Emergency Shutdown (ESD) System Philosophy

There are several purposes of the ESD System which is:

• Protection of personnel

• Protection of the environment

• Minimize loss of production and damage to plant assets

Typically, the ESD System could fulfill the above objective by the following implementation:

•Monitoring of an operational or equipment condition

• Automatic action in case of process hazardous conditions is exist by de-energizing electrical equipment, shutting down and/or isolating process equipment and, isolating and depressurizing the installation.

• Enabling manual initiation of ESD actions through ESD push button all around the plant.

• Monitoring the Fire & Gas conditions (F&G) by the F&G System

• Automatic action in case of F&G hazardous conditions exist by providing audible and visual alarms for personnel.

Typical ESD System Component

• Dedicated process transmitters

• Logic Solver

• Shut-Down valves (SDV), Fail to Close type, the purpose of this valve is to isolate.

• Blowdown valves (BDV), Fail to Open type. The purpose of this valve is to depressurize.

In practice the plant is usually divided into several isolable units that can be depressurized and isolated.

Source: http://www.instreng.com/community/threads/emergency-shutdown-esd-system-philosophy.68/