HIPPS-High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems

Introduction

By now if you have been working in the process industries (like chemicals, oil & gas,
petrochemicals and so on) for some time, you must have come across the term HIPPS.
What is it? It is an acronym for High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems. These
protection systems can be considered to a special subset ofSafety Instrumented
Systems (learn more about them here), that are meant to provide protection to pressurized
equipment (tanks, pipelines and so on) against overpressure and consequent rupture.

Traditional Pressure Protection for equipment

Traditionally pressure protection for equipment was implemented using two main
techniques, rupture disks (also known as burst disks) and safety relief valves. The burst
disk, as the name suggests, is a contraption that bursts under overpressure conditions to
release the pressure inside the equipment on which it is mounted and protect the
equipment itself from bursting. Therefore the burst disk always bursts at a slightly lower
pressure than the equipment's design pressure. Conceptually, it is similar to a fuse that
blows in an electrical circuit if excess current flows in the circuit. The fuse gets destroyed
but the other expensive and/or critical electrical/electronic devices in the circuit are
protected.

In case of mechanical safety relief valves, excess pressure in the equipment lifts the valve
and the excess pressure is relieved. As soon as the excess pressure is vented, the valve
shuts and maintains the pressure inside the equipment. The advantage is that the safety
relief valve is not a "single-use" item, it can operate even several times in a hour, in case a
process upset results in excess pressure conditions in the equipment. Conceptually it is
similar to a circuit breaker which trips in case of overcurrent, but can be used again and
again in the same circuit to protect critical and/or expensive electrical/electronic devices.

The traditional methods have worked for a number of years successfully. In fact most plants
today use MAINLY the above two methods of pressure protection for equipment. Of course
many plants do have pressure transmitters and pressure switches to generate alarms in
case of excess pressures, but they are mainly meant for operator intervention and not for
automatic pressure relief.

Drawbacks of the present mechanical systems

Despite the fact that these traditional methods form the bulk of overpressure protection,
does not mean that that users are very happy with them. There are several drawbacks in
these methods; these are given below:

Modifications in existing plants-lack of flare capacity

Many times, expansion or debottlenecking projects in plants do not correctly estimate the
additional load on flare systems, due to increased throughput. This point only comes up
during the HAZOP and other safety and environmental studies. The increased investment in
flare headers and the shutdowns that may be necessary to increase the flare capacity are
simply not possible in today's tight economic situations. This is where HIPPS is an
alternative. Instead of merely venting the gases to relieve overpressure, a fast acting HIPPS
simply shuts down the inlet valves to prevent overpressure from building up in the first
place.
Environmental Release & Personnel Injury
If a burst disk or relief valve opens, it may discharge environmentally unfriendly substances
into the surrounding air, leading to consequential problems of spillage, pollution,
environmental damage or personnel injury. In many older plants, many processes are still
operated manually which means more humans are working around pressure vessels. Any
release of flammable or toxic contents into the surroundings may also endanger the
personnel working in the area.

Fire and Explosion

If the released material is an explosive material then releasing large quantities of it through
relieving devices can increase the risk of fire or explosion. It may also endanger the
personnel who may rush to that area to replace the burst disk.

Replacement problems
When a burst disk operates, the equipment of part of the pipline gets shutdown. Replacing it
and starting the plant again entails a lot of use of resources. Sometimes, it is challenging to
find out why a burst disk burst at a particular time and place. Nowadays there is an
arrangement where when a burst disk bursts, a pressure switch senses the bursting and
generates an alarm in the control room to alert the operator. Even then, it may be difficult
to find the root cause of the bursting. It may be due to a genuine overpressure condition, or
it may be that the particular burst disk operated a slightly lower pressure than it was
designed to-it is difficult to pinpoint.

The HIPPS solution

To avoid all these problems, users today are now actively accepting the HIPPS alternative. A
typical HIPPS is shown below. In case of overpressure in the line, the quick shutoff valves
close the line in a matter of seconds, preventing the overpressure condition from traveling
further downstream.

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