Many of you may have wondered what life is really like offshore? To fly in a helicopter to work in the middle of the sea? To work 12-hour shifts for 14 days straight, surrounded by dangerous equipment and hazardous materials?
Life Offshore
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Blogs listed by category: Category: Training
Why monitoring oxygen doesn’t protect from carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is gas used or produced in many industries, if not directly in the products, in cooling and refrigeration systems. Possibly because of its association with breathing (we breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2), the toxic nature of CO2 is not always appreciated. As a result, some believe that the level of oxygen (O2) in the air is a suitable indicator of safe CO2 levels. However, while monitoring O2 concentrations protects you from asphyxiation, it can’t be relied upon to protect against CO2 poisoning. Making a link between safe levels of CO2 and safe levels of O2 can be a fatal error.
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The risky side of default alarm settings
Logically, people assume the lower the gas detection alarm level, the safer the working environment, as the body will be exposed to less poisonous gas. However, this is not always the best option! If set too low, they can cause spurious alarms and unnecessary disruption. Worse still, these wolf cries have led to many incidents of detectors being ignored or switched off; with terrible results1.
Successful aspirations
Good confined space entry procedure requires the use of a pumped portable detector to check the space is safety to enter. But some detectors don’t have pumps built in, in which case, an aspirator should be used. An aspirator is a manual system for drawing the air through a tube to the sensor, and it can work well. However, it is something that requires practice to give confidence that you are doing it right.
Planning for shutdown season
Maintenance performed during a site shutdown often takes in gas detection systems, including checking expiry dates and calibration. For some, shutdowns also increase the use of portable and transportable monitors, as fixed systems are being maintained and extra personnel come on site to work. Every year, around this time, we get a significant increase in calls about problems arising during site shutdown. Many of these could have been avoided with a little planning and forethought.
Calibration – want to know the basics?
Calibration of gas detectors is vital to be sure that they are in good working order and able to alert the user to gas hazards in their vicinity. A calibration is a “resetting” of the detector’s response against a known concentration of target gas, in a balance of synthetic air or nitrogen. This will determine the relationship between the detector’s reading and the actual concentration of the component gas of interest. Adjustment involves modification of the detectors response to bring the reading into line with what is expected while exposing the instrument to the known source. This is fundamentally different to bump testing which is a brief exposure to gas in order to verify that the sensors respond within a specific boundary and the detector’s alarms function properly.
Bump Testing: What do you need to know?
There are many reasons why a portable gas detector may not react to gas, some of which are not visibly evident to the user. When an instrument is turned on, you can see that the battery and display are working properly, but what about the internal electronics which play a critical role in protection? Do the sensors and alarms all work, have they been inhibited by using the wrong cleaning solution or have their openings become obstructed by mud? How do you know?
Pellistor sensors – how they work
Pellistor gas sensors (or catalytic bead gas sensors) have been the primary technology for detecting flammable gases since the ‘60s. Despite having discussed a number of issues relating to the detection of flammable gases and VOC, we have not yet looked at how pellistors work. To make up for this, we are including a video explanation, which we hope you will download and use as part of any training you are conducting
Training – the vital ingredient
Gas detection is a critical safety function in many industries, to protect people from harm and avoid costly plant disruption or damage. Not only must you use a suitable instrument for the task and the environment, but it must be used correctly and maintained properly if it is to fully serve its purpose.
