Preventing Incidents in Unloading and Loading of Bulk Chemicals

Loading and unloading operations for bulk chemicals have multiple types of risks with potentially high consequences. Yet these operations tend to be dependent to a large extent on administrative controls and human reliability. These characteristics make risk analysis challenging with tools such as PHA and LOPA. Several minor incidents plus inconsistencies in our PHAs led us to develop an internal company standard based on best practices. This paper will explain how we identified the major hazards and developed the standard, as well as some of the best practices that we are utilizing to address the risks.