Manage Risks

Catastrophic incident root causes often may be correlated with power outages. An unanticipated power outage may be an initiating event that leads to a process upset or even an emergency shutdown of a process unit. If the planning and implementation of the emergency shutdown are managed incorrectly...

The process safety management in an industrial plant is a critical success factor for companies integrated in a global market. The equipments should have maximized performance and operational runlenght without compromising process safety. The challenge for excellence performance drives companies to...

This investigation by the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) provides unique lessons in process safety. Three incidents occurred over a 33-hour period at the DuPont plant in Belle, WV. The most serious incident occurred on January 23, 2010, when a release of highly...

Process Safety Management Plus or Minus 20 Years - What I Wish I'd Known 20 Years Ago and What We Can't Wait Another 20 Years to Learn Abstract of proposed presentation to the Global Congress on Process Safety: Houston - April, 2012 Presenter: Alan C. (Al) Brackey, Senior Manager PSM Audit - Valero...

Turnaround Excellence is more than a state of being… it is a journey. Achieving and sustaining excellence is wholly dependent on a site approach of shared accountability towards Turnaround Excellence and must be a continually improving process. Starting well in advance of “feed out”, a long range...

Our laboratory contains calorimeters to characterize reactive chemical hazards and multiple different instruments to characterize both dust and gas/vapor explosion hazards. It is a challenge to ensure that each project is completed safely since a wide variety of chemicals are used. Our goal at...

The severity and number of combustible dust explosions in recent years spawned (2007) and then re-enforced (2008) OSHA's Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. The purpose of the program is to inspect facilities that handle combustible dust which may lead to deflagration or other fire...

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61511 standard, “Functional Safety – Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industry Sector", has achieved wide acceptance within the process sector, including chemicals, oil refining, oil and gas production, pulp and paper, and non-nuclear...

The 3 rd edition of Chemical Process Safety, Fundamentals with Applications was published in the early summer of 2011. The third edition has been rewritten to include new process safety technology, new references, and updated data that have appeared since the first edition was published in 1990 and...