Handbook of Fire & Explosion Protection Engineering Principles for Oil, Gas, Chemical, & Related Facilities

The security and economic stability of many nations and multinational oil companies are highly dependent on the safe and uninterrupted operation of their oil, gas and chemical facilities. One of the most critical impacts that can occur to these operations are fires and explosions from accidental or political incidents. This publication is intended as a general engineering handbook and reference guideline for those personnel involved with fire and explosion protection aspects of critical hydrocarbon facilities. Design guidelines and specifications of major, small and independent oil companies as well as information from engineering firms and published industry references have been reviewed to assist in its preparation. Some of the latest published practices and research into fire and explosions have also been mentioned.

Dr. Dennis P. Nolan has had a long career devoted to risk engineering, fire protection engineering, loss prevention engineering and systems safety engineering. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Business Administration from Berne University, Master of Science degree in Systems Management from Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a U.S. registered professional engineer in fire protection engineering in the state of California.He is currently on the Executive Management staff of Saudi Aramco, located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, as a Loss Prevention Consultant/Chief Fire Prevention Engineer. He covers some of the largest oil and gas facilities in the world. As part of his career, he has examined oil production, refining, and marketing facilities under severe conditions and in various unique worldwide locations, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and North and South America. His activity in the aerospace field has included engineering support for the NASA Space Shuttle launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center (and for those undertaken at Vandenburg Air Force Base, California) and 'classified national defense systems. Dr. Nolan has received numerous safety awards and is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers, He is the author of many technical papers and professional articles in various international fire safety publications. He has written at least four books, several published by Elsevier."