Learn From Experience

Metrics provide direct feedbacks on the workings of RBPS systems, and leading indicators provide early warning signals of ineffective process safety results. Organizations must use their mistakes and those of others as motivation for action and view as opportunities for improvement.

Incident Investigation- Addressing Common Oversights

Mar 14, 2011
Julie D. White
Principles of incident investigation may be used in daily process troubleshooting and near miss events to identify root cause. Identifying and correcting daily process issues intervenes with the natural escalation to near miss events and incident investigations. Fundamentals of root cause analysis...

Portfolio Risk Management for Process Safety

Mar 14, 2011
Georges Melhem
A majority of PSM tools and risk methodologies are focused on risks at individual sites or process units. For example, PHA risk ranking matrices are frequently cast in terms of consequences that occur at a plant level. However, corporations with many operating facilities need to find ways to...

A Work Process for Revalidating LOPAs and Other Risk Analyses

Mar 14, 2011
Timothy J. Wagner
The Chemical Process Industry (CPI) has long recognized the necessity of periodically revalidating Process Hazard Analyses (PHAs), such as Hazard and Operability Studies and What-if analyses. CCPS has published a book which describes this work process titled Revalidating Process Hazard Analyses...

Inherently Safer Acids - A Case Study on the Application of Polyelectrolytes

Mar 14, 2011
Elliot M. Wolf
Strong acids, such as aqueous hydrochloric acid, are commonly used in the chemical process industry to purify streams or remove particulates from raw material, product, and waste streams. The benefits of HCl are its' low cost, large dissociation constant, and stability over time. However, the...

Near Miss Reporting Behavior and the Safety Climate – A Scenario-Based Study

Mar 14, 2011
Sunil D. Lakhiani
In the aftermath of the March, 2005 incident at BP's Texas City Refinery, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board cited concerns about ?the effectiveness of the safety management system? and ?the corporate safety culture? at that refinery. Included in the Baker Panel's findings were discussions about...

Implementation of PSM In Capital Projects

Mar 14, 2011
Charles A. Soczek
It is critical to embed Process Safety Management in the capital project system to help achieve a safe start-up. This is the foundation for assuring safe operations throughout the life of the process, especially in the construction of facilities for high process hazards. Today's PSM system,...

The Buncefield Explosion: Were the Resulting Overpressures Really Unforeseeable?

Mar 14, 2011
Jérôme R. Taveau
On Sunday 11 December 2005, a severe unconfined vapour cloud explosion followed by several tank fires occurred at the Buncefield oil storage depot in England, causing widespread damage to homes and businesses surrounding the site, hopefully without any victim. The damage caused by the resulting...

It's People, Stupid! Human Factors In Incident Investigation

Mar 14, 2011
Mike Broadribb
People have inherent strengths and weaknesses which can affect their performance. Issues such as fatigue, emotional stress, and motivation can adversely affect performance. Their performance is also influenced by factors external to the individual, such as poor equipment design, inadequate training...

Making Existing Process Plants Inherently Safer

Mar 14, 2011
Victor H. Edwards
Making process plants inherently safer has obvious advantages and is easiest to do when designing a new plant. Modification of existing plants to make them inherently safer can often be much more difficult and costly, including any costs due to lost production. However, an inherently safer design...

Process Safety Performance Tool

Mar 13, 2011
Clarissa Sossmeier da Silva, Pablo Ricardo Barrera
The process safety management in a petrochemical company is a key factor for sustainability, since intends to prevent or minimize the consequences of a major accident due to a release of flammable, combustible, or toxic substance from a process. Maintaining and improving a process safety management...

Quantitative Models for Assessing MOC Performance

Mar 13, 2011
Rainer Hoff
The safety community, bolstered by the PSM regulations, has emphasized the importance of proper management of change to ensure safe, reliable and economic operation of chemical plants and refineries. Yet, at many sites, the MOC process is often harshly criticized as being "too inefficient", "too...

Incident Investigation – Addressing the Worst That Could Have Happened

Mar 13, 2011
Samuel A. Rodgers
Incident Investigation techniques typically start with a detailed description of the actual consequence and work backward toward the root causes. A lot of time is spent to qualify and quantify the actual consequence so as to appropriately apply resources to prevent recurrence. A frequent outcome of...

PSM Auditing Dilemmas

Mar 13, 2011
Michael Hazzan
In most PSM audits, the audit team will face one or more situations that represent a dilemma. These dilemmas usually require the individual auditor and/or the audit team leader resolve the situation in the field. These ?on the fly? resolutions require both astute judgment and practical solutions...

Kinetic Modeling of the Reactions Involved in the T2 Explosion

Mar 13, 2011
Ronald J. Willey
The runaway reaction at the chemical preparation facility called T2 laboratories in Jacksonville, Florida on December 19, 2007 is analyzed. The approached involved estimating kinetic parameters based on temperature time traces presented in the CSB final report for ARSST (Advance Reactive System...

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