Case Studies

Ensuring Earthing Safety for Petrochemical Storage in UAE

Client:

TGE Gas Engineering for Borouge

Location:

Ruwais Industrial City, United Arab Emirates

Sector:

Petrochemical Industry

Services:

Earthing Design

Planned

Consented

In Construction

Operational

Project Overview

GreyMatters was tasked with providing an earthing design for a refrigerated ethylene tank in Ruwais, UAE, ensuring compliance with stringent safety standards in the petrochemical industry. This project highlights their expertise in lightning protection and earthing, addressing the unique challenges posed by the region’s geology.

Details

Introduction

The petrochemical industry is particularly vulnerable to lightning-induced ignition due to the large-scale processing and storage of flammable substances. This creates hazardous volumes classified by ATEX, requiring both a sufficient rooftop air termination system and an appropriate route for lightning current to earth. GreyMatters combines lightning protection compliance with extensive earthing expertise to address these challenges effectively.

GreyMatters' Role

GreyMatters was tasked with providing the LV earthing design for a refrigerated ethylene tank in Ruwais, UAE, ensuring compliance with a maximum 4 Ohm earth impedance requirement and BS EN 62305 standards. They facilitated a smooth design transition by supplying single-hole earth terminals on the tank roof, connected to the tank reinforcement lattice as a down conductor. This setup ensured easy connection from the eventual air termination system to earth.

Technical Approach

For compliance with BS EN 62305, an initial type-B ring electrode was proposed. Top-tier electromagnetic software verified that the 4 Ohm limit was not exceeded, necessitating the use of earth rods alongside the ring. Despite conservative soil resistivity estimates based on on-site readings and prior knowledge of UAE’s geologies, uncertainties in local soil resistivity were encountered. GreyMatters provided simulated earth impedance values for various uniform soil resistivities, ensuring the system’s security and compliance with the 4 Ohm requirement.

Conclusion

GreyMatters successfully designed an earthing system that addressed the unique geological challenges of the UAE, ensuring compliance with strict safety standards. By simulating earth impedance values under different soil resistivities, they provided a robust solution that could adapt to new geological information. This project highlights GreyMatters’ ability to combine lightning protection and earthing expertise to enhance safety in the petrochemical industry.

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