Manage Risks

A surprising number of process incidents occur due to a lack of general understanding of process hazards and lack of basic hazards assessment, subsequently resulting in the absence of or inadequate Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) to provide appropriate safeguards for minimizing process risks...

As of November 2011, offshore platforms have been required to develop and implement a Safety and Environmental Management (SEMS) Program. The offshore industry has many unique challenges that their onshore counterparts have not had to face. One of the biggest challenges facing the offshore industry...

The focus of most laboratory experiments and piloting operations is the development of a new, innovative chemical process or the improvement of an existing chemical process. These activities are designed to, and focus on, evaluation of the intended chemistry for the process being studied. The...

Storage tanks are most common material containing units in process industries. There have been many accidents associated within storage tank (material deficiency, structure design failures, operation error etc.) or among storage areas throughout the history. For example, overfilling has already...

Solids Processing of dry particulates of various forms and shapes within unit operations ranging from milling to mixing, crystallization to drying involving storage, handling and conveying results in the generation of electrostatic charging. This accumulation of charges on the particulates is due...

During the design phase of a project, vendor packages (e.g., compressors, water desalination) are typically treated as a "black box" with a very specific function, and the typical perspective of the buyer/owner/operator is that safety issues have been thoroughly vetted, based on the package vendor...

With the increase in requirements for monitoring and improving process safety indicators on a thermoelectric unit linked to a Braskem Basic Petrochemical Site in Brazil, a large range of knowledge among engineers and operators were found. The theme Process Safety was commonly confused with...

This paper will present the steps a small pharmaceutical research and development company is taking to prepare for Process Safety Management (PSM). Although not under PSM at the present time, the corporate growth plan is such that PSM will be a requirement within the next 2 to 5 years. When looking...

Taking a Risk for Safety Over the last twenty years companies in the process industries have invested heavily in their occupational safety programs. These investments of time and money have been made in many areas, including training, behavior-based safety and the use of PPE. The results have been...

Abstract AIChE Housten Conference April 1-4 2012 Loss Of Containment Protection Auto Refrigeration and Metal Embrittlement Tys Koerts Sr. Process Safety Consultant Auto-refrigeration occurs on adiabatic expansion of gasses and boiling of liquids. The resulting low temperature can bring metals like...