A flammable gas produced continuously, on a site usually run by a farm business rather than a process operator.
An anaerobic digestion or biogas plant falls under DSEAR because it produces a flammable gas continuously. The assessment classifies the hazardous zones around digesters, gas holders, CHP rooms, flares and upgrading plant, checks the ignition sources and equipment in each, and records the controls; the operator, usually a farm business rather than a process operator, is the duty holder.
The primary containment. Roof membranes, pressure relief and the area around any vent or relief point.
Joints, sample points and traps are the routine release sources between the vessels.
A confined space containing a gas supply and a very large ignition source. Detection, ventilation and isolation.
Where biomethane is cleaned and compressed, pressures rise and so do the consequences of a leak.
An intentional ignition source on a site full of flammable gas, with its own exclusion zone.
Not usually flammable, but H2S and confined space risks sit here and are frequently left out because they are not a DSEAR flammability issue.
Almost every AD plant we look at has a hazardous area classification drawing from commissioning, and almost none of them describe the plant as it stands today.
Plants get modified. A second gas holder, a new reception pit, a different flare, an upgrading skid bolted on when the tariff changed. Each of those moves the release sources, and the drawing in the handover file quietly stops being true. Reviewing it is straightforward. Discovering after an incident that nobody had is not.
Yes. Biogas is roughly half to two thirds methane and it is produced continuously. Digesters, gas holders, upgrading plant, flares and the pipework between them all involve a flammable gas by design, so hazardous area classification is not optional.
H2S is a toxic hazard rather than a DSEAR flammability one, but it is present in raw biogas and it is lethal at concentrations well below the point where you can smell it reliably. It belongs in the same assessment even though the mechanism is different.
The operator, which on a farm-scale plant usually means the farm business rather than the contractor who built it. Handover packs frequently include a zoning drawing that was never revisited after the plant was modified.
Every time. New feedstock reception, a new gas holder, an upgrading skid or a change of flare all move the release sources. A zoning drawing from commissioning describes a plant that may no longer exist.
The engine room is a confined space with a gas supply and a large ignition source in it. Gas detection, ventilation and the isolation arrangement are the core of that part of the assessment.
Most AD sites sit on a working farm with fuel in the yard.
What a zoning drawing should show, and when to redo it.
Matching equipment category to zone.
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