Lightning and Static Protection Best Practices for Oil and Gas Tank Batteries and Well Pads
Oil and gas production and disposal tanks have a high susceptibility to lightning and static damage. The following suggestions make up a short list of best practices for tank batteries and well pads.
Use 3/4″ x 10 foot copper clad ground rods, minimum of 2 per site, always at opposite ends of battery. Each ground should measure 25 Ohms or less. Additional grounds can be placed at the back side of tanks.
Use tinned copper class 1 lightning protection conductor and tinned copper UL 96 rated materials throughout the lightning and static protection system.
Run a continuous trunk line of tinned copper class 1 lightning conductor from a ground (near the first step of the catwalk stairs) to another ground past all the tanks at the opposite side of the battery. This trunk line is to be secured to the underside of the stairs and along the catwalk or piping with clamps spaced no more than 36″ apart. This trunk line will be used to provide at least two paths to ground for each tank.
The lid and flange of every thief hatch must be bonded together with a UL listed tinned copper bonding strap. Every thief hatch, isolated metal body, catwalk, etc, must be bonded to the grounding system so the battery will rise and fall in electrical potential evenly.
Remove bound charge in fiberglass tanks with a Static Lasso® tank protector and bond to the tinned copper class 1 lightning conductor and grounding system.
Streamer Prevention Terminals (Dissipators) shall be installed on the tanks and catwalk handrails at spacing no more than 15 foot apart. Dissipators mounted on PVC piping will need to be bonded back to the grounding system with class 1 tinned lightning conductor.
Dissipators should also be mounted on all tall structures inside the pad or nearby a tank battery such as separators, heater treaters, or light poles.
The grounding for all electrical equipment should be bonded to the lightning protection grounding system for the tank battery. Separate grounding systems are potential risk for personnel and arcing of static charge.
Lightning and Static Protection
When building a new production or disposal tank battery, energy companies will install either fiberglass or steel tanks. Currently there is a myth that lightning strikes fiberglass tanks more often than steel tanks. The truth is that lightning strikes fiberglass and steel tanks equally. This article will explain simple and inexpensive ways to make fiberglass tanks equally or less susceptible to lightning strikes than steel tanks while still providing the additional advantages of corrosion control and lower costs.
Lightning usually strikes grounded objects near the base of the thundercloud. Tanks made of different materials have no lightning strike attachment advantage over each other. It is very important to understand that most tanks are not lost to direct lightning strikes. Rather, they are more commonly lost to secondary effect arcing that ignites flammable gases. Steel and fiberglass are different materials that need to be protected in different ways. There are three areas of concern detailed below that make unprotected fiberglass tanks more susceptible to lightning than unprotected steel tanks.
The first concern is arcing from secondary lightning effects which can be remedied by bonding across the top of a tank battery. A steel tank is inherently bonded to the catwalk, thief hatch and metallic plumbing attachments. A fiberglass tank instead isolates these metal bodies which float as islands across the top of the tank. To start with, the lid and the flange of every thief hatch on both steel and fiberglass tanks need to be bonded with a UL rated bonding strap. Fiberglass tanks additionally will need a need a UL rated tank top conductor system bonding between the catwalk, thief hatch, and any metallic inlets. Once tank top bonding is complete, a fiberglass tank will equal a steel tank in this regard.
The second concern is the tank’s internal bound charge which we will call static. Static can form inside a tank through normal operations such as transfer or pumping. Secondary effects of a nearby lightning strike can also introduce a bound charge. When the static charge inside of a tank builds to the point of arcing, the tank may be lost. Unlined steel tanks have the advantage of being able to relax accumulating static charges faster than fiberglass tanks. Fiberglass and modern epoxy lined steel tanks have insulating properties and, therefore, need assistance in draining bound static.
Static charge will most readily dissipate into small radius points. An effective in tank static removal system will present a grounded non corrosive material with a multitude of small points in direct contact with the fluid and vapors inside a tank. Chains, rods, and plates are not effective since they present a flat surface. The carbon veil is not effective since it is encapsulated in resin and does not present its conductive points. Stainless brushes are very effective in static removal, but are cost prohibitive and the brush tines can quickly corrode and unravel the entire assembly, damaging down stream equipment. The most promising new technology uses a frayed carbon fiber assembly which is presented in direct contact with the vapors and fluids, has a multitude of microscopic points, is non-corrosive, and highly conductive. Once an effective means of draining static is employed, a fiberglass tank could equal or exceed a steel tank in this regard.
The third concern is flammability. Fiberglass is a flammable material whereas steel is not. If the two concerns above are addressed, and especially if dissipation is installed on the tanks, lightning risks will be mitigated and flammability from lightning will be a minor concern.
Fiberglass tanks today are less expensive and often more available than steel tanks. A properly protected fiberglass tank may overall be less expensive than a properly protected steel tank. Additionally, as opposed to fiberglass tanks which are highly resistant to corrosion, steel tanks will corrode. Field service life will be greatly increased by using properly protected fiberglass tanks. In short, consider using fiberglass tanks knowing that secondary lightning effects and static can be controlled.
The author is a lightning protection professional and helped to develop the patent pending carbon fiber Static Lasso™ tank protector.
Please contact me for any lightning or static protection needs for your industrial assets.
How to Protect Data on Your Computer
Below is a list of things to consider and think about in order to protect the data on your computer.
1. First ask yourself what it is you want to protect. Generally speaking, and for most people, it will be their data on the hard drive (or the virtual file cabinet of stored information). Some people have years of family and vacation photographs, tax records, banking information, or important papers, etc.
The second question is what level of safety should you implement (which goes back to what it is you want to protect and HOW important it is). There are a number of data loss possibilities, which include: hard drive failure, viruses, hackers, burglary, fires, kids erasing information, electrical surges, etc.
Based on these two important questions, we’ll cover some options to consider.
2. Preserve and Protect: There’s a variety of avenues to take depending on what it is you want to protect. For digital photos, you can simply write or burn them to a CD/DVD and store them elsewhere. This is cheap and easy, but it takes effort and time on your part (and you’ll have to do this periodically as you acquire new photos). This does not preserve your photos in the event of a fire, unless you store the CD’s/DVD’s off site. A similar approach can be taken for important records, papers, or other digital files that you want preserved.
There are also some online storage services allowing you to upload your data and store it on their secure servers (for a fee). While this is relatively easy, you are putting your data on a remote computer (which is hopefully secure).
Additionally, you could purchase an additional hard drive (external ones simply hook right up or internal ones require installation). You can make daily or weekly backups of your data (copy everything on your main hard drive over to your backup) which will cover you in the event of a hard drive failure. While hard drives failures are not extremely common, they do happen around 5% of the time (laptops, which are subject to more movement and being tossed around can occur more frequently based upon how one cares for the device). Businesses generally use a featured called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), which basically stores the same data over several hard drives, so that if one fails, the computer can immediately begin using the other one. It all comes down to: how important is your data, and how quickly do you need to access it?
Protect against electrical harm: One other area often overlooked is the possibility of an electrical surge damaging your computer. While this is rare, it can happen. Surge protectors are a good start, although keep in mind that if lightning were to strike near your PC it can do some pretty random things (I’ve seen lightning strike near one home and it fried the electronics of a dishwasher!).
3. Prevent: The next level of security is preventing unauthorized access to your data and/or protecting it from harm. These can be grouped by DIRECT and NETWORK threats.
4. DIRECT: If you are NOT connected to a network of any type (and are NOT connected to the Internet), then you ONLY have to worry about direct threats, which would be someone gaining access to your PC by walking up to it. It could even be a child hitting delete one too many times on your keyboard!
The easiest way to prevent direct threats to your PC is to use a password to login. There’s also additional measures available to ensure that only you can login to your computer (especially if you’re worried about someone knowing or guessing your password when you’re away). If want to consider protecting your PC from someone walking away with it, then you’ll need to consider home security and/or locking it in place.
This also brings up the question of where your data is located? Is it on a USB flash drive? Protecting this type of data takes on new ideas. Keep it safe and with you at all times. What happens when you leave it sitting on a desk or it drops out of a pocket? Finger print scanner (or bio-access) USB thumb drives exist that allow only you to access the data on the device. This adds a level a security and ensures that no one else will be looking at important data you might have stored on the device.
5. NETWORK – local: If you run a home network, then someone else has the potential to gain access to your computer from that network. A locally wired network is MUCH more difficult to hack into (versus a wireless) since someone would have to physically attach a device to your network (which leads back to home security). Plus, if you have the team from Mission Impossible trying to tap into your home network, you likely have larger problems to worry about. If your network incorporates wireless, then anyone could potentially compromise your wireless network within a certain range. Many people don’t understand the importance of securing their wireless local network. One should at a minimum: change the default names and passwords used to login to your wireless router, enable encryption (the higher the standard the better), and limit the number of users to the number of people you plan on using the network.
6. NETWORK – Internet: While the Internet is loaded with tons of useful information, it does lend itself to breeding a hive of potential problems. Hackers are generally considered someone on another PC attempting to gain access to your computer’s data. They may or may not cause harm. Either way, you wouldn’t want someone walking into your office and going through your file cabinet.
A “firewall” should be your first addition to Internet security. Firewalls come in hardware and software flavors. If you have some form of high speed Internet, then you generally have your Internet line (cable, phone, etc.) connected to a high speed modem. Your computer connects to the modem and then speaks to the Internet. A hardware firewall goes between your computer and your modem, and is generally sold as an all-in-one wireless router / firewall / hub device. Linksys is among the top name brands. This firewall acts as a buffer between you and the Internet (where the hackers live).
However, it could be possible for a hacker to gain access to your computer through the hardware firewall, which is why an additional software firewall installed on your PC gives added protection. Zone Labs offers a free version, although most Windows Operating Systems now come with a software based firewall that’s active by default.
(a) NETWORK — software: Some hackers look for ways to gain access to your PC through software vulnerabilities. This means they might find a “loop hole” in Internet Explorer which allows them access to your hard drive. The only response to this would be to check for updates that help fix these problems when identified. Windows Operating Systems generally have a feature to auto-check for updates.
7. Be Smart: You can also do things that just make sense. By turning your computer off when you don’t need it you not only save energy, but a hacker can’t access something that isn’t there (computers turned off don’t appear on a network).
In addition to turning it off, you can take an extra step during thunderstorms, and UNPLUG your PC. Having a surge protector CAN protect your electronics, but if there’s no wire for a surge to travel through, then your PC is 100% safe (pending a lightning strike doesn’t actually hit your computer). It is quite possible for a large surge of electricity to travel right through a surge protector and destroy your PC. Plus, it only takes a few seconds of your time to unplug a PC.
Also, don’t allow anyone else using your computer to download software without first asking. Ask them what it is their downloading and why they need it. Many kids love to download instant messaging clients and file sharing programs to listen to music. Many of these programs have additional software included that’s installed with the main program. Some are simply programs running in the background that open your computer up as a file sharing server while others cause additional memory usage and overall degrade the performance of your PC.
8. Be Healthy: Viruses (also known as malicious ware, spyware, macros). These are generally written to create havoc (either delete or corrupt data, record passwords, etc.), and are somehow placed on your PC (via a USB drive, e-mail, or visiting a particular Internet site) and allowed to run at a later time. Some type of anti-virus software is highly recommended. AVG has for years offered a fairly reliable basic, free version. Since new viruses are always being written, you’ll need to make sure the software is regularly updated.
9. If you don’t have anything on your computer that you care to protect, then in reality, you don’t need to do much of anything. If you do get a virus, or a hacker attacks it, then there isn’t any information available to record, see, etc. You might need to reinstall your operating system and set up your PC again, and thus you’ll be out the time it takes you to do this (or paying someone else to do this for you). However, keep in mind that even if you purchase items over the Internet, you credit card information is being passed from your computer. Spyware could capture this data and pass it back to someone else. Thus, if you make any online purchases, I’d recommend considering the above steps.
Ways To Lose Data — Prevention Solutions
Hard Drive Failure — Backup data regularly
Direct access (kids erasing information) — Login Password, Computer Protection
Hackers — Firewall: hardware, software
Viruses — Anti-virus scanning/protection software
Burglary — Home security / protection
Fires — Home protection, off site backup
Electrical — Surges Surge Protector (unplug your PC during a thunder storm)
All Families Need a Home Security Lighting System
Well lit homes, whether it is indoor or outdoor lighting, are an important safety measure against thieves and burglars. Dipping into the psychology of a thief, darkness and shadows create a perfect cover for skulking and hiding. Home security lighting provides the home owner protection against these law breakers along with other necessary security measures.
Break-in’s do happen during the day. But most of the time the thieves will choose the cover of night since most of the homes will be plunged into darkness and their inhabitants asleep and vulnerable. The street lights are insufficient since the light filtering through casts shadows that are convenient for the thief.
Using flood lights is an option for people concerned about their security. But having the lights turned on all night is not very economical or environmentally friendly. It may even bother your neighbors if they are angled incorrectly. The lights themselves come with protective covers so vandalizing the lights would be hard for intruders and will buy you precious time if you find yourself a victim of a break in.
Home security lighting is now advanced enough to offer a variety of more viable options that are considered “green” and economical. These options include a heat sensing lightning system that lights up when it senses a foreign warm body passing through. They are sensitive enough to differentiate between an animal and a human so that they light up only if there is an actual intruder passing through. The sudden illumination will surprise the intruder and hopefully your neighbors or passer-by will spot the person in time.
Motion sensing lighting systems are another progressive advancement in technology. Every time an intruder dares to cross your home boundaries the motion detectors will instantly light up catching the intruder by surprise. Some of motion detectors sound an alarm accompanying the illumination. This should thwart the intruder for good.
A number of other security steps need to be taken along with the home security lighting system. Talking to an expert with help you figure out the most efficient security lighting system. Do not opt for a manual control system since you may forget to turn it on every night. The automatic controls are timed to switch on every night even if you are on a vacation, allowing you to keep your property safe while you’re gone.
Keep the control panels of your security system hidden and out of easy reach of intruders. A number of thefts nowadays are committed in homes with tight security systems, but changing the settings on your system is fairly easy for an intruder so keep the panel in a well concealed place. Be sure to add the necessary alarms and locking system as well to alert you in case of a break in. Also, keep the necessary numbers at hand to call the emergency services in an instant.
A home security lighting system is not very expensive in the long-term. And when you consider that you are ensuring your family’s safety, it is a good investment. It is fairly easy to install – as long as you make sure the company offering these services is reputable. In addition, ensure that along with the lighting system you do have other protection systems installed as well.