Understand Hazard & Risk

With the increasing use of Layer of Protection Analysis as a semi-quantitative method of assessing process risk, LOPA practitioners are asked to assign credit to numerous safeguards including relief devices. Relief devices are only as strong as the initial design of the component and the systems...

Properly specifying electrical equipment for hazardous (classified) areas requires information about certain properties of the materials anticipated to be present. While it is a straight-forward procedure to test a product or stored intermediate in order to establish a Group designation, testing is...

A method for assigning solid oxidizers and products containing oxidizers to an NFPA Class was developed. The method consists of two reaction-to-fire tests: a bench-scale screening test with thirty gram piles and an intermediate-scale fire exposure test with twenty four pounds of material in...

Thermal insulation is used in chemical plants primarily as a tool to prevent energy loss. However, if installed properly, an added benefit is that of allowing the use of smaller relief valves when designing relief systems in the fire case. The study described in this report was initiated to...

LOPA, as a semi-quantitative analysis, often provides inconsistent results. This can be due to physical differences between units but often it is due to team's perceptual differences. Initiating event frequency evaluation using guidance tables is more consistent than consequence evaluation where...

Enabling conditions and conditional modifiers are some of the most contentious factors used in Layer of Protection Analysis. Enabling conditions are situations which must occur simultaneous with a given initiating event to allow the specific cause for a scenario to propagate to a consequence of...

The new CCPS Guidelines for Establishing Risk Criteria will be published in mid-2009. This session includes papers regarding the development and application of risk criteria to improve a company's risk profile. Topics also include experience and examples with risk apportionment, international...

Management of Change has long been recognized as a fundamental cornerstone of a process safety program. Through the years, most companies have evolved a mature system to manage technical changes -- equipment, materials, and technology -- in their facilities. In recent years, the effects of, and...