From Oil and Gas to Polymers and Plastics

Introduction. Safety first

N° 1 to be presented

Robert PELLETIER UFAZ

© R.Pelletier 2023
pelandco@yahoo.fr
December 2023

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 Introduction
Purpose of this ~20-hour lecture: provide students with a global
overview of the refining and petrochemical chain

« From oil and gas (and coal) to polymers and plastics »

with a special emphasis on
Energy, Environment and Life Cycle Assessment
It will concentrate on most important scientific, technical and economic
aspects, trying to place this industry within the global world of energy
At the end of this lecture, hopefully, attendees will have a better idea:
• of the economic importance of refining, petrochemicals and polymers
today, of the main technical challenges and drivers of this industry,
• of the type of jobs they could find if they consider working in this field

© R.Pelletier 2023
• of the necessity of a rational approach to the critical environmental issues
Intro Safety 2
 Introduction

Overall program of the module

▪ RP1. Introduction to the module. “Safety first”.

▪ RP2. Global view of Refining and Petrochemicals in world of energy.

▪ RP3. Polymers and Plastics. Definitions Main problems in polymerization plants.

“From arrival of raw materials to delivery at customer gate”.

▪ RP4. Project Management from R&D to beneficial operation.

▪ RP5. Polymers and environment. Conclusion of the module.

A short “open book” exam will take place on Thursday September 14.

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It will be rather easy for those who listen carefully during the lecture.

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 Short survey
among students
A warm-up before the core lectures: students are invited
to answer this short survey about different materials
used in food packaging. Please, be sincere in your answer.
In your opinion, which of these six materials is the « best
for environment », i.e. has the least ecological impact ?

© R.Pelletier 2023
Intro Safety 4
 Introduction

Do you like plastics? Let us make a survey

Please, rank those different materials used in packaging according to what you
believe is their impact on environment. 1 = the best, 6 = the worst

Aluminum
Paper –
cardboard

Tin

Monolayer plastic
Glass

Multilayer

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plastic

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 Introduction

▪ Everywhere in the world, results

of this survey received with
a lot of astonishment
▪ Could you please explain your
personal vote?
▪ Most often justified by « end of
life » considerations
▪ But « end of life » is only one step in the whole life of a material, of a
product, of a service…
▪ Life Cycle Assessment (LCA, sometimes Life Cycle Analysis, ACV for « Analyse de
Cycle de Vie » in French language) aims at scientifically measuring the
environmental footprint of materials, products or services over their

© R.Pelletier 2023
entire lifetime : « from craddle to grave »
We shall come back on this issue when presenting “Polymers and Environment”
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 Introduction to Risk Management

SAFETY FIRST !

"If you don't risk anything, you risk even more !"

© R.Pelletier 2023
Erica Jong
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 Risk management

"SAFETY FIRST"
Well ! This lecture as well will abide to this simple rule.
Hopefully, this introduction will remind you that Safety will not be
obtained by working only on processes, equipment and
procedures.
It will be the result of a whole system. Everybody, from top to
bottom, should be involved; organization and mentalities should
really put "Safety First".

© R.Pelletier 2023
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 Risk management

The meaning of risk

▪ Hazard vs Risk
• A hazard can be described as the inherent potential for damage
• Risk can be described as the possibility that the damage will occur

▪ Risk acceptance
• Accidents can never be acceptable
• In many cases however, it is worthwhile to take the risk because of the
benefit. Remember : risk also comprises the possibility that no accident
will happen.

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• Taking the risk does not mean that we accept the accident !

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 Risk management

Example of toxicity
"All is poison, nothing is poison,
the dose makes the poison !"
Paracelsus (Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim)
The "father" of toxicology (1493-1541)

TOXICITY HAZARD: intrinsic properties of a substance

static concept

TOXICITY RISK: probability of occurrence of intoxication,

depending on circumstances
dynamic concept

Small doses of Aspirin can be beneficial to people; but,

at high doses, this common medicine can be deadly.
HAZARD X EXPOSURE = RISK
Furthermore, in some individuals, even at very low

© R.Pelletier 2023
doses, aspirin may be deadly. Yet, most of us "take
the risk" to have Aspirin at home !
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 Risk management

Doing business
=
Being exposed to risks

Risk refers to all undesired events which can

negatively affect our business.
Risk can be of economic, societal or
environmental nature

© R.Pelletier 2023
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 Risk management

Failure to reach sustainable development puts a company at risk :

- risk to its licence to operate in the short term,
- risk to its capacity to develop in the medium long term.

Sustainable Development: the three pillars

SOCIETAL Equitable ECONOMIC

Sustainable
Comfortable Possible

ENVIRONMENT

© R.Pelletier 2023
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 Risk management

Risk and Uncertainty in Business

Business Uncertainties Business Risks
(Management Sciences) (Risk Managements)

Social Economics Natural Social deviations

Labour unrest Monetary and fiscal policies Flooding Frauds

Change in social laws... Inflation... Hurricane... Thefts...

Marketing Political
Personal Technical
Change in consumer tastes Political unrest
Loss of market to competitor... Wars, embargos... Resignations Work accidents
Death... Fires / explosions
Production Financial Toxic emission
Transportation accident
Defective Process
Unexpected change in costs Currencies fluctuations
Faulty Product...

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Unavailibilty of raw materials... Change in interest rates...
Loss control 13
management
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 Risk management

▪ Covers all aspects of the industrial life :

▪ laws, external and internal rules,
▪ work-place,
▪ prevention of major accidents and plant failures,
▪ safe transport of products,
▪ hygiene for workers and neighborhood,
▪ environment protection.

▪ Insures that products are (Product stewardship):

▪ consistently produced, controlled, packaged, shipped,
▪ with the safety and quality standard appropriate to their intended use.

▪ In the plant, from shipping in, storage and acceptance of raw materials,
to packaging and delivery of finished goods to clients.

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▪ All engineers are key contributors to proper loss control management.
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 Loss Control Management
▪ General methodology :

• Identify all potential risks,

• Quantify the risks,
• Develop a plan,
• Implement the Plan,
• Monitor the system.

▪ Modern Safety Management Systems cover much more than purely

technical matters. Organization and human behavior are key in the
success of a safety policy

▪ Example of world class ISRS*, an audit system which helps

organizations establish, develop and improve management systems.
*from DNV, Det Norske Veritas http://www.dnv.com/

© R.Pelletier 2023
Intro Safety 15
 Loss Control Management
Example of world class ISRS* (Interntional Safety Rating System) audit system, helpings organizations
establish, develop and improve management systems. *from DNV, Det Norske Veritas http://www.dnv.com/

Leadership & Leadership & Planned Critical Task Analysis

Administration Training Inspections & Procedures

Accident / Incident Task Emergency Rules &

Investigation Observation Preparedness Work Permits

Accident / Knowledge & Personal Protective Health &

Incident Analysis Skills Training Equipment Hygiene Control

System Engineering & Change Personal Group

Evaluation Management Communications Communications

General Hiring & Materials and Services Off-the-job

Promotions Placement Management Safety

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16
General Loss Control Concepts
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 Loss Control Management

Since many of you work or will work, one day or another,

either
in plant production
or in process development / engineering activities,
let us make a small zoom** on :

Safety at the workplace

and
Engineering and Change Management

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** does not mean that other Risk Management components like Inspection Plan, Safety organization,
Transport rules, etc ... are not important as well !

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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change

▪ Due to physical nature of polymers (particulate and/or

viscous), polymerization plant operation is not as smooth as
that of plants manipulating only gases and liquids

▪ A refinery can run without interruption of production for 4,

5, 6…years between 2 turnarounds* (turn around = “grand arrêt”)

▪ For some polymer units (High Pressure Polyethylene for example), the
mean time between failure… and shut down of the
production is of the order of only a few days!

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*In petroleum refining, turnaround means a scheduled large-scale maintenance activity wherein an
entire process unit is taken off-stream during an extended period (~1 or 2 months) for complete check
of all equipment and for revamp.
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
A lot of manual work in polymerization plants → higher risk for
workplace accidents. Unplugging pipes, changing knifes on the extruder,
washing silos, manipulating pallets, etc, are examples of daily activities
requiring constant attention from operators.

© R.Pelletier 2023
Intro Safety 19
 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
Real case example of safety indicators in a particular petrochemical entity
(10 sites, ~1500 own employees + ~ 1000 contractors F.T.E.).

Such a trend over 6 years,

TRIF and LTIF similar to what is observed
15.0 and in most other western
20 5.0 in 3.4 and
2001 companies, cannot be due
1.4
15 2.9 and Objectives to
0.7 in 2011, set
10 2006 in 2005 good luck only !
5 OK, but then,
0 what were the
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
main root causes?
TRIF (Own) LTIF (Own+Contractors)
Are we sure we cannot
LTIF = Lost Time Incident Frequency 1/1 000 000 hours go backwards ?

© R.Pelletier 2023
TRIF = Total Recordable Incident Frequency " "
F.T.E. = Full Time Equivalent
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
No ! Never be sure and satisfied in this domain ! Always stay modest!
Guesses about most fruitful actions, within the frame of global management system:
• Step change in the involvement for safety of all levels of management.
• More proactive attitude versus contractors.
• Improved reporting and sharing between entities of all mishaps.
• Trainings and re-training, ... and many other actions !
Lost-time Accidents History
Month Site Detail
dec-04 Site P
A contractor working in congested area injured his elbow when the wrench slipped This list of LTI and TRI in a
causing him to strike nearby equipment.
polymerization plant shows
janv-05 Site U Employee re-aggravated a non-work related back injury when making a sudden mostly bruises, cuts, falls,
movement, requiring prescription medications and 1 day of lost time
Contractor suffered severe cuts to 2 fingers when they became trapped due to hits, dust in the eyes, ...
févr-05 Site S
slippage of the ladder. Surgery required for nerve and tendon damage.
mars-05
avr-05
NONE
NONE Aren't we neglecting
mai-05 Site C Slipped and fell on wet stairs resulting in broken coccyx
mai-05 Site A
Slipped from curb and trapped foot between curb and scaffold. Fall resulted in twisted some more important
knee and upper leg
juin-05 Site C
safety issues by giving
Employee fell from height of 1,3m resulting in a broken wrist and one broken vertebra
juil-05 NONE too much attention to

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Maintenance tech suffered 2 broken fingers when a 30 kg piece of equipment fell on
août-05 Site A
his hand these petty problems?
sept-05 NONE
oct-05 NONE
nov-05 NONE
dec-05 NONE
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
Aren't we neglecting some more important safety issues by
giving too much attention to these petty problems?
Most major accidents are actually
Fatality or major injury due to catastrophic combination of
relatively minor deviations.
Minor injury
Chasing for minor incidents
Property damage reduces the basis of the accident
pyramid.
Incident with no visible
consequences

Of course, need to work intensively on the prevention of majors

accidents. But fighting the minor incidents is part of this work,

© R.Pelletier 2023
not a waste of time at all!

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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change

Near miss (or « near accident » or “close call,” a “narrow escape, …”):
any event which had the potential to cause injury
and/or damage and/or loss but which was avoided by
circumstances (definition IAGC 1993)

Example: “A hammer fell from top of the scaffolding,

nearly hitting Mr Smith, who was walking on the
ground floor."

Because no one has been hurt and no damage occurred, near-misses

are not always reported; sometimes even hidden by workers   
However, near miss reporting is an excellent tool for continuous
improvement. The most efficient companies request
> 2 near-miss reports per person per year

© R.Pelletier 2023
Near misses are valuable sources of information, which can be studied
and published, without the emotion linked to a real accident
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
Of course, broad information (always), and action (if
necessary**), are required after each near-miss report

With continuous improvement, near-misses

become thinner and thinner → anomalies
"A hammer fell from the top of the scaffolding,
fortunately inside the restricted area on the ground floor.“
"A hammer was abandoned on top of the scaffolding,
so close to the edge that someone could easily make it fall.“
"A hammer was abandoned on top of the scaffolding." etc.

Same philosophy holds true for Environment and Product Quality. Many
companies have integrated Safety, Environment Protection and Quality

© R.Pelletier 2023
Insurance into a single global Management System
**Beware of too fast decisions taken in the emotion following an incident. Take time to think.
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change

▪ Polymerization plants are nearly never in steady state. Grade

changes occur usually about twice a week, sometimes once a day,
or even several times a day.
▪ Product slate up-grading requires continuous development,
requesting many trials and process changes. (More than 300 formal
industrial trials/year in my Polymer Process Development Group).

▪ Plant often needs to be modified to accommodate new grades or

improved qualities. New investments are not only done during
periodic turnarounds, but also all along the year (example: ~ 150
successive modifications in 15 years to convert a homopolymer plant to the full
range of a new copolymers family).

→ A solid "Management of Change" policy is a must for

© R.Pelletier 2023
polymerization plants.
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
One large sailboat manufacturer nearly
bankrupted after blisters developed on
hull of thousands boats. Problem linked
to the change of supplier for the
flegmatizer (for peroxide ) of the epoxy resin.

Polybutene-1 developed in the 1970’s; one main

marketing targets was floor heating pipes. But
leaks appeared after five to ten years (slow change
of crystalline form of PB-1), which lead to very
expensive warranty damages.

Styrene used for production of ion exchange

resins (typically used in hospitals) accidentally polluted
with ~1000 ppm of Benzene. Problem found only

© R.Pelletier 2023
after a few days. Long sequence of successive
failures, initiating with use of new rail car tankers,
with un-symmetrical hatch position. 26
Intro Safety
 Safety at the workplace. Management of change
For grass-root projects just as for minor or major revampings
▪ "Engineering and Change Management" objective is to
eliminate hazards before plant is actually started or modified,
thus minimizing the chance of accidents

▪ Control of hazards as early as possible in design phase are much

more safety-efficient and cost-effective than re-designing processes after
start-up

▪ Most companies have adopted a "Gate System" .

▪ "Engineering and Change Management" is an important part of this
decision-making staged process.

© R.Pelletier 2023
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 Project management - Staging the project
The decisions you take, or fail to
take, in the early stages of the
project will determine the future of Scope, process, lay out, principles of No return
your operation. operation, are frozen decision

Stage 1 Gate 1 Stage 2 Gate 2 Stage 3 Gate 3 Stage 4 Gate 4

Conceptual Feasibility Development or Basic Studies

Scoping Studies Studies Pre-Project Studies

At Gate 3, project objectives, process definition, plant lay-out, all safety and
environment protection principles are frozen. Any later change would be
extremely costly in money and delay. In subsequent phases of project (basic studies,
detailed engineering, project execution), the heavy engineering machine is running full
speed. Needless to say, changes are worse after plant start-up !!!

© R.Pelletier 2023
We shall come back on these aspects of project management during the
2nd day of this petrochemical lecture
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 Safety at the workplace. Management of change

Safety: a priority, for everybody, everywhere, every time

“Safety is undoubtedly an absolute priority at industrial petrochemical sites.

It is an integral part of all activities, at all levels and in all work situations.
Our need for safety requires the daily involvement of all employees and
partners. For example, all our employees and workers, whatever their level
of seniority, regularly follow highly structured training programs. It is an
area in which one has to excel, evolve and progress continuously.
Tomorrow’s safety is being prepared today.”

Stan, a young site manager of a large polyolefin plant, in Texas, USA

© R.Pelletier 2023
Video: « The Mom’s Song »
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