1. BEST PRACTICES IN PROCESS SAFETY
Ming Yang
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Nazarbayev University

2. OUTLINE Introduction Best Practices
Dynamic Risk Management
Inherently Safer Design
Trevor Kletz in a 1978 article entitled “What You Don’t Have, Can’t Leak”
Concluding Remarks/Harsh Environments

3. Bhopal (1984), Piper Alpha (1988)

4. Phillips 66 (1989), Westray (1992)

5. Toulouse (2001), BP Texas City (2005)

6. Buncefield (2005), BP Horizon (2010)

7. INTRODUCTION Process Safety Occupational Safety
Prevention and mitigation of process hazards in processing facilities
Release of chemicals or energy (fires, explosions, toxic materials); breach of containment
Occupational Safety
Prevention and mitigation of hazards with a focus on the individual
“Slips, trips and falls”
Health issues → OH&S
Difference may be meaningless to an individual impacted by a process incident or an occupational incident
Whether focus is on process or on occupational hazards is determined, in part, by nature of the industry and relevant safety legislation
Process safety does focus on an integrated approach by considering loss to
People, Property, Production, Environment

8. RISK MANAGEMENT Risk (AIChE)
A measure of economic loss or human injury in terms of both the incident frequency and the severity (consequences) of the loss or injury

9. Manage the Residual Risk
D. McCutcheon
Planned
Reviews
Management Activities
To track company actions against policy.
Identification of Hazards
Reduce the Risk
Risk Analysis/ Assessment
A GENERIC
FRAMEWORK
FOR RISK
MANAGEMENT
Risk Analysis/
Assessment Activities
To track, look for and analyze and assess hazards or concerns that arise and challenge policy.
Yes
Can the
risk be
reduced?
Is the risk acceptable? No
Yes No
Management Activities
To ensure company activities keep risks under control.
Manage the Residual Risk
Discontinue the Activity

10. RISK MANAGEMENT Knowledge uncertainty Physical scope Analytical scope
Various techniques
Physical scope
Definition of system boundary for assessment
Analytical scope
Nature of hazards under consideration
Perception, in addition to
Event likelihood & Severity of consequences

11. Incident Pyramid G. Creedy/CSChE

12. DYNAMIC RISK MANAGEMENT
A dynamic risk management framework is to ensure continuous improvement of the risk management process based on real-time process performance revised using process and failure history.
The application of the dynamic risk management framework enhances the risk-informed decision-making process by constantly monitoring, evaluating and improving the process performance.
Dynamic risk management approach helps to identify and control risk at earlier stage

13. Figure 3 shows a simple schematic illustration of how the proposed DRM approach is incorporated into the safety system and compares it with the traditional approach. In the traditional safety system design, variable deviations from their predefined thresh- old limits are monitored to activate control systems, alarms, and emergency shutdown devices (ESD). However, compared to this conventional single variable-based safety system design approach, the application of the proposed DRM approach ensures continuous updating of the events probabilities based on new evidence from: (i) monitoring of multiple correlated process variables; (ii) failure and incident histories; and (iii) process and operational changes. As highlighted in Fi

14. INHERENTLY SAFER DESIGN
INHERENT SAFETY
PASSIVE ENGINEERED (ADD-ON) SAFETY
ACTIVE ENGINEERED (ADD-ON) SAFETY
PROCEDURAL (ADMINISTRATIVE) SAFETY
Active safety. ... The first, mainly in the United States, refers to safety systems that help avoid automobile accidents, such as good steering and brakes. In this context, passive safety refers to features that help reduce the effects of an accident, such as seat belts, airbags and strong body structures.

15. Principles of Inherent Safety (EARLY)
Minimization (Intensification)
Minimize amount of hazardous material in use (when use of such materials cannot be avoided – i.e. elimination)

16. Principles of Inherent Safety (EARLY)
Substitution
Replace substance with less hazardous material; replace process route with one involving less hazardous materials

17. Principles of Inherent Safety (EARLY)
Moderation (Attenuation)
Use hazardous materials in least hazardous forms; run process equipment with less severe operating conditions (e.g. T and P)

18. Principles of Inherent Safety (EARLY)
Simplification
Simplify equipment and processes that are used; avoid complexities; make equipment robust; eliminate opportunities for error

19. With respect to stability, an inherently safer option to a bicycle is a…

20. Unmanned platforms, relocation of accommodation modules and lifeboats, compact heat exchangers

21. CONCLUDING REMARKS/ HARSH ENVIRONMENTS
Freezing temperatures, extreme winds, corrosive sea spray and remoteness of operations
Best practices in process safety
Dynamic Risk management
Inherently safer design
Risk management – uncertainty/perception
Inherently safer design – four fundamentals