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Conference Presentations - 2011 Global Congress on Process Safety

Good Engineering Practices - Inspection and Test Frequencies

Mar 15, 2011
Richard Prugh
The "Process Safety Management" standard of the Occupational Safety and Health Act [OSHA] requires that "The frequency of inspections and tests of process equipment shall be consistent with applicable manufacturers' recommendations and good engineering practices, and more frequently if determined...

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...

PSM Metrics Impact on Process Safety Culture

Mar 15, 2011
Bill Patton
Several years ago our facility recognized the need to expand from a PSM Program managed by a small group to a PSM Culture owned by the full facility. Development and implementation of effective and consistent PSM metrics were utilized to achieve the following: (1) Set the vision for a PSM Culture (...

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...

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...

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...

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