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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Plant Equipment and Operations

Shutdown

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ˈʃʌtdaʊn/nounCore term

In chemical engineering, shutdown means: Stopping a unit or plant, either in a planned and controlled way or suddenly because of a fault or safety system action.

In Turkish: duruş, kapatma, durdurma

How it is used

Used daily in operations. Engineers distinguish planned or normal shutdown from emergency shutdown (ESD). Shutdowns are planned, extended and costed. As a verb it is two words: 'shut down the compressor'.

Example sentences

  1. An emergency shutdown was triggered when the gas detectors went into alarm.

  2. Each day of unplanned shutdown costs us around 150,000 euros.

Common collocations

  • emergency shutdown
  • planned shutdown
  • shutdown procedure
  • unplanned shutdown
  • shut down the unit
  • start-upThe process of bringing a unit or plant from a shut-down state to normal operating conditions, following a written procedure step by step.
  • tripAn automatic shutdown of a machine or unit by its protection system when a value goes past a safe limit, such as high pressure, low level or high vibration.
  • turnaroundA large planned shutdown of a plant, usually every few years, for inspection, maintenance, catalyst change, cleaning and installing new equipment.
  • lockout/tagoutA safety procedure that isolates equipment from all energy sources and locks and labels the isolation points, so nobody can start it while people are working on it.
  • interlockAn automatic protective function that stops or prevents an action when a dangerous condition is detected, for example closing the feed valve on high reactor pressure.

More terms: Plant Equipment and Operations

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