A noise study for a massive oil refinery that involved over 500 noise sources
Located 50 km south of Kuwait City, the Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery is one of the largest oil refineries in the Middle East, with an area spanning 1,332,000 m2 and a petroleum production capacity of 730,000 barrels per day.
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The Challenge
The refinery owner, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), carried out an in-house study of personal noise exposures, which highlighted exceedances of permissible health limits. RWDI was then commissioned by KNPC to undertake a site study of the risk of workers at the refinery to noise induced hearing damage.
Our Approach
Our team of experts:
- Obtained attended source term noise measurements of each major mechanical noise source across the refinery.
- Derived noise source terms - by direct measurement and/or calculation - for over 500 items of plant within 30 oil and gas processing units, including pumps, condensers, pipes, compressors, and valves.
- Used the noise source terms to support the development of a large-scale desktop model of the complete site, modelling noise sources such as external point and area sources, as well as compressor enclosure façades.
- Generated noise contour plots to identify areas where state occupational noise exposure limits were exceeded.
The Outcome
Rank ordering of sources, generic mitigation options, and basic design proposals were identified for each of the working areas, including acoustic enclosures, pipework insulation, and vent silencers.