Elements of Process Safety

The four pillars and the twenty elements of risk based process safety can be designed and implemented at varying levels of rigor to optimize process safety management, performance, efficiency, and effectiveness.

An Integrated Toolkit for Addressing Human Factors Issues in Process Safety

Mar 23, 2010
David Embrey
This paper describes an integrated toolset, called the Human Factors Workbench, which addresses the proactive and reactive control of human error in process operations. It is a practical application of the tools described in the CCPS publication: ‘Guidelines for Preventing Human Error in Process...

Gas Piping and Equipment Commissioning Risks "10 Key Things Everyone Should Know"

Mar 23, 2010
John R. Puskar
There have been a number of devastating incidents related to natural gas piping system and the start-up and commissioning of equipment. It's very rarely that an incident occurs when equipment is at the ready and in some normal operating routine. The vast majority of incidents are directly related...

Investigation of an Explosion in a Gasoline Purification Plant

Mar 23, 2010
Kees Van Wingerden
On May 24, 2007 an explosion and subsequent fire destroyed a tank farm located at a gasoline purification plant in Sløvåg, Norway. In addition to the tank farm, an office building and some neighboring tank trucks were destroyed. There were no casualties in the accident, but at least two people...

A Framework for Human Error Analysis of Emergency Situations

Mar 23, 2010
Travis JB Deacon
Human factors play an important role in the escape, evacuation and rescue process. Human factors analysis is rooted in the concept that the frequency and consequences of human errors are related to work environment, work culture and procedures. This can be accounted for in the design of equipment,...

Modular Procedural Automation Addressing the Post Recession Skills Gap

Mar 23, 2010
Maurice J. Wilkins
A procedural operation consists of a set of tasks that are conducted in a set way time-after-time to achieve a certain goal such as starting or shutting down a unit or making a product. As demonstrated by Paul McKenzie (Bristol Myers Squibb) at the WBF NA Conference 2007 in Baltimore, it could even...

Near-Miss Management to Develop Dynamic Leading Indicators to Predict Incidents

Mar 23, 2010
Ankur Pariyani
Recent studies have shown the importance of identifying near-misses to predict the probability of accidents (Meel and Seider, 2006) – and managing them to reduce the potential of accidents (Phimister et al., 2003; Cooke and Rohleder, 2006). In this paper, new methodologies involving near-miss...

Burn Injury Caused by Mixing Incompatible Chemicals with Sodium Permanganate

Mar 23, 2010
Russell A. Ogle
This paper discusses the investigation of an accident caused by the mixing of incompatible chemicals, a strong oxidizing agent with a reducing agent. The exact mixture and sequence of mixing was unknown, but the materials included an aqueous solution of 40% sodium permanganate (NaMnO4) and possibly...

Objective Analysis of PSM Audit Data

Mar 23, 2010
Jerry Forest
In developing systems for Process Safety Management, compliance audits are integral with verification that practices and procedures are developed and are effective for compliance. Data collected during compliance audits is often subjective and findings are descriptive in nature. It is therefore...

Hazards of Unplanned Power Outages: Implementing Appropriate Safeguards

Mar 23, 2010
Russell A. Ogle
Accident root cause investigations often may identify unplanned power outages as the cause of a catastrophic accident. Unplanned power outages can be an initiating event that leads to an emergency shutdown of a process unit. If the emergency shutdown is managed incorrectly, it can result in an...

Condensation Induced Water Hammer: Principles and Consequences

Mar 23, 2010
Carlos A. Barrera
An explosion occurred in the boiler room of a food processing plant as the steam generation system was coming online after a maintenance shutdown. The explosion shattered the case of the condensate return pump fatally injuring an employee, while another employee was burned by the escaping steam...

Challenges in Hosting an NEP Inspection

Mar 23, 2010
Ken Hanchey
An NEP inspection can be very resource intensive; OSHA has received over well over 10,000 pages of documentation at one refinery during an NEP inspection. Developing a strategy that aligns with your corporate governance and protocols could be the key to a successful outcome. The strategy should...

Imperial Sugar Refinery Combustible Dust Explosion Investigation

Mar 23, 2010
John Vorderbrueggen
On February 7, 2008, at about 7:15 p.m., a series of sugar dust explosions at the Imperial Sugar manufacturing facility in Port Wentworth, Georgia, resulted in 14 worker fatalities. Thirty six workers were treated for serious burns and injuries—some caused permanent, life altering conditions. The...

Evaluating Human Response to an Alarm for LOPA or Safety Studies

Mar 23, 2010
Robert J. Stack
Many LOPA scenarios have an independent protection layer (IPL) credit for operator intervention to prevent or mitigate the scenario. It is often difficult for the LOPA team or other safety teams to assess if the appropriate operator response credit is being taken. To allow a more consistent...

OSHA Chemical NEP Panel Discussion

Mar 23, 2010
Lisa Long, Mark S. Dreux
This presentation will provide additional time for the session speakers to discuss additional aspects of the OSHA Chemical National Emphasis Program (NEP), as well as discuss additional questions and comments from the session attendees.

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