Detecting and Preventing Spills and Leaks

Comprehensive planning, along with appropriate level-measurement technologies and safety instrumented systems, can empower plant personnel to significantly reduce the likelihood and severity of hazardous chemical spills In most industries that manufacture, use or store chemicals and other hazardous liquids, a spill prevention, control and countermeasure (SPCC) plan is required to operate storage tanks. Even when not mandated, an SPCC plan can help prevent damage to facilities, contamination of the environment and injury to personnel. An SPCC plan is designed to prevent spills from occurring — and control them when they do — by deploying countermeasures to mitigate the damage and extent of a spill. This usually begins with installing or upgrading level instrumentation throughout a facility. Chemical spills are most frequently caused by tank overfill or process leaks. While preparatory prevention is the goal, the possibility for incidents is never zero. This article covers prevention and detection measures for overfill and leak events, as well as instrumentation-specific requirements to accomplish these tasks.   Overfill prevention specification Overfill prevention of chemical storage tanks is best implemented by combining…