Liquefied gases are normally produced, stored, and transported as pressurized liquids at ambient temperature, or as refrigerated liquids at atmospheric pressure. Whether pressurized or refrigerated, liquefied gases are highly volatile materials. If released into the atmosphere, they can create immediate safety hazards. In many situations, these hazards may extend well past the boundary of the liquefied gas facility and endanger the public. Therefore, operators of liquefied gas facilities and transportation systems must be particularly safety conscious.
This course explores various methods for increasing the relative safety of liquefied gas production facilities, storage tanks, and transportation systems. These methods include release prevention, release detection, and post-release mitigation.
Basic background information on the properties of liquefied gases is presented to ensure that all course participants understand the behavior of liquefied gases and how this behavior affects the hazards associated with these materials. Government and industry codes related to liquefied gas safety are also discussed.
In addition, methods for predicting the sizes of hazard zones that could be created by releases of liquefied gases are presented. The results of such computations are compared to separation distances recommended or required by various codes and standards.
This course deals primarily with flammable liquefied gases, with particular emphasis on LPG and LNG. However, the course material is presented in such a manner that it is applicable to other liquefied gases, including those that are highly toxic. The course text is updated frequently to ensure that it contains the most current information available.
Course Contents