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Technical Presentations

Imperial Sugar Refinery Combustible Dust Explosion Investigation

Mar 23, 2010
John Vorderbrueggen
On February 7, 2008, at about 7:15 p.m., a series of sugar dust explosions at the Imperial Sugar manufacturing facility in Port Wentworth, Georgia, resulted in 14 worker fatalities. Thirty six workers were treated for serious burns and injuries—some caused permanent, life altering conditions. The...

Evaluating Human Response to an Alarm for LOPA or Safety Studies

Mar 23, 2010
Robert J. Stack
Many LOPA scenarios have an independent protection layer (IPL) credit for operator intervention to prevent or mitigate the scenario. It is often difficult for the LOPA team or other safety teams to assess if the appropriate operator response credit is being taken. To allow a more consistent...

OSHA Refinery and Chemical NEP Findings

Mar 23, 2010
Lisa Long, Michael Marshall
Since 2007, OSHA has initiated two major National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) in process safety. The Petroleum Refinery Process Safety Management NEP (Refinery NEP) was effective on June 7, 2007; the PSM Covered Chemical Facilities NEP (Chemical NEP) was effective on July 27, 2009. This presentation...

Preparing for the Chemical NEP

Mar 23, 2010
Mark S. Dreux
On July 27, 2009, OSHA issued a National Emphasis Program for the chemical industry (“the Chemical NEP”). Pursuant to the Chemical NEP, OSHA will conduct PSM inspections of numerous chemical facilities. This presentation will review lessons learned from OSHA's Refining NEP, particularly the OSHA...

Modification of Risk Using Barrier Methodology

Mar 23, 2010
Robin Pitblado
Risk assessments use frequency data mostly from generic sources, typically from the North Sea offshore environment or from process facility records mainly from Europe. As QRA's are being applied increasingly in North America and in the developing world, novel techniques are necessary to establish...

Complying with OSHA's RNEP, CNEP, and VPP RAGAGEP

Mar 23, 2010
Chad Patschke
The OSHA Refinery National Emphasis Program (NEP) and OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) PSM Supplement ask specific questions relative to many recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP). Many of the same RAGAGEP can be expected in the planned OSHA Chemicals NEP as...

Elements of Human Factors Missing from Process Safety

Mar 23, 2010
Revonda Tew
Process safety is about controlling risk of failures and errors; controlling risk is primarily about reducing the risk of human error. All elements of Risk-Based Process Safety (RBPS) and alternative standards for process safety (such as US OSHA's standard for Process Safety Management [PSM] or ACC...

An Integrated Toolkit for Addressing Human Factors Issues in Process Safety

Mar 23, 2010
David Embrey
This paper describes an integrated toolset, called the Human Factors Workbench, which addresses the proactive and reactive control of human error in process operations. It is a practical application of the tools described in the CCPS publication: ‘Guidelines for Preventing Human Error in Process...

Gas Piping and Equipment Commissioning Risks "10 Key Things Everyone Should Know"

Mar 23, 2010
John R. Puskar
There have been a number of devastating incidents related to natural gas piping system and the start-up and commissioning of equipment. It's very rarely that an incident occurs when equipment is at the ready and in some normal operating routine. The vast majority of incidents are directly related...

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