February 2018 | AIChE

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February 2018

Line Opening - Common Program Practices

  • Non-routine work increases process risk and can directly lead to conditions that make a catastrophic accident much more likely.
  • Safe work practices are critical elements in the management of this non-routine work.
  • Safe work practices include an integrated management system of policies, procedures and permits that help protect workers from hazards and prevent the sudden release of process materials or energy during non-routine work activities.

Line Opening - Possible Work Flow

 

Person In Charge

Is responsible for the Operation of the Plant. This is typically a Site Manager whose responsibilities include:

Line Opening - Strategies & Effective Practices to Manage and Mitigate Hazards

Effective Practices to Manage and Mitigate Hazards

Reduce risk by minimizing work on lines connected to equipment still in operation

  • Consider deferring line breaking to a future turnaround or outage when inventories of hazardous materials are at a minimum or eliminated.

Properly isolate line or equipment to be worked on

  • Use of manual valves.

  • Use of a double-block-and-bleed configuration to ensure manual valves are not leaking through.

Line Opening - Potential Hazardous Consequences

Property Damage (Fire / Explosion)

  • A release of hazardous material during a line or equipment opening can cause property damage if released materials are flammable.  Depending on the surrounding area, the released material may find an ignition source and cause a fire or an explosion. 

Line Opening - Need / Call to Action

Incidents Continue to Happen

 

Washington DC, November 23, 2016 – A three-person investigative team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is deploying to the scene of an incident that injured six workers – including four critically – on Tuesday, November 22 at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

According to initial inquiries, flammable vapors were released during unplanned maintenance around a pump. Although there was no explosion, the release ignited and caused a large fire.

Line Opening - Fundamental Intent

To identify and manage loss of containment of hazardous materials during activities that require opening process lines or process equipment that could result in personal injuries, property damage, community impacts, environmental impacts, or business impacts.

Examples activities that would require use of a Line/Equipment Opening SWP:

Jakari Jackson: Minority Serving Institutions’ Student Travel Grant Winner

February 21, 2018

In this interview, Jakari shares his drive and enthusiasm for “giving back knowledge” to young kids by helping them learn and explore the great opportunities in STEM.

Danielle Tullman-Ercek

Danielle Tullman-Ercek is currently an associate professor at Northwestern University. After earning her B.S. degree in chemical engineering, Tullman-Ercek began her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin under advisor George Georgiou. Her dissertation focused on the pathway bacteria use to transport folded proteins across membranes, and how this pathway may be used in protein engineering applications. After earning her Ph.D. in 2006, Tullman-Ercek began her post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Chris Voigt. Her primary project in the...Read more

Energy Isolation - Reference Materials

Hot Work References:

  • OSHA 29CFR1910.147 The Control of Hazardous Energy (lockout/tagout)

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS...

  • OSHA Control of Hazardous Energy – Enforcement Policy and Inspection Procedures

https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/directives/CPL_02-0...

Energy Isolation - Incidents

Have at least one incident for each unique “failure mode” of the Lock-Out/Tag-Out SWP?  For example, failure to:

  • Properly de-energize equipment
  • Identify potential source of stored energy
  • Execute properly the Lock-Out/Tag-Out procedure
  • Recognize hazard 

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