Conference Papers
Although jet fires may pose a major hazard in the chemical processing industry, they are typically modeled with semi-empirical models that were developed based on experimental results of natural gas. In most semi-empirical models, it is typically assumed that all liquid is instantly vaporized upon discharge and combusted fully in the jet. In reality, depending on discharge fuel momentum, elevation, temperature, and liquid fuel properties, a significant percentage of liquid fuel may fall to the ground and burn as a pool rather than contribute to the jet fire. As a result, such a model may predict overly conservative results when used to model liquid spray jet fires.
Dr. Zhao is a member of BakerRisk’s Process Safety Group. Her work focuses on the consequence modeling of toxic releases and vapor cloud explosions. She has performed numerous facility siting studies, consequence analysis, and quantitative risk analysis studies at gas plants and petrochemical facilities, as well as in the fertilizer industry. Dr. Zhao’s experience also incorporates Safety Instrumented System (SIS) design basis development and verification/validation projects. She has performed as facilitator and scribe on numerous Safety Integrity Level (SIL) assignments and performed quantitative reliability analysis to verify achievement of SIL targets calculations.
As the biofuels industry continues to expand in support of global decarbonization mandates and objectives, facility owners and developers are being challenged to balance production efficiency, operational reliability, and personnel safety.
As high hazard facilities, biofuels sites should focus on developing a fire protections strategy informed by performance-based analysis so strategies implemented meet the unique challenges found at each facility.