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PHA / HIRA Study Template

GLOBAL PSM SOLUTIONS INC.

website: www.globalpsmsolutions.com
email: info@globalpsmsolutions.com
Phone: +1 416 616 7635
Canada

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As the time passes, industries such as Oil & Gas, Chemical and Petro-Chemical, Mining, Nuclear, etc.,
have learned from the past incidents, the importance of process safety and moving more in
implementing primarily towards the Safety-First attitude within their organizations. There are laws and
regulations (e.g., OSHA, COMAH, etc.) in effect depending upon the geographical location, however all
these guidelines in general emphasis primarily on ensuring the safety of personnel and environment.

For any brown or green field project, there are options available for organizations depending upon the
stage of project to conduct a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), or, Hazard Identification & Risk
Assessment (HIRA) study. These options would include PSSR (Pre-Start Safety Review), JSA (Job Safety
Analysis), What-If study, HAZAN (Hazards Analysis), HAZID (Hazards Identification), HAZOP (Hazards
and Operability), LOPA (Layers of Protection Analysis), etc.

However, understanding the project scope and selecting the right methodology is the Key!

To document any PHA or HIRA study, it is very important to have or create a right template that allows
to record all the relevant scenarios that could result in any potential consequences (worst-credible
case) during the risk assessment study. Without the appropriate template would potentially lead to
insufficient, poor quality study result, and may become an issue during the internal/external auditing.
Also, it varies from organization to organization that what kind of information one would like to
document, and how far they want to go in capturing the relevant information. Companies are free to
choose any tool to create a PHA study template, whichever they find user friendly and fulfil their present
and future requirements.

In this article, we select to discuss HAZOP study template; comparing basic and advance reference
templates. What should be included in a basic template, and how far one can go to build something
at advance level to provide more process related information that would be helpful for personnel
working in any process related industry to identify the hazardous scenario with all the relevant
information specific to individual hazard.

Global PSM Solutions Inc., have around ten (10) years of professional experience using PHA Pro
software conducting PHA studies and found it user friendly. In this document, all the reference HAZOP
templates will be from this software. It should be noted that template is based on Cause-by-Cause
scenario.

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Any general HAZOP study template should include the following columns;
i. Nodes
ii. Deviations
iii. Causes
iv. Consequences
v. Risk Ranking (Severity and Likelihood)
vi. Recommendations (Action Plan)

Here are some examples of HAZOP template that would provide individuals an idea about what needs
to be incorporated within the template for future studies.

A. Basic HAZOP Template

Node: 1
Deviations Causes Consequences S Safeguards L RR Recommendations
1. Low or No Flow 1. 1. 1. X
4 2. XX 4 A
3. XXX
2. 1. X
2 1 D
2. XX
2.
2. High Flow
3. Reverse or Misdirected Flow

Node: 1
Deviations Causes Consequences S L Safeguards RR Recommendations
1. Low or No Flow 1. 1. 1. X
4 4 2. XX A
3. XXX
2. 1. X
2 1 D
2. XX
2.
2. High Flow
3. Reverse or Misdirected Flow

Node: 1
Deviations Causes Consequences S L Safeguards RR Recommendations Responsibility
1. Low or No Flow 1. 1. 1. X 1. ABC
4 4 2. XX A 2. DEF
3. XXX
2. 1. X 1. ABC
2 1 D
2. XX
2.
2. High Flow
3. Reverse or Misdirected Flow

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B. Advance HAZOP Template
Node: 1
Drawings / References: ABC-2020
Current
Effective Safeguard Recommendations
Deviations Causes Consequences CAT S Risk Remarks
Safeguards Category
L RR Recommendations Responsibility
1. Low or No Flow 1. 1. PER 1. X Alarm 1. ABC
(PLC)
4 2. XX Control 4 A 2. DEF
(DCS)
3. XXX SIS - SIL 1
2. ENV 1. X Alarm 1. ABC 1. [Parking Lot: PLC
(PLC) Alarm setpoint
2. XX Control verification; Date
1 2 D
(DCS) Identified: Sep 23,
2020;
Responsible: ABC]
2.
2. High Flow
3. Reverse or Misdirected
Flow

Below is the reference screenshot of the above HAZOP template; which shows the Consequence
Category drop down menu option in the software.

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Node: 1.
Drawings / References: ABC-2020
Inherent Risk Residual Risk Recommendations
Effective Safeguard
Deviations Causes Consequences CAT Risk Risk Remarks
S L Safeguards Category S L Recommendations Responsibility
Ranking Ranking
1. Low or No Flow 1. 1. PER 4 4 A 1. X Alarm 4 3 B 1. ABC
(PLC)
2. XX Control
(DCS)
3. XXX SIS - SIL 1
2. ENV 1 2 D 1. X Alarm 1 1 D 1. [Parking Lot: PLC
(PLC) Alarm setpoint
2. XX Control verification; Date
(DCS) Identified: Sep
23, 2020;
Responsible:
ABC]
2.
2. High Flow
3. Reverse or Misdirected
Flow

In above HAZOP template the risk is differentiated as Inherent Risk and Residual Risk. The main
difference between this two-risk profile is the Inherent Risk considered without the Effective Safeguard,
and Residual Risk considered with the Effective Safeguard.

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