A world first on Goodwyn Alpha

Our team on Woodside’s Goodwyn Alpha Platform are working on a Passive Fire Protection (PFP) project led by Wood (EPCM) and the Woodside technology group.

Passive Fire Protection (PFP) supports the fire walls on an offshore facility by protecting a specific area from fire.

In March 2021, our team took part in a world first trial of a new PFP product, the Humidur Char. This product is an intumescent fireproofing product which means it’s a coating that swells up when heated, protecting the material underneath, or sealing a gap in the event of a fire. This product was developed in Belgium by Acotec and its purpose is to improve efficiency and cost with applying PFP to both onshore and offshore facilities.

Goodwyn Alpha (GWA) was commissioned in 1995 and is nearing the end of its original design life. The development of a fit-for-purpose PFP solution is one aspect of the program being progressed to extend the operating life of the of the GWA platform. This PFP solution will help manage the potential risk of primary structural failure or Temporary Refuge impairment in the event of a Major Accident Event (MAE).

Offshore Brownfields Supervisor, Trent Nielsen commented “a key advantage of this product is it carries the same benefits as traditional Humidur, overall reducing the surface profile requirements and the need for reinforcing mesh, which leads to a reduction in cost and application times.”

Following this successful trial, the product has been implemented and has now had more than 10 tonnes of the new product applied to the GWA platform.

“Our team on site have been instrumental in the development of methods to apply this new product by working with the supplier Matrix & Wood to trial a number of new application methods. There are still multiple continuous improvement opportunities that are being discovered by the Monadelphous team using their previous industry experience to adapt to application methods of the new PFP product,” said Trent.

The project is scheduled to continue throughout 2022, with the team looking to continue their excellent safety performance and build on improvements until the project is completed.