On March 12, China Industrial Gases Industry Association (CIGIA) organized and held a webinar on “Continued Use of Special Equipment in Cold Boxes Beyond Their Design Service Life”, which was held in the form of Tencent meeting online. Nearly 20 experts and scholars from relevant special equipment companies attended the meeting. The meeting mainly conducted an in-depth discussion on whether these special equipment in the cold box can continue to be used beyond the design service life and how to conduct inspection or evaluation. The seminar was chaired by Mr. Pu Chungan, Executive Vice President of CIGIA.

After CIGIA issued "the Letter on Soliciting Suggestions for the Continued Use of Special Equipment in Cold Boxes Beyond the Design Service Life" (CIGIA [2024] No. 15), it received proposals from Air Products, Air Liquide, Itawani Gases, Linde Industrial Gases, Yingde Gases, Shougang Gases. At the same time, CIGIA also contacted and visited relevant associations and promotion associations to collect relevant standards. This seminar focused on the content of the proposals, and convened relevant organizations for in-depth discussions based on the TSG21-2016 "Safety Technical Supervision Regulations for Stationary Pressure Vessels".

Mr. Liu Xingbin from Iwatani introduced the causes of concern that the special equipment in the cold box has exceeded its designed service life. Mr. Yuan Lizhi from Yingde, Mr. Fan Huagang from Shougang, Mr. Lian Hongchang from Taizhong and Mr. Wang Zhongjian, leader of the expert group of CIGIA, expressed their views. They also discussed the clauses 1.4 and 7.1.11 of TSG21-2016.

Pu Chungan said that the explosion of special equipment in the tower in Northeast China at the end of 2023 caused the gases industry to pay attention to the safe operation of special equipment such as heat exchangers and storage tanks in cold boxes (cryogenic boxes, ultra-low temperature cold boxes). Based on this, Pu Chungan also explained the standards of KHK (Japan) and CGA (US), as well as the "Inspection Specifications for Pressure Vessels Beyond Design Service Life" (T/CASEI013-2022) issued by China Association of Special Equipment Inspection, and "Guidelines for Evaluation and Inspection of Pressure Vessels Beyond Design Service Life" (T/CPASE PT 020-2022) issued by China Promotion Association for Special Equipment Safety and Energy Saving are briefly introduced.

In the end of, Pu Chungan summarized the meeting and made suggestions for future work. First, we will contact the leaders of Special Equipment Safety Supervision Bureau, and China Special Equipment Inspection & Research Institute to confirm the relevant provisions of TSG21 and the progress of follow-up work. Secondly, if there is any need for evaluation and inspection of equipment, timely reporting and communication are required. In the next step, our gases industry also has preliminary ideas for the evaluation of special equipment, and we will start the preparation of related standards in a timely manner.