Hazardous Area Classification of Potentially Explosive Atmospheres During Aircraft Fuelling Operations

摘要

There are approximately 4,900 airports in the world that operate flights. The provision of fuel for the 155,000 daily commercial jet fuelling's at these airports poses significant safety challenges and the Energy Institute Aviation Committee identified a need to standardise the hazardous area classification of potentially explosive atmospheres around commercial jet aircraft fuelling across the world. This is due to the inconsistency or lack of classification around fuelling operations in different airports. This paper is a summary of the findings from an Energy Institute Aviation Committee funded joint industry project, the aim was to provide prescriptive guidance to the aviation industry in the form of direct examples for fuelling operations, similar to those direct examples provided in the Energy Institute Model Code of Safe Practice Part 15, EI15 (Area Classification for Installations Handling Flammable Fluids) 4th Edition. The project involved a comprehensive literature review of relevant stakeholder documentation from around the world and from this, a set of direct examples were developed which illustrate the type and extent of potentially explosive atmospheres around aircraft fuelling operations. The draft direct examples were then made available for review by the Energy Institute Area Classification Working Group and the Energy Institute Aviation Committee, whose members include BP, Total, Chevron, HSE, Shell and ExxonMobil. Following this input the direct examples were refined and the decision made to ensure they were applicable in all climates from Dubai to Siberia. The possibility for a misted release from the pressurised fuelling system was considered and full justification provided on the decisions made. The research report on Aviation Fuelling Hazardous Area Classification prepared by RPS which contains the direct examples was published in July 2017 by the Energy Institute. This paper will consider the potential impacts of the direct examples on fuelling operations and discuss the potential methods in which they could be implemented.