The purpose of this E-Course is to describe the systems, equipment necessary to protect against the major hazards which could lead to injury to personnel, damage to facilities, loss of production or pollution of the environment, and to prescribe the safety measures which are adopted in the design in order to:

• Avoid exposure to potential hazards,

• Minimize / control the risk of ignition,

• Contain and minimize the consequence (fire, explosion and pollution) of the hazards and ensure adequate emergency response facilities are provided,

• Provide means of escape and evacuation from such hazards,

• Ensure the installation is designed to a safe standard for all foreseeable hazards,

• Provide a safe working environment for personnel,

• Ensure that the environment is adequately protected from harm.

The different levels of protection are defined as follows:

• Primary Protection – Detection, alarm and control of potential process hazards shall be achieved by the process control systems.

• Secondary Protection – Additional protection provided shall be independent of the primary protection system and may typically include protection against overpressure by PSV’s.

• Emergency Protection Systems – Fire and gas detection, emergency shutdown and emergency depressurisation systems are designed to bring under control hazards in case the process control system has failed to detect or prevent such situation.