The purpose of a freeze protection system is, as the name suggests, to prevent freeze-ups when temperatures fall. If a freeze-up should occur, the result can have a detrimental impact upon the ability of the plant to operate at proper efficiency or at all. Additionally, once this condition has occurred, it requires immediate attention and significant commitment from plant personnel to resolve the issue. Since this condition is always an âupset,â it normally takes personnel away from doing constructive, revenue-generating activities. Therefore, when a freeze protection system fails to keep pipes, tanks and instruments from freezing, it is always a double loss to the operations of the plant:
⢠Lost revenues from poor or nonexistent operations
⢠Lost wages for utilizing plant personnel on nonproductive activities
The real value of a properly functioning freeze protection system is it acting as âensuranceâ against catastrophic failures and maintaining critical process availability. The benefit to day-to-day operations is to allow plant management the higher-value use of their skilled, trained and knowledgeable technicians. Fixing the problems caused by a frozen pipe is not the best use of the limited resources â highly trained technicians â of most industrial plants. Most importantly, whenever an upset occurs, it causes a potential deficiency in the revenue opportunity of the plant. Whether it is a total inability of the plant to operate (e.g., a drum level transmitter at a power plant freezes, creating a âzeroâ reading and thereby not allowing the plant control system to âfireâ the boiler) or not, malfunctioning freeze protection systems can create significant problems and potential losses for industrial plants.
A freeze protection system is made up of two components:
1.A method to replace the âlost heatâ in a process system, such as electric heat trace cables or steam pipe tracing
2.A method of insulating the pipes, tanks, instruments and other devices that need to be protected from adverse weather conditions
Both of these components need to be engineered per application (one size does not fit all) in order to ensure all specific ambient and process conditions are taken into account, and both of these components need to be inspected or audited on a consistent basis so maintenance can be performed as required.
Freeze protection systems, even with proper design and specification, can still malfunction once installed in the field. The most common causes of these malfunctions are due to poor installation methods of the heating elements and insulation or maintenance on operating devices (valves, pumps, etc.), which can lead to broken or damaged heating elements and insulation components. A common mistake made by many facilities is being unaware these systems have a life span and that they require maintenance. To âinstall and forgetâ and assume these systems will perform as designed is a recipe for failure at some point in time.
Although straightforward in concept, a properly designed, installed and maintained freeze protection system can be complex to plan and implement. A growing trend in industry has been to employ âturnkeyâ vendors for this important and often overlooked discipline. A turnkey freeze protection system vendor will perform the engineering design by individual process system application, perform the correct installation of the âheat replacementâ and insulation components, perform start-up and commissioning, and document the entire freeze protection system for use by plant personnel in the future.
To summarize, freeze protection systems (both the heating element and insulation component) need to be:
⢠Engineered on a âper applicationâ basis.
⢠Audited on a consistent basis to ensure integrity of the heating elements and soundness of the insulation.
⢠Maintained as a system and acknowledged for having a âlife span.â
⢠Implemented by turnkey vendors with proven ability to provide engineering, installation, start-up and commissioning, and documentation capabilities.
For more information, visit www.brace.com or call (281) 760-4290.
