In Japan, FPEC is only one consultant specialized to plant disaster prevention.  Our main business is risk assessment of refineries, chemical plants and other plants handling hazardous materials and high-pressure gas, planning of measures to reduce accidents, basic planning and engineering of disaster prevention systems.  In recent years, we have also expanded businesses into analysis, investigation and countermeasures when required in a case of building occupancy change in accordance with safety and environmental laws.  We are using our own abundant simulation software to deal with various problems faced by customers in Japan and overseas.

 Outline of our consulting services

1. Consulting for risk assessment and its countermeasure related to hazardous materials, including various simulations and investigation requirements by applicable codes and regulations.
   
   • Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) based on calculation of risks frequency and effects on damage.
   • Review of layout plan from a viewpoint of separation distance between facilities / buildings of dangerous goods facilities and fireproofing hours.
   • Classification of hazardous areas based on both domestic laws and regulations and IEC 60079-10-1 Edition 2.0 "Classification of areas-Explosive gas atmospheres", and study works for various explosion protection methods, such as internal pressure chambers, internal pressure explosion-proofing, ventilation systems, etc.
2. Disaster prevention and environmental simulation
   • Plant disaster assessment and safety study by using various PC programs owned by FPEC and our partners.
3. Fire Fighting plans
   • Mapping of fire vehicles and foam/water monitors for extinguishing large tank fire and process area fires by using our tank fire extinguishing simulation, heat radiation simulation and water/foam monitor mapping software (Trajectory simulation).
   • Investigation and examination of firefighting tactics such as firefighting methods for large tank fires.
4. Loss prevention consulting for a Japanese company, who goes to an overseas country. FPEC will make a proposal to resolve your problems on plant or building safety from a point of various codes or regulations such as NFPA , BS, API, IP etc., while keeping your original standard requirements.
5. Loss prevention consulting for an overseas company, who invests in Japan. FPEC will make a proposal to resolve your problems on plant or building safety from a point of various codes or regulations in Japan while keeping your original standard requirements.
6. Support for risk survey and assessment services for insurance company.
7. Safety review of a plant contractor's engineering drawings and documents.
8. Proposal and estimate of appropriate fire protection system.
9. Development of global safety standards of an individual company.
   
   

Job  experiences (sample)

• Identification of fire zones in a refinery or a chemical plant (Scenarios of disasters were developed based on P&I flow diagram, plant layout, and equipment list)
• Preparation of heat radiation map (2D or 3D) from a fire in a tank or oil spillage by using our heat radiation simulation program.
• Preparation of heat radiation map (2D or 3D) from a gas fire at a flare stack, relief valve or gas leakage by using our heat radiation simulation program.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of oil dike or spill containment by calculation of leakage rate, flash, liquid spreading, and liquid evaporating (the calculation results were used to simulate the heat radiation or gas dispersion)
• Confirmation of the effectiveness of oil dike and collection ponds by calculation of leak, flash, liquid spreading, evaporation, gas dispersion, heat radiation.
• Preparation of gas concentration ( % of LEL) map and graph of change in evaporation residue volume with laps time, when a crude oil leaks, by using FPEC's Crude oil leaks/evaporation/gas dispersion simulation program
• Preparation of gas dispersion concentration map (2D or 3D) by using FPEC's Gas dispersion simulation program
• Preparation of radioactivity dispersion map (2D or 3D) by using FPEC's Gas ＆Radioactivity simulation program
• Prediction of Boil Over occurrence time and the hot zone temperature by using FPEC's Boil Over simulation program
• Prediction of temperature profile in the tank after extinguished by using FPEC's Tank cooling simulation program
• Firefighting plan for a large tank fire under wind condition, including appropriate allocation of fire trucks, large foam monitors etc. and prediction of extinguishing time by foam application, by using our tank fire extinguishing simulation program.
• Investigation of cause of the fire and study of appropriate firefighting strategy by using various engineering tools and simulation program.
• Investigation and study of firefighting strategy and difficulties in making decision, when a fire occurs in a crude oil tank larger than 82 m diameter.
• Support for preparation of safety standards of a specific individual company, when the company requires his own global safety standard.
• Classification of hazardous area  (for electrical equipment) based on domestic regulations, IEC, NFPA, etc. and study of countermeasures
• Calculate the probability of disaster occurrence by FTA for each initial trigger events such as incorrect operation, equipment failure, spill fire / explosion, power outage, etc. , and to evaluate the impact from each disaster , and then, summarize quantitative risk assessment (QRA) of the plant.
• When a general facility handling hazardous materials is newly constructed, we had provided many clients with application supports for public fire department, such as:
  the legal requirements and countermeasures regarding the separation distance between facilities / buildings of hazardous material handling, fire resistance time of walls, floors, pillars, the necessity of explosion pressure release function, classification of hazardous area, and various explosion protection methods, such as internal pressure chambers, internal pressure explosion-proofing, ventilation systems, etc., and development of work process instructions to obtain well understanding by the fire department officer.
  
  

Regulations, Codes and Standards

• Regulations in Japan, such as Fire service Law, High Pressure Gas Safety Law, Disaster Prevention Law in Petroleum Industrial Complexes, Local regulations.
• NFPA
• API
• EI
• BS
• Regulations in Singapore, Thai, Russia.
• Major Oil Standards such as ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, etc.
  
  

Languages

Both Japanese and English