News
TLV’s Steam System Risk Mitigation Methodology Featured in API RP 581 4th Edition
3rd February 2025
For decades, steam has been overlooked compared to plant production processes.
Steam is essential for heating and motive applications in the plant, however the steam traps, valves, and other equipment that make up the steam system often go years without appropriate maintenance.
TLV has been developing best practices to help plants operate and maintain their steam systems safely and reliably.
Steam System Optimization Program (SSOP®) has been developed by TLV since 2005 and continues to evolve to allow customers to diagnose and maintain their steam system, and help steam equipment to operate in its optimum state, and achieve steam system balance.
In 2018, TLV released Steam System Risk Mitigation (SSRM®), the world’s first service to identify, quantify and mitigate risks to steam systems, combining steam specialist knowledge, steam trap reliability data and risk-based inspection methods.
With the latest release of Recommended Practice 581, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has recognized the importance of risk mitigation in steam systems and of the steam system itself as one of the key plant utilities. By elevating steam systems as a focus of risk-based inspection, reliability managers now have the ability to apply RBI methodologies to the entire plant including the steam system, which has been viewed as a black box until now.
TLV welcomes this news and will continue to develop SSRM® to help steam users achieve safe and reliable plant operation.
For more information, access the full RP 581 document through API's standards library or consult TLV.