Performance-based Fire and Gas Systems Engineering Handbook

With the release of the technical report, ISA-TR84.00.07-2018, Guidance on the Evaluation of Fire, Combustible Gas, and Toxic Gas System Effectiveness, on performance-based design of fire and gas detection systems for process industries, risk-based techniques for detector placement have become prevalent in fire and gas system (FGS) design. While the technical report addresses designing the FGS based on the user's risk profile and performance requirements, it does not provide any guidance on implementing the FGS lifecycle.

The Performance-based Fire and Gas Systems Engineering Handbook provides a thorough overview of the FGS design lifecycle presented in the technical report, examining each lifecycle phase and the practical activities required to develop an FGS design. In addition to discussing the design process, this handbook provides valuable appendices containing data for FGS system risk analysis, FGS risk grading procedures and a discussion of the FGS mapping techniques used to verify the achievement of the newly defined coverage targets.

Austin M. Bryan is a senior engineer for Kenexis Consulting Corporation. He has been involved in numerous projects covering such diverse operations as oil and gas production, petroleum refining, and specialty chemicals. Mr. Bryan has extensive experience using risk analysis in designing engineered safeguards including fire and gas systems and safety instrumented systems. Mr. Bryan has a Master of Science in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Elizabeth Smith has experience in designing both safety instrumented systems and fire and gas systems. She has been involved in projects comprising offshore and onshore upstream oil and gas, petroleum refining, and petrochemical production and shipping. She has been responsible for determining and verifying safety integrity level requirements for safety instrumented systems, as well as determining fire and gas performance targets and verifying fire and gas systems coverage. Ms. Smith utilizes risk analysis techniques to determine fire and gas hazard sources and to assess existing fire and gas system design coverage values. She also has experience in optimal placement of fire and gas detection systems that are able to achieve coverage targets while minimizing equipment needs.

Kevin Mitchell is vice president and a principal engineer with Kenexis. He has more than 20 years of experience in risk management, process safety, and instrumented safeguards. Mr. Mitchell has been involved in hundreds of projects covering such diverse operations as oil and gas production, petroleum refining, petrochemical, specialty chemical and general manufacturing. Mr. Mitchell specializes in state-of-the-art assessment of toxic, flammable, and explosive hazards. He is an expert in the field of safety instrumented system and fire and gas system design. He uses risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis to assist in making engineering and business decisions. Mr. Mitchell is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Ohio. He is a member of the ISA84 standards committee and the associated working group that produced the ISA technical reports on performance-based fire and gas system engineering.