INCIDENT Tragic, Predictable Consequences of Running Equipment to Failure A mixture of steam, flammable gas and high temperatures erupted with explosion and fire with two fatalities. As industrial chemical processes go, manufacturing calcium carbide is one of the simpler ones. Still, it requires enormous amounts of heat and can produce a dangerous mix of flammable […]
Process safety is a top concern affecting process operators and process safety engineering worldwide. Not only to achieve compliance with local and international regulations, but more importantly, to avoid risk in the production process. Learning from process safety incidents and accidents is key in implementing effective risk reduction mechanism and safer manufacturing processes and Anatomy […]
Download eGuide: Start ups and shut downs remain the most tenuous time for any plant. The timing, technology, knowledge of technology, and adherence to procedures are vital. Operating procedures should clearly lay down instructions for operation of the process plant. The procedure needs to represent a best practice that should occur at all times. Process operators should have guidance concerning […]
INCIDENT Physical Safety Procedures: Buncefield Like other tank farms that handle fuels, there were basic process safety and environmental protection protocols in place. Each cluster of tanks had a concrete bund surrounding it, designed to keep fuel within its walls should there be a rupture or other tank leak. There were also two water-filled lagoons […]
A mixture of steam, flammable gas and high temperatures erupted with explosion and fire with two fatalities. As industrial chemical processes go, manufacturing calcium carbide is one of the simpler ones. Still, it requires enormous amounts of heat and can produce a dangerous mix of flammable products and toxic gasses. On March 21, 2011, there […]
According to a 2012 report by the Energy Practice of Marsh Ltd., a division of insurer Marsh McLennan, the 100 largest property damage losses analyzed within process industries from 1972 to 2011 represent approximately $33 billion in property damage, stated in 2011 prices. Loss values include replacement of damaged equipment along with property damage, debris […]
INCIDENT Ready or Not, Start it Up: The Bayer Crop Science Incident Company procedures called for a PSSR (pre-startup safety review) to be run for the methomyl unit before it was restarted. This was a complex process that was supposed to prove that all the equipment and safety devices were in order, allowing the unit to […]
How long can management force a plant to produce without necessary resources before an incident occurs? This unfortunate process safety incident is familiar to many working in process industries and especially in the United States where an extensive investigation and its associated report has been used to illustrate the importance of Process Safety Management. On […]
Previous Next INCIDENT T2 Laboratories: Why Hazard Education is an Important Plant Safety Critical Success Factor Learning from previous plant safety incidents large and small is critical to deploying successful process safety practices. From extreme situations where both lives and physical plant assets are lost (consider the 2007 T2 Laboratories chemical plant incident where an […]
A manufacturer’s drive to restart a process pushes people past their breaking point. Mistakes combine to cause disaster. History has shown that industrial disasters are rarely the result of some single failure in a plant environment that is otherwise carefully operated and scrupulously maintained. In most situations, an incident, large or small, is the logical […]
Virtually every safety incident has a human element in one form or another. They follow three basic patterns: Design decisions—Even if every individual at a plant is experienced, thoroughly trained, works conscientiously and pays attention, incidents can happen because a decision was made about an element of process design, plant location, or whatever, that put […]
In a facility that generally runs with a high degree of stability, layers of protection that don’t get used can form holes, both figuratively and literally. Examining the Buncefield fire in 2005 could be a textbook example of layers of protection and the “Swiss Cheese Effect.” It’s the illustration that if you take slices of […]
INCIDENT How long can management force a plant to produce without necessary resources before an incident occurs? This unfortunate incident is familiar to many working in process industries and especially in the United States where an extensive investigation and its associated report has been used to illustrate the importance of Process Safety Management. On March […]
AREA OF ANALYSIS Field Instrumentation—The First Line of Defense The process control system and safety instrumented system (SIS) both depend on field instrumentation to monitor process conditions. Modern sensors are highly sophisticated and very reliable. When used in the context of a well thought out system, they watch for subtle changes in conditions that are […]
