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Process Safety Boot Camp

Instructor-led (classroom) Course
This intensive 4-day course is also offered periodically throughout the year to the broader chemical engineering public. Taught jointly by process safety veterans with decades of experience at major companies from the process industries, the course is highly interactive.

Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS)

CCPS was established in 1985 to focus on engineering and management practices that can prevent and mitigate catastrophic accidents involving release of hazardous materials. CCPS is supported by sponsors in the chemical and hydrocarbon process industries and active worldwide via conferences, books, databases, education, research, and more.

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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...

The Challenge to Implement and Maintain An Effective PSM Program

Mar 15, 2011
Ken Hanchey
While researching to develop responses to help a client respond to OSHA citations, we discovered a presentation to the same industry segment from 1997; we could change the date and present the same presentation today. OSHA is still finding the same gaps as 14 years ago. Chemical plants generally...

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...

An Update on OSHA's PSM National Emphasis Programs

Mar 15, 2011
Lisa Long
Since 2007, OSHA has initiated two major National Emphasis Programs (NEPs) in process safety. The Petroleum Refinery Process Safety Management NEP (Refinery NEP) was effective on June 7, 2007; the PSM Covered Chemical Facilities NEP (Chemical NEP) was effective on July 27, 2009. This presentation...

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...

Acid Release From Catalyst Tanks

Mar 15, 2011
R. Wayne Garland
This is the story of how the cumulative effects of several seemingly innocent changes to a catalyst system resulted in a near miss Process Safety incident. Several aspects will be discussed including cumulative effects of multiple changes to the system, identification of potential scenarios in...

Fatal Explosion Caused by An Intermittently-Used Fuel Gas Piping System

Mar 15, 2011
Russell A. Ogle
A fatal explosion occurred at a foundry during a routine test of an intermittently used propane standby system. Just prior to the explosion, maintenance personnel were preparing the propane standby system for a startup test. While preparing for the startup test, the group was alerted that employees...

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...

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