Introduction to Plant Ageing

The term ‘ageing’, refers to the continuous time dependent

degradation of structures, systems and components (SSCs) materials
during normal service.

Plant ageing is defined as the continuous time dependent

degradation of materials due to normal service conditions, which
include normal operation and transient conditions.

Plant ageing is a process that begins as soon as a component or

structure is produced and continues throughout its service life.

The rate of ageing depends strongly on both the service conditions

and the sensitivity of materials to those conditions.

Plant ageing does not refer to how old equipment is, but it is related
to its condition and how it is changing over time that is, ageing’ is
not directly related to chronological age.

Plant ageing is not just associated with its age and design life but
importantly involves wider factors that influence its degradation.

Ageing plant is plant which is, or may be, no longer considered fully
fit for purpose due to deterioration or obsolescence in its integrity or
functional performance.

Plant aging encompasses all forms of degradation in process

chemical that result from exposure to environmental conditions or
from operational stresses.

There are many examples of very old plant remaining fully fit for
purpose, and of newer plant showing evidence of accelerated or
early ageing, e.g. due to corrosion, fatigue, erosion failures or out of
calibration incidents.

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 Creeping Change
As the name suggests, creeping changes are those that occur
gradually and slip under the radar of processes to identify and
manage hazards.

Creeping change is the accumulation of small changes which often

go unnoticed, but can add up to a significant change, but because
of their gradual nature no hazard identification study or risk
assessment has been performed.

They are gradual, unseen and not planned, and because of this can
be difficult to monitor.

Creeping changes are not simply limited to physical changes in, or

degradation of, plant and equipment.

Creeping change covers a range of changes in equipment integrity,

production conditions, and human factors and organizational
culture.

The current version of the MHIDAS database contains over 16,000

records corresponding to over 14,000 incidents.

Significance of Plant Ageing

Ageing is certainly a significant factor in determining the limits of
process chemical plants lifetime or life extensions.

Over time the structure and process plant, the safety systems and
other facilities comprising the installation are subject to ageing
mechanisms leading to deterioration of their condition, with
potential impact on safety, functionality and fitness-for-service in the
longer term.
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Average Ages of Petrochemical Plants: World Petrochemicals
research program has examined the aging of ethylene plants
through 2015.

Program methodology was to compare the current- and future-

average ages of plants in different regions, using 1974 as the base, or
“zero” year.

The regions were defined as follows:

China-India;

Middle East and Africa

Europe, Turkey and Poland

Czech Republic, Hungary and the Slovak Republic

Pacific, which includes Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand

By 2015, analysis shows that the average life of ethylene plants in

China-India and ME-AF will be around 10 years, while the average of
plants in North America and Europe will be around 30 years.

There are several conclusions to be drawn and extrapolations to be

made from program:

• First and foremost, plants in the Middle East and China-India will
have an efficiency advantage compared with plants in the rest of
the world, just because of their age, scale and relatively modern
technology

• Meanwhile, plants in North America, Europe and the Pacific will be

candidates for closure or replacement, unless their efficiency and
competitiveness can be improved and their lifespan expanded

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• Shuttering capacity in North America and Europe is becoming
increasingly expensive, mainly because of the requirement to
remediate the sites on closure.

This may lead to the lifetime of older plants being extended beyond
normal expectations and/or their product slates being reformulated

• Substantial investment would be needed to rebuild older capacity.

All of these observations point to a more rapid shift of the

petrochemicals industry to the axis between the Middle East and
China in the years to come.

Relationship between ageing assets: The relationship between

ageing assets and major incidents has been examined recently
across three main databases for major incidents reporting (RIDDOR
eMARS and MHIDAS).

Process chemical incidents databases:

 RIDDOR: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous

Occurrences Regulations (UK only)

 EMARS: The Major Accident Reporting System (Europe only)

 MIHDAS: The Major Hazard Incidents Data Service (Worldwide)

The objectives of the database review were to:

Provide an indication of the size of the ageing problem, if indeed it

exists.

Identify issues that are of importance in plant ageing in the various

asset categories used in the study.

Identify issues that had not been recognised.

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Provide information on how the identified issues might be suitably
prioritized during HSE inspections.

Industrial accidents: A study determined that the MARS data

indicates that approximately 60% of major hazard loss of
containment incidents are related to technical integrity and, of
those, 50% have ageing as a contributory factor.

It therefore concluded that plant ageing mechanisms are a

significant issue in terms of major hazard accidents.

The RIDDOR database has been provided containing a total of 3142

major, loss of containment accidents in the UK process industry.

The UK RIDDOR data shows that between 1996 and 2008 there have
been 173 loss of containment incidents that can be attributed to
ageing plant mechanisms.

eMARS: eMARS holds data on more than 450 major accident events
covering the period 1980 through to 2006.

These companies are now older than 50 years and ageing is an

undeniable fact.

Between 1980 and 2006, there have been 96 major accidents

potential loss of containment incidents reported in the EU.

Major Accident Reporting System (MARS) which are estimated to be

primarily caused due to ageing plant mechanisms.

This represents 30% of all reported major accident loss of

containment events, and 50% of the technical integrity and control
and instrumentation-related events.

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