PROCESS SAFETY

ENGINEERING
(PENG 461)
Lecture By: Mr. Kwame Kwarteng Sarpong
 WHAT IS PROCESS SAFETY?
• In the chemical, petrochemical and
most other industries, all companies
are required to have an occupational
safety program, with a focus on
personal safety.

• The focus of these programs is to

prevent harm to workers from
workplace accidents such as falls,
cuts, sprains and strains, being struck
by objects, repetitive motion injuries,
etc.
 WHAT IS PROCESS SAFETY?
• Process Safety is defined as “a
discipline that focuses on the
prevention of fires, explosions, and
accidental chemical releases at
chemical process facilities”. Such
events don't only happen at
chemical facilities, they occur in
refineries, offshore drilling
facilities, etc. OR
• The prevention of, preparedness
for, mitigation of, response to, or
restoration from catastrophic
releases of chemicals or energy
from a process associated with a
facility.
BRIEF HISTORY OF PROCESS SAFETY

• Organizations in the process

industries have a longstanding
concern for process safety and relied
on the experience and expertise of
the people for process safety reviews.
• Formal review techniques began to
appear in the middle of the 20th
century.
• Hazard and Operability (HAZOP)
review by ICI (1960s)
• Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
(FMEA), Checklist and What-If
reviews.
BRIEF HISTORY OF PROCESS SAFETY

• Quantitative analysis techniques,

• Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), used by the
nuclear industry,
• Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA),
and
• Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
• Development of modeling techniques
for analyzing the consequences of
spills and releases, explosions, and
toxic exposures.
BRIEF HISTORY OF PROCESS SAFETY

• The Design Institute of Emergency

Relief Systems (DIERS) was
established within the AIChE in 1976
to develop methods for the design
of emergency relief systems to
handle runaway reactions.

• By the mid to late 1970s, process

safety was a recognized technical
specialty. The American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE) formed
the Safety and Health Division in
1979.
HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AND PROBLEM AREAS
YEAR/PLACE OF
PROBLEM AREAS CASUALTY
INCIDENT
Explosion due to rupture of
a 20-inch bypass, installed
as a replacement of a
28 workers died with 36
1974 – Flixborough, UK reactor No. 5 owing to a
injuries
vertical crack, led to the
release of large quantities
of cyclohexane.

Runaway reaction of Many developed chloracne

dioxin, due to overheating (a skin disease) with 17km2
1976 – Seveso, Italy
in reactor after abrupt area becoming
shutdown uninhabitable.

Release of
methylisocyanate (toxic &
More than 3000 people
1984 – Bhopal, India flammable material) due to
died
lack of maintenance of
chemical plant
HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AND PROBLEM AREAS
YEAR/PLACE OF
PROBLEM AREAS CASUALTY
INCIDENT
Replacement of safety
relief valve for a spare
condensate pump with
1988 – Piper Alpha, UK 167 people died
temporary blind flange
without due
communication.

1989 – Exxon Valdez Spill, Spillage of 11million gallons

USA of crude oil.

Valve failure allowed

release of highly
flammable gas from a
Killed 23 workers injuring
1989 – Philips 66, USA polyethylene reactor
hundreds of people
leading to a massive
explosion in less than
90secs.
HISTORICAL INCIDENTS AND PROBLEM AREAS

YEAR/PLACE OF
PROBLEM AREAS CASUALTY
INCIDENT
2005 – BP Texas City, USA

2007 – T2 Explosion, USA

2010 – Deepwater Horizon,

USA
2013 – West Fertilizer
Explosion, USA