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Understand Hazard & Risk

The foundation of a risk-based approach which will allow an organization to use this information to allocate limited resources in the most effective manner.

Process Safety for Process Engineers

Virtual Local Section Webinar
Jan 26, 2012
Louisa Nara

Process safety is the most important facet of our jobs as process engineers. Learn how CCPS can support process engineers in their quest to make their processing facilities both more productive and safer.

Recognizing Catastrophic Incident Warning Signs in the Process Industries

November, 2011
This book provides guidance on characterizing, recognizing, and responding to warning signs to help avoid process incidents and injuries before they occur. The guidance can be used by both process safety management (PSM) professionals in evaluating their processes and PSM systems as well as for...

A Treasure Hunt towards Process Safety In the Unit Operations Laboratory

Oct 17, 2011
Ronald J. Willey
Integration of the process safety in the chemical engineering curriculum is a requirement. Several places exist and with a multitude of approaches. One approach we have used in our unit operations laboratories for over 30 years is an introductory treasure hunt, mandatory during the first meeting of...

Exposing the Blurry Lines Between Personal Safety and Process Safety Education

Oct 17, 2011
Delmar R. Morrison
Chemical engineering curricula have long been focused on instilling the fundamentals of chemical engineering science in undergraduates and advancing the state of the art through postgraduate study. Unfortunately, a comprehensive focus on safety has never been in the core of the chemical engineering...

What to Do When Nothing Has Happened?

Mar 15, 2011
Raymond "Randy" Freeman
Often during a Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) or a Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) study, historical information indicates no occurrences of a particular undesired event in the plant or system. The analyst must decide on an appropriate measure of the frequency of the undesired event. The...

Risk Assessment of a Propane Storage Sphere: Maintain or Decommission?

Mar 15, 2011
Russell A. Ogle
Ten years ago, the authors were asked to assist a utility with a risk management decision. Specifically, the utility was considering whether they should maintain or decommission an 800,000 gallon propane storage sphere. The 30-year old sphere was the fuel storage vessel for a peak-shaving power...

A Frequency Based Approach to Hole Size Selection for Consequence Analysis

Mar 15, 2011
Mike W. Stahl
When performing a consequence based facility siting study, it is often necessary to choose a criteria for the maximum credible hole size that is the source for a hazardous release. Many companies choose a variable hole size using a fraction of the pipe size to determine the source hole. Other...

QRA Method for Land-Use Planning around on-Shore Oil and Gas Facilities

Mar 15, 2011
Eelke S. Kooi
In the Dutch legislative context, facilities that handle or store large amounts of hazardous substances must carry out a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) for land-use planning purposes. The outcomes of the QRA determine the kinds of activities that are tolerable in the surroundings of the facility...

Using the HAZOP Study and LOPA to Generate Ideas for Inherently Safer Designs

Mar 14, 2011
Steven T. Maher
Fundamental changes in a chemical process are most cost-effective at early stages of a design, and specific Inherently Safer Design evaluations are frequently performed at these early stages to identify fundamental improvements that can signicantly decrease the magnitude of the consequences...

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...

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,...

Inherently Safer Design – Not Only about Reducing Consequences!

Mar 14, 2011
Dennis C. Hendershot
Process risk is a function of both the likelihood of occurance of an incident, and of the consequences of the incident. There is a common perception that inherently safer design focuses solely on reducing or eliminating the consequences. However, inherently safer design can also focus on the...

Inherent Safety In Front End Engineering

Mar 14, 2011
Ian Sutton
The best time to apply the principles of inherent safety is during the early stages of a design. In particular it is at the early stages that the ?Eliminate? option is best applied. For example, in the early stages of one design the process engineers had come up with a system of three knockout...

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