Risk assessment of emergency operations of floating storage and regasification unit

Abstract

As the receiving terminal of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the efficient emergency response of the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is crucial to ensure the safety of LNG transportation at sea. However, few existing literature study the risk issues of FSRUs during emergency operations. In order to improve the emergency response capability of FSRU, this study proposes an innovative assessment method to identify hazards, quantify and rank the risks associated with emergency response and disposal operations of FSRU accidents. Firstly, a comprehensive index hierarchy system applicable to human, equipment, environment, and management aspects of emergency response and disposal operations of FSRU accident is established through an extensive literature review, analysis of accident reports, and expert judgments. Secondly, based on the concept of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers, the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Hybrid Weighted Euclidean Distance (IFHWED) operator is used to enhance the conventional FMEA approach. This method considers the varying levels of expert confidence and integrates subjective and objective weights of risk influential factors (RIFs), and the efficacy is validated through sensitivity analysis. Finally, a comprehensive evaluation model employing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation algorithms is used to aggregate the risk values of RIFs. The findings of this study offer decision-makers insights into risks during emergency operation, provide valuable guiding strategies for FSRU accident management, and improve the capability for emergencies at sea.

KEYWORDS:

• Maritime safety
• FSRU
• emergency response
• risk analysis
• FMEA

Acknowledgements

Zhongming Xiao: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing-Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing. Mingchen Xie: Conceptualisation, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing-Review & Editing. Xinjian Wang: Validation, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing-Review & Editing, Project administration. Huanxin Wang: Resources, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Writing – Original Draft. Siming Fang: Formal analysis, Validation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing. Rubén Arnáez: Formal analysis, Writing – Review & Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 52101399, 52301409], and the Bolian Research Funds of Dalian Maritime University [grant number 3132023617]. This work was also supported by the EU H2020 ERC Consolidator Grant program [TRUST grant number 864724].