Emergency Shutdown Systems (ESD) are a fundamental part of the safety systems associated with oil and gas, utility and other hazardous processes. Associated with these systems are specific valves which are used to isolate and blowdown the processes. These are referred to as Shutdown (SDV) and Blowdown (BDV) Valves respectively. Under emergency situations it is critical that these valves operate correctly. Thus the engineering of the valves and their associated actuators is paramount in ensuring plant safety. They must meet the Fire Safe and Reliability criteria determined by IEC16508 and IEC16511. This Professional Certificate of Competency (PCC) covers the requirements in detail. In addition, the course addresses Severe Service Valves and Wellhead Choke Valves. Severe Service Valves are required where the process can cause damage to conventional valves through erosion, high noise, cavitation, high vibration, possible mechanical damage to the valve trim, other components and the process equipment around the valve. These valves are generally specialist designs that overcome these issues by "smart" design. Get Further Information.