Intertec is supplying over 100 fire protector industrial cabinets to support Emerson Process Management's instrumentation solution for the new hydrocracker complex at the Kirishi oil refinery. The cabinets will provide the industrial valve actuators with a minimum of 30 minutes of protection against fire, so that the plant's emergency shut down systems and services can quickly isolate and minimise damage, to protect employees, assets and environment.

The cabinets are made from high-quality glass fibre reinforced polyester (GRP). This material is very stable and highly resistant to corrosion from the petrochemical media.

Emerson Process Management is engaged as Field Instrumentation Vendor for the new hydrocracking complex at Kirishi refinery, a subsidiary of Surgutneftegas. Emerson chose Intertec because no off-the-shelf solution existed for this application, and because of previous experience with the vendor.

The cabinets house cock actuators manufacturers that are critical to plant operation and fail-safe shutdown. They have been fabricated using a sandwich construction of non-combustible insulation and long fibre reinforced GRP sheeting. This provides the required fire protection time, but with the added advantages of high strength, very high resistance to weather and corrosive effects of chemicals. Intertec's technology offers a more efficient alternative to traditional metal protection cabinets because of much lower thermal conductivity.

The independent Russian institution, Pozhaudit, tested an example cabinet. The test demonstrated that the internal temperature did not rise above 60 C for at least 30 minutes when subjected to an oil based fire with a temperature of around 1000 C.