Refinery Inspection Ensures Safety

When the facilities are stopped in a six-year cycle at the OMV refinery in Schwechat, there is a reason for it: legally prescribed cleaning, maintenance, and inspection work. The shutdowns are split into two-year periods. After the crude oil processing section last year, it is the turn of the petrochemical area this year. TUV AUSTRIA BIC. has been a safety services partner for OMV for a long time.

A large team of authorized experts will be on-site until mid-June. Every pressure vessel, new welded joint, and flange connection is inspected with the utmost meticulousness by TUV AUSTRIA BIC. technicians – a substantial contribution to ensuring the plant’s safety and environmentally sound operation for the coming years. For TUV AUSTRIA’s experts, however, the focus is not only on the technical security of the plant but also on the issue of occupational safety within the scope of the inspection. Therefore, correct behaviour in any dangerous scenario is practised in numerous training sessions.

Systematic assessment from planning to commissioning

Safety technology has significantly developed over the last few years. Although safety devices for pressure equipment and systems are still being realized with mechanical safety equipment, such as safety valves and rupture discs, electronic safety devices are becoming increasingly apparent. 

The normative and safety requirements for such so-called MCR protection systems (measurement, control, and regulation devices, including, for example, overfill protection for containers and safety chains for steam boilers) are very high. Therefore, they require a systematic assessment from planning to risk analysis and execution and commissioning. 

Being a safety services partner of OMV’s for many years, TUV AUSTRIA BIC. invests a great deal of time and training to ensure its specialists have top-of-the-line qualifications. All departments within the large team of refinery inspectors consequently have the necessary expertise for such safety equipment. 

The preparatory work for testing the MCR protection systems had already started a few months before the refinery was shut down. While the plant is stopped, all the safety equipment will be subjected to appropriate tests, examinations, and assessments until mid-June to allow the systems to continue to be operated safely and reliably in the future.

Efficient test methods, safe facilities

By developing its test methods, the TUV AUSTRIA BIC. materials technology unit has achieved a high reputation domestically and abroad in non-destructive testing of materials. These are methods for assessing the internal condition of materials and welded seams, containers, and pipelines without cutting open the container or the pipeline. Physical, optical, and chemical parameters allow an accurate assessment of a material’s state, making, for example, even the most delicate cracks visible.

 Acoustic emission is also included in non-destructive testing. For example, this method can be used to determine the condition of a container or pipeline of cracks and corrosion. Depending on the application, this examination can even be performed during the ongoing operation of the systems. Therefore, acoustic emission is a time- and money-saving method to examine plants to be sure they are in a safe condition.

 In addition to the classical methods of non-destructive testing, modern imaging methods are also used in inspecting the OMV refinery in Schwechat to determine the current condition of the systems. Depending on the results of these tests, specific repairs are made or, if necessary, components are replaced. Read More…

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