Project: Low cost, low-energy system and tools for increased safety in manual execution of safety work sequences in Process Industry
The project aims is to develop lowcost solutions and systems to ensure correct operations according to safe operating procedures in the process and maritime industries. These industries have lots of safety critical manual valve operations where one mistake can be fatal. Large numbers of manual valves lack position monitoring due to the cost and inefficiency of current technology. The Project will develop a system to eliminate the risk for operator mistakes based on leading edge low cost wireless micro transmitters and electronic safe job procedures. _x000D__x000D_Safe job procedures are defined as: _x000D_A series of specific steps that guide the worker through a task from start to finish in a chronological order. Safe job procedures are designed to reduce the risk by minimizing potential exposure._x000D__x000D_One of many examples is at the Heimdal platform in the North sea. Due to misinterpretation of documentation and lack of communication between workers on different shifts a valve was not opened as required. During testing May 2012 a gas leak occurred. The initial leakage blew off the cladding and insulation covering the manual valve and pipe work. The personnel was mustered at the lifeboats. This accident was classified as having a catastrophic potential, but resulted only in material damage and production losses._x000D__x000D_Today workers perform manual tasks according to written procedures or verbal instructions from other workers or from a control center transmitted through radio. The work area may be noisy, badly lit with restricted access. A wrong manual operation in the work sequence can be catastrophic. The challenge for the individual worker is to identify the specific process equipment to be operated, to carry out the necessary operation and in particular to review the state of the equipment before and after the operation. _x000D__x000D_The project will develop advanced technology and efficient solutions which will reduce the risk. This will be achieved partly through technological development and partly through research and development of system architecture and framework that safeguard access to corporate systems for plant operation and COtenance. Use of wireless technology and microtransmitter technology is essential for access to process equipment identification and state information and to share this information between operators. _x000D_The goal is reached by installing low cost high reliability micro transmitters on valves and process equipment. Handheld wireless operator terminals are updated with electronic safe job procedures, and the micro transmitters are activated by the same operator terminals to identify equipment and state of equipment before and after each step. If the operator tries to execute the procedure in a wrong sequence, an alarm will display and the electronic procedure is halted. When the task is completed a detailed electronic record is generated and stored._x000D__x000D_Operation and COtenance costs can be reduced by 5-10 % by use of this product. For an average European country we predict a yearly reduction of on average EUR 2,5 billions. Even more important, we expect to avoid 2-5 serious accidents each year. And in this Industry they are often both fatal and very costly._x000D__x000D_Market goals_x000D__x000D_Statoil’s refinery at Mongstad, Norway and Statoil’s refinery in Kalundborg, Denmark will participate in the project and their representatives will actively participate in the reference groups and the workshops. _x000D__x000D_Strengths_x000D__x000D_Askalon and SAAS will be able to offer a platform for implementation. The deliverable will be a solution and support services to assist with implementation. _x000D__x000D_The biggest endusers are oil and gas, petrochemicals, paper and pulp, nuclear power plants and the maritime industry. Typical customers will be Statoil, BP and Shell._x000D__x000D_The technological edge that is created through the project will be able to compete successfully worldwide_x000D__x000D_The consortium_x000D__x000D_Veritrack AS was established to develop and commercialize the system Veritrack, which is a cost effective system for wireless verification of manual operations in process plants. The system is based on solutions and technology developed both by senior industrialists and SINTEF. The system is patent pending._x000D__x000D_SINTEF is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. It is a broadly based, multidisciplinary contract research company with international top-level expertise. _x000D__x000D_Askalon AB is a leading supplier of valves and related services for the process industry in Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The company has a broad customer base to introduce the result from this project._x000D__x000D_Intertechna AB is to develop safe systems for operations and measurement. It is a high competence instrument company with a Scandinavian customer base._x000D__x000D_Solberg & Andersen AS is a market leading supplier of valves and related services for the oil and gas industry, and land-based process industry, primarily in Norway and the offshore sector. _x000D__x000D__x000D__x000D_
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Acronym
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Safe process
(Reference Number: 8131)
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Duration
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01/09/2013 - 30/04/2016
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Project Topic
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Operator mistakes, especially field-operator mistakes is one of the CO causes of accidents in Process and Maritime Industries. The Veritrack solution creates a breakthrough in costs effective 100% safe operation of critical sequences with dramatic reduction of COtenance costs as a side effect.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
