Liquefied Natual Gas Plant, Nigeria

Atkins were asked to make an independent assessment of the total sound power level and noise hazardous areas at a large petrochemical plant in Nigeria. Our client had designed the site and needed to verify that the total sound power level met the design target, and present this to the site’s management team – who were our client’s client.
We undertook a background noise survey of the site during the early part of the construction activities in 1998. This survey was complicated by the presence of some 24 hour construction activities, however careful choices of measurement time and location ensured that we were able to successfully obtain the background noise levels without interrupting the construction process.
The main part of the survey took place in 2000 during the commissioning tests of the plant. We were responsible for taking measurements to confirm:
Total plant sound power level
Site boundary noise levels
Extents of noise hazardous areas around the plant
Sound power levels on individual items of plant
Our client had identified one control valve which was malfunctioning, and contributing significantly to the total sound power level. This item had been identified for replacement, although the part had not arrived in time for our survey. The total plant sound power level was evaluated for the situation as measured, and also predicted for the situation with the faulty valve having been replaced. The level with the replaced value was below the design target and our client was able to sign off the plant on the basis of this prediction.
When checking individual items of plant we were able to assist our client in identifying some other items of plant which needed acoustic treatment, identifying the part of the equipment causing the noise. Our client was able to action treatment whilst we were on site.
The results from all measurements around the site were plotted onto a noise map of the plant which allowed our client to visualise the changes in noise levels around the site, to identify the noise hazardous areas and to verify the site boundary levels. We presented a draft copy of the noise map to the site management team on site at the end of the survey.

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