Development of hydraulic system for internal emergency shut-off valves for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage vessel

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to solve the problems of rising cost and increased plant down-time associated with the maintenance and servicing of the Redwood hydraulic power unit (HPU) installed at the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMG) LPG plants by developing an HPU that can be used as a cost effective and easy-to-maintain alternative to the complex Redwood HPU. The HPU developed was tested with a Whessoe-Varec internal Emergency Shut-off Valves (ESV) and it successfully opened the valve. The maximum pump flow rate of the developed HPU was determined by experiment to be litres per minute ( with an overall efficiency of as compared with the Redwood HPU which has a maximum flow rate of and overall efficiency of The Cost Effectiveness Analysis (C.E.A) shows that the developed HPU is 89.5 % cheaper in terms of cost of procurement than the Redwood HPU.