Process Safety Technical Areas

Comparison of Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) Criteria with Test Data From Unconfined Ethylene-Air Vapor Cloud Explosion

Mar 13, 2011

J. Kelly Thomas

Deflagration to detonation transitions (DDT) were previously observed in a set of large-scale unconfined vapor cloud explosion (VCE) tests involving ethylene-air mixtures in a moderately congested environment. The test rig congested region was 48 feet long by 12 wide by 6 feet high, with a regular...

On the Potential of Mitigating Vapour Cloud Explosions Using Flame Inhibitors

Mar 13, 2011

Kees Van Wingerden

Very few measures are taken to mitigate the possible consequences of vapour cloud explosions. The main attention is given to prediction of the consequences, which is used to consider strengthening structurally or re-locate occupied buildings such as control rooms. However little is undertaken to...

Guidelines for Process Safety in Bioprocess Manufacturing Facilities

November, 2010

This book helps advance process safety in a key area of interest. Currently, no literature exists which is solely dedicated to process safety for the bioprocessing industry. There are texts, guidelines, and standards on biosafety at the laboratory level and for industrial hygiene, but no guidelines...

Safety Issues in Particle Handling: Dust Explosions

AIChE Webinar

Aug 4, 2010

Robert L. Gravell

This webinar provides a fundamental understanding of dust explosions with an emphasis on preventive and mitigative measures to prevent their occurrence.

Guidelines for Vapor Cloud Explosion, Pressure Vessel Burst, BLEVE and Flash Fire Hazards, 2nd Edition

July, 2010

This guide provides an overview of methods for estimating the characteristics of vapor cloud explosions, flash fires, and boiling-liquid-expanding-vapor explosions (BLEVEs) for practicing engineers. It has been updated to include advanced modeling technology, especially with respect to vapor cloud...

Laboratory and Industrial Hazardous Chemical Safety: A Code-Based Approach

AIChE Webinar

May 5, 2010

Jeremy Lebowitz, Jonathan Eisenberg

The concepts and associated fire protection and life safety features contained in control areas, NFPA 45 laboratory units, and High Hazard occupancies are discussed and applied to the chemical facility setting.

Flame Flashbacks: Causes and Prevention

AIChE Webinar

Apr 7, 2010

Dan Banks, P.E.

This webinar addresses the principle of flammability of vapor/air mixtures, including flammability limits, ignition temperatures, the effect of inerts and how to determine the flammability of any particular mixture.

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...

Lessons Learned from a Thermal Runaway Incident Involving an Organic Peroxide Intermediate During a Power Outage

Mar 23, 2010

Delmar Morrison

A small specialty chemicals plant experienced an unusual power outage as the result of a lightning strike. The lightning strike damaged several of the electrical distribution systems and local controls and instrumentation systems in such a way that the extent of the damages to controls systems were...

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...

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...

Elements of Human Factors Missing from Process Safety

Mar 23, 2010

Revonda Tew

Process safety is about controlling risk of failures and errors; controlling risk is primarily about reducing the risk of human error. All elements of Risk-Based Process Safety (RBPS) and alternative standards for process safety (such as US OSHA's standard for Process Safety Management [PSM] or ACC...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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