57144 - Environment, Process Safety and Project Management

University of HULL57144 - Environment, Process Safety and Project Management

Student: Yuri Smith MehmereID : 201309950QuestionWhat are the possible key process safety risks at a facility that should be identified so that employee, community and company interests are adequately protected?

The Swiss Cheese Model

The Swiss cheese model focuses on the active and latent failures that are represented as holes in the barriers and the potential for this hole to be breeched, it is when these holes line up that the potential for a major accident increases as any deviation will push through all the barriers and result in the wider incident.The hazard identification and risk management should identify suitable barriers (Slices of cheese) with minimising potential breech areas ensuring that potential breeches in one layer do not align with another. In other words, a problem wont lead to a major incident because at least one barrier will prevent the problem from propagating further.

Latent ConditionsLatent conditions are error conditions (such as design and maintenance, as well as inspection, procedural or organisational shortcomings) that are present within the system some time before the onset of a recognisable accident sequence.They may lie dormant for long periods before combining with active failures to allow penetration of all the barriers. In other words, all the Swiss Cheese holes are aligned.

Active FailuresActive Failures are the unsafe acts committed by those people at the sharp end, predominantly operators and maintenance technicians. These can be lapses, mistakes or procedural violations. They have an immediate, but usually short-lived impact on the defensive barriers.They often occupy the spotlight on subsequent accident investigations as they tend to be the immediate triggering event.

Identify hazardsThe Health and Safety Executive define hazard as: Anything that may cause harm e.g. chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, noise etc.In the context of process safety we can consider a hazard to be: Anything that can lead to catastrophic accidents particularly structural collapse, explosions, fires and toxic releases associated with loss of containment of energy or dangerous substances.

How we identify hazards?Hazard Identification Techniques :HAZOP (HAZARD AND OPERABILITY STUDY)

HOW WE EVALUATE CONSEQUENCES?Risk Assessments

The 3 P's

PlantProcessPeople

avoid incidents and MitigationCOMAH RegulationsPermit to WorkEmergency Plans

BhopalLoss of ContainmentIs a situation where dangerous substances (eg. liquids, gases, electricity) escape from pipes, pumps, tanks, containers, etc. It also relates to incidents where solids (eg. metal structures and equipment) are projected through the air, fall from height, etc. In the vast majority of major incidents, loss of containment is the principle cause.This incident was caused by water being added to a methyl isocyanate storage tank, causing anexothermic reaction. The situation was made worse by the fact that many safety systems had either been disabled or not maintained.

ConclusionProcess Safety, like Personal Safety, depends on everyone being fully committed to playing their part in minimising the possibility of major accidents occurring.Dealing with Lives

ReferencesEnvironmental and Process Safety Module