Incident Investigation – Addressing the Worst That Could Have Happened Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 13, 2011Incident Investigation techniques typically start with a detailed description of the actual consequence and work backward toward the root causes. A...
Quantitative Models for Assessing MOC Performance Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 13, 2011The safety community, bolstered by the PSM regulations, has emphasized the importance of proper management of change to ensure safe, reliable and...
Kinetic Modeling of the Reactions Involved in the T2 Explosion Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 13, 2011The runaway reaction at the chemical preparation facility called T2 laboratories in Jacksonville, Florida on December 19, 2007 is analyzed. The...
Condensation Induced Water Hammer: Principles and Consequences Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010An explosion occurred in the boiler room of a food processing plant as the steam generation system was coming online after a maintenance shutdown...
Imperial Sugar Refinery Combustible Dust Explosion Investigation Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010On 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,...
Near-Miss Management to Develop Dynamic Leading Indicators to Predict Incidents Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010Recent studies have shown the importance of identifying near-misses to predict the probability of accidents (Meel and Seider, 2006) – and managing...
Learning from Events: Major Process Safety Incidents from Waste Water in Process Chemical Plants, or, Take Care of Your Waste Water or It Will Take Care of You Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010Most, if not all chemical industries generate waste water from its processes. This waste water is often pre-treated and then disposed to water...
Evaluating Human Response to an Alarm for LOPA or Safety Studies Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010Many LOPA scenarios have an independent protection layer (IPL) credit for operator intervention to prevent or mitigate the scenario. It is often...
Objective Analysis of PSM Audit Data Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010In developing systems for Process Safety Management, compliance audits are integral with verification that practices and procedures are developed and...
Lessons Learned from a Thermal Runaway Incident Involving an Organic Peroxide Intermediate During a Power Outage Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010A small specialty chemicals plant experienced an unusual power outage as the result of a lightning strike. The lightning strike damaged several of...
Investigation of an Explosion in a Gasoline Purification Plant Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 23, 2010On 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...
Ensuring Consistency of Corporate Risk Criteria Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010The recently published CCPS text Guidelines for Developing Quantitative Safety Risk Criteria makes a strong case for corporations developing risk...
Analyzing Historic Process Data to Identify Near Misses and Warning Signs: Examples from the Buncefield Incident Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010Process data is often analyzed during the investigation of industrial fires and explosions. Our analyses often reveal near misses or warning signs...
Journey towards PSM Excellence Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010This paper describes the experience, learning and major challenges in implementing Process Safety Management at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)...
Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Experience with the Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010As a result of several combustible dust explosions in the past decade, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiated a...
A Full-Scale Experimental and Modeling Investigation of Dust Explosions in a Roller Mill Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010Combustion of biomass is becoming an increasingly important energy source. This is especially true for wood pellets, as several power companies have...
Process Safety in the Face of Significant Change Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010Development of an effective process safety culture requires employees to look beyond intended performance, to their own nonconscious assumptions...
Using Root Cause Failure Analysis Results to Estimate Failure Rates and PFDavg for Spring Operated Pressure Relief Valves Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010In a companion paper, root cause of failure analysis (RCA) was used to estimate the times to failure of a set of spring operated pressure relief...
Strategies & Tactics for Mechanical Integrity Budget Battles Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010Effective mechanical integrity programs are essential to assure safe operation of plant facilities. The current economic downturn is difficult and...
Consequence Modeling of Chlorine Release Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010This paper describes the Consequence Modeling of Chlorine release from a Chlor Alkali plant as a part of Process Hazard Analysis. The objective was...
Process Safety Management in the Energy Sector Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 22, 2010This paper describes experience of application of the principles of process safety management within Centrica plc, an integrated energy company with...
Managing Management of Change Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 21, 2010The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) has designated MOC as one of the areas where metrics need to be developed. One of the issues that CCPS...
Are You Tired of Playing "Whack a Mole" with Your Process Safety Management Program Results - If So, It's Time for a Change Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 21, 2010Recurring or chronic performance problems over time within any process safety management system at a site or within a corporate structure can...
Overview of Risk Based Process Safety Public (classroom) CourseSpecial 1-day Version Special 1-day version of this course is being offered at the 4th CCPS Global Summit on Process Safety. For more information,...
Sponsored Webinar: Making Your HAZOP Study Work for You…In Real Time Archived Webinar May 3, 2017 Too often, a HAZOP study, despite the investment of human and financial capital, becomes a stand-alone document, securely archived for regulatory purposes. Many disparate processes or in fact even a lack of processes, related to study follow-up activities may not give you the insight you need into...
Produced Water Tank Explosion Case Study Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 29, 2017Produced Water Tank Explosion Case Study J. Kelly Thomas, Ph.D. Baker Engineering and Risk Consultants 3330 Oakwell Court, Suite 100 San Antonio, TX...
Fracture Toughness and Brittle Failure – a Pressure Vessel Case Study Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 29, 2017That low fracture toughness can cause brittle failure in steel has been documented in well-known studies. These include failure of Liberty Ships...
Sustaining Process Safety during Difficult Economic Times Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 28, 2017- Abstract Text
The Facility Siting Cycle (Revalidation) Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 28, 2017Facility siting is an assessment of occupied buildings given potential explosion, fire, and toxic hazards. As stated in 29 CFR Part 1910, it is...
Major Accidents: Managing the First 96 Hours Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017Effectively responding to a major accident requires a prompt, sure-footed approach; especially with criminal prosecutions for endangerment and...
Elongated VCE Blast Waves and Structural Damage Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017Elongated congested volumes are common at chemical processing and petroleum refining facilities due to the arrangement of processing units, but there...
Human Error. a Myth Eclipsing Real Causes Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017Abstract Human Error. A myth eclipsing real causes For years the professionals involved in the investigation of industrial accidents have identified...
Prevención De Eventos Catastróficos Mediante anáLisis De Causas Comunes Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017A las 21:48 del 16 de julio de 2016, se presenta sobre-presurización en la línea de descarga del compresor reciprocante; se supera el límite de...
Using Data-Based Indicators to Improve Process Safety Performance Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017Using Data-based Indicators to Improve Process Safety Performance Erin P. Collins and Paul J. Amico JENSEN HUGHES Performance indicators (also...
Leadership in Catastrophic Incident Prevention – Using Organizational Data to Assess and Respond to High Reliability Loss Prevention Precursors Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyMarch 27, 2017Catastrophic Incidents usually occur after a series of early warning signals, often subtle, are overlooked. Some organizations have been very...
SAChE® Programa de Certificación - Identificación y minimización de peligros en la seguridad de procesos eLearning (online) CourseIdentificación y minimización de peligros en la seguridad de procesos Cuando se trabaja con materiales potencialmente peligrosos, es importante...
SAChE® Certificate Program - Process Safety Lessons Taught from Experience eLearning (online) CourseFrom Bhopal to Seveso, learn from important case histories related to process safety.
Incident Investigation Public (classroom) CourseIncidents are minor occurrences and are often the result of a single failure or defect. Join Incident Investigation expert Brian Kelly for an in-...
Senior Leaders and Process Safety: The Role and The Opportunity Public (classroom) CourseYou are an Executive or Senior Manager. Your company has made major investments into Process Safety systems such as Management of Change, Risk...
SAChE® Certificate Program - Identifying & Minimizing Process Safety Hazards eLearning (online) CourseWhen working with potentially hazardous materials, it’s important to have the right tools to handle them. This introductory course reviews the tools...
What Every New Engineer Needs to Know about Process Safety eLearning (online) CourseGain a broad overview of what process safety is, why it is important and its applications in the process industries
Dust Explosions Archived Webinar Dec 7, 2016 The danger of combustible dust is present in virtually every facility, including yours. Are you doing everything to possible to mitigate hazards? During the last decade, increased awareness of combustible dust has led to actions by regulators, standard writing organizations, insurers and...
Sponsored Webinar: Managing the Lifecycle of Independent Protection Layers Archived Webinar Oct 26, 2016 Learn how managing the entire lifecycle of Independent Protection Layers will ensure effectiveness, auditability and independence. This Provenance Consulting-sponsored webinar reviews the current standards and industry practices for IPL management and how to assess the effectiveness of their...
Sponsored Webinar: Quantitative Risk Analysis: Beyond QRA Archived Webinar Sep 14, 2016 You understand QRA. Now take the next step in risk mitigation with facility siting. This 60-minute ioMosaic-sponsored webinar begins with a re-cap of the basic concepts involved in QRA and why and how the results such analysis can generate are significant. You’ll gain an appreciation of how QR and...
Sponsored Webinar: Incident Reporting and Investigation Archived Webinar Jun 22, 2016 The thorough investigation, analysis and follow-up of incidents—including near misses—is one of the most effective ways to improve safety and reliability of process facilities. Yet, many struggle with the collection and management of data related to injuries, fires, regulatory/citation issues,...
Sponsored Webinar: Enterprise Risk Management Archived Webinar Apr 20, 2016 You’ve got the safety audits, manuals, documentation and tracking systems. But are you really actively reducing the risk of a safety incident? In this Operational Sustainability sponsored webinar, you’ll identify the five key steps in implementing a successful Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)...
Black Swans in the Chemical Processing Industries Archived Webinar Mar 16, 2016 Catastrophic events continue to happen in the chemical processing industries. Learn how to protect yourself against “black swan” occurrences. This webinar presents examples of black swan events while discussing the difficulties of predicting them. You’ll learn that once black swan events occur,...
Sponsored Webinar: How PSM Programs of the Past Should Shape a Better PSM Future Archived Webinar Oct 28, 2015 Process Safety Management has been the “law of the land” in the U.S. for over 20 years, and while it may be perceived differently by different parts of your organization, one aspect is almost universally agreed on: If we had to do it over again, we would approach implementation and practice of PSM...
Sponsored Webinar: Capital Project Process Management Archived Webinar Sep 16, 2015 A major challenge faced by PSM-covered sites is addressing the process safety management needs of capital projects. This webinar covers specific concepts and underlying principles pertaining to this issue, with samples of currently popular technologies shown. Many companies are already effective at...
AIChE Fellows - Who, Why & How? Archived Webinar Jul 23, 2015 John P. O'Connell tells of this history and criteria of the AIChE Fellow membership class, and hosts a panel of Fellows to speak about becoming a Fellow.
The Lifecycle Keeps Turning - Upcoming Changes to IEC 61511 Archived Webinar Jul 8, 2015 This presentation provides an overview of significant changes to IEC 61511, including BPCS protection layer credit, quantitative analysis for multiple instrumented protection layers achieving equivalent to SIL 4, fault detection and response, hardware fault tolerance, prior use, security assessment...
The Dow Chemical Story Archived Webinar Jun 25, 2015 Dow Chemical was founded in 1897 by Herbert Henry Dow. Learn about the history of this chemical giant as it grows and merges into the top company it remains more than 100 years later, and hear some insight as to what has kept it successful and sustainable.
Safety in the LNG Value Chain Archived Webinar Dec 12, 2012 In this webinar, presenters describe and examine potential LNG (liquefied natural gas) hazards and risk-reduction methods for the LNG value chain ― production and consumption.
Explosion at T2 Laboratories Archived Webinar Sep 22, 2010 This webinar discusses the CSB investigation and findings related to the explosion and chemical fire at T2 Laboratories, Inc. in December 2007.
Safety Issues in Particle Handling: Dust Explosions Archived Webinar Aug 4, 2010 This webinar provides a fundamental understanding of dust explosions with an emphasis on preventive and mitigative measures to prevent their occurrence.
Introduction to Flammable Materials Archived Webinar Feb 17, 2009 This webinar will provide a basic introduction to flammable materials with the purpose of providing valuable information that a practicing engineer can use to prevent fires and explosions. The presentation will first define the problem using accident statistics and some simple case histories, and...
Recommended Industry Process Safety Metrics Archived Webinar Feb 13, 2008 The BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel (“Baker Panel”) and US Chemical Safety Board each recommended improved industry-wide process safety metrics in their final reports dealing with the 2005 explosion at the BP Texas City refinery. This has also been a subject of frequent discussions...
CSB Investigation of the West Fertilizer Explosion and Fire Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 13, 2016NULL
An early lesson and a late night: how I learned the real design expert is the user Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016During my first few weeks as a full-time engineer, safety truly hit home. My co-worker and I had been tasked with working on a fermentation...
Vapor Cloud Explosions Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016TBA Copyright © American Institute of Chemical Engineers. All rights reserved.
Guidelines for Mechanical Integrity Systems July, 2006In recent years, process safety management system compliance audits have revealed that organizations often have significant opportunities for improving their Mechanical Integrity programs. As part of the Center for Chemical Process Safety's Guidelines series, Guidelines for Mechanical Integrity...
The ChE as Sherlock Holmes: Investigating Process Incidents October2016Back To BasicsJames A. KleinInvestigating process incidents to understand what happened and why provides vital information that will help prevent future incidents.
Book Review: Looking at Innovation through The Wide Lens February 17, 2015The Wide Lens: What Successful Innovators See That Others Miss by Ron Adner. Portfolio/Penguin Press, 2013. 267 + x pages. US$17.00 (paperback). Chemical engineers face a variety...
My Neighborhood Radioactive Waste Dump February 22, 2016Like so many of us, I jog through my neighborhood in pursuit of 10,000 steps a day. My urban journey through Queens, NY, is a slow blur of delis, liquor marts, and grocery stores...
Alan McDonald Discusses Challenger Shuttle Explosion and Ethics 6/13 in the series Interviews and Photos: 2016 Spring Meeting & 12th GCPS, HoustonApril 13, 2016Allan J. McDonald addressed attendees at the 2016 AIChE Spring Meeting and 12th GCPS, delivering a lectured titled "Ethics Lessons Learned from the Space Shuttle Challenger...
Atmospheric Tank Failures: Mechanisms and an Unexpected Case Study Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 13, 2016Most of the literature on catastrophic failures of low pressure tanks focuses on the ignition of explosive mixtures in the vapor space of those tanks...
Beyond Compliance Auditing: Drill 'til You Find the Pain Points and Release the Pressure! Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 13, 2016In Failure to Learn: the BP Texas City Refinery Disaster, 1 the author, Andrew Hopkins, explores the concept of Mindful Leadership and the importance...
Revitalizing Auditing Practices - One Company's Journey Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 13, 2016Auditing can become a mundane and unsuccessful task when done repeatedly the same way by the same personnel. Auditors can get ‘stuck in a rut’ and...
Improving Combustion Efficiency, Reliability, and Safety in Large Fired Heaters Utilizing Multiplexed Laser Based Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016Operators are often challenged to maintain well-balanced, uniform combustion across a large fired heater in order to optimize efficiency, reliability...
Case Study on Inspection of Radiant Heater Ethylene Cracker Tubes Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016A tube crawler has been developed to quantify the carburization in 25%Cr-35%Ni alloy tubes used in furnaces for ethylene production. Eddy current...
Risk Based Process Safety Program in R & D Facility Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016Research & Development facility comprises of pilot plants & laboratories which are designed & constructed to perform new experiments/...
CSB Recommendations: Gems, Gewgaws, and Buried Treasure Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) was authorized by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) and began operation in 1998...
A Call to Action: Understanding the Key Driver for Continual Process Safety Performance Improvement Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016A well-established design concept for management systems is the continual improvement life cycle involving the steps: Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)...
Process Safety: The Culture of Management System Design, Implementation, and Sustainability Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 12, 2016With promulgation of the PSM Standard 29 CFR 1910.119, OSHA mandated that a management system comprised of several well-defined elements be...
Sustainable Productivity and Zero Harm in Practice Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 11, 2016With each passing generation, the world seems to become a better place to live in. What seemed to be an unimaginable goal/impossible task yesterday,...
The Use of Familiar Tool to Diffuse the Feeling of Unease Relating to the Possible Non-Dependability of Barriers of Protection Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 11, 2016Despite the efforts that many organizations have put into the implementation of Process Safety Management system, there are still opportunities for...
A Career in Process Safety: 50 Years of LPS Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 11, 2016Drawing from a career from 1962 through 2016 in the chemical and process industries, this paper will describe some informal practices of process...
Making Process Safety Personal - Engaging the Front Line Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 11, 2016The front line is instrumental in implementing process safety, Yet they are rarely engaged in meaningful process safety discussions. We tend to...
Surviving the Black Swan, Strategies for Process Safety Specialists and Companies to Survive Unpredicted Catastrophic Events Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 11, 2016Surviving the Black Swan, Strategies for process safety specialists and companies to survive unpredicted catastrophic events By John F. Murphy We...
Trends in Olefin Plant Reliability-Related Production Loss, 1999-2011 Conference PresentationAIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process SafetyApril 3, 2014Solomon Associates has conducted studies of the olefins manufacturing industry for more than 25 years. As part of these Olefin Studies, Solomon...