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Lightning Protection

Refineries

Typical Applications

  • Refineries and associated tank farms

  • Related oil and gas facilities like valve, compressor and monitoring stations

  • Lightning protection grounding systems to improve workplace safety

  • Grounding systems to protect and ensure the proper operation of sensitive electronic sensor and control systems

Risks and Opportunities

  • Explosion and fire risk increased by insufficient lightning protection and related grounding systems

  • Personnel safety compromised by insufficient or incorrect grounding systems resulting in electric shock or the production of potentially harmful EMF radiation

  • Potential failure and corresponding unplanned downtime and production loss caused by lightning strike damage to critical electronic monitoring, control and security systems

  • Production quality control problems caused by malfunctioning electronic monitoring and control equipment that is negatively affected by uncontrolled levels of electrical noise and EMF radiation. Such events may affect both critical and non-critical refinery processes and result in significant financial loss

  • Desire to reduce operational, maintenance and inspection costs

Potential Solutions

  • Apply advanced technology cathodic protection systems as older systems fail or lose effectiveness, doubling anode life while slashing CP maintenance and operational costs

  • Select and incorporate new cathodic protection technology that has been approved by regulatory agencies to meet the stringent new environmental regulations

  • Have cost-effective, long life external grounding systems engineered and deployed to protect personnel and pipeline infrastructure against lightning strikes

  • Deploy engineered, single-point grounding systems into areas and rooms housing sensitive electronic monitoring and control equipment

Next Steps

Exciting new products and techniques have been developed to address corrosion, environmental and safety issues in the oil and gas industry, with more effective, long-lived functionality, improved safety and lower environmental impact characteristics, and that offer excellent bottom line returns on investment (ROI). Review these advances in the links below, then call or eMail SAE Inc. for more details or to discuss your specific requirement.

Cathodic Protection
Electrical Protection
Lightning Protection
Engineering Services