of Saudi Aramco, located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, as a Loss Prevention Consultant/Chief Fire Prevention Engineer. He covers some of the largest oil and gas facilities in the world. As part of his career, he has examined oil production, refining, and marketing facilities under severe conditions and in various unique worldwide locations, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and North and South America. His activity in the aerospace field has included engineering support for the NASA Space Shuttle launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center (and for those undertaken at Vandenburg Air Force Base, California) and “classified” national defense systems. Dr. Nolan has received numerous safety awards and is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, He is the author of many technical papers and professional articles in various international fire safety publications. He has written at least four books, several published by Elsevier.

IntroductionOverview of Oil and Gas FacilitiesPhilosophy of Protection PrincipalsPhysical Properties of HydrocarbonsCharacteristics of Hydrocarbon Releases, Fires and ExplosionsHistorical Survey of Fire and Explosions in the Hydrocarbon IndustriesRisk AnalysisDegregation, Separation and ArrangementGrading, Containment, and Drainage SystemsProcess ControlsEmergency ShutdownDepressurization, Blowdown and VentingOverpressure and Thermal ReliefControl of Ignition SourcesElimination of Process ReleasesFire and Explosion Resistant SystemsFire and Gas Detection and Alarm SystemsEvacuationMethods of Fire SuppressionSpecial Locations, Facilities and EquipmentHuman Factor and Ergonomic ConsiderationsAppendix A: Testing Firewater SystemsAppendix B: Reference DataAcronym ListGlossaryIndex