Safety process for pressure equipment in contact with corrosive fluids

Method for increasing the safety of a pressure container comprising an internal chamber suitable for containing a process fluid, surrounded by a pressure-resistant body endowed with weep-holes and made of a material subject to corrosion by contact with said process fluid during running operation, said chamber coated inside with an anticorrosive lining made up of several elements welded to each other, by avoiding contact of said pressure-resistant body with the process fluid as a result of a possible loss from the weldings, said method comprising the following steps:

• (a) extending of at least a part of the weep-holes through the lining to form an outlet in the internal surface of the container;
• (b) covering the weldings with adjoining strips or flat plates of the same material as the lining, or other corrosion-resistant material weldable thereto, previously shaped to suitably lay on the surface of the lining near the weldings;
• (c) placing on the outlets of the weep-holes further strips of the same material as the lining, or other corrosion-resistant material weldable thereto, each adjoining to at least one of the above strips of steps (b), until all said outlets are covered;
• (d) hermetically welding the edges of each strip of steps (b) and (c) onto the lining and edges of other adjoining strips, to obtain, between each of these strips and the underlying surface of the lining and/or its weldings, a hermetic interstitial space with respect to the internal chamber and suitable for the flow of the process fluid;
• wherein at least a part of the weldings between the adjoining edges of the adjoining strips are effected so that beneath any such welding there is an opening between the existing interstitial spaces on each side of the welding, said openings being hermetic with respect to the internal chamber and in such a number and so arranged as to put each interstitial space in communication with at least one of the weep-hole outlets.