BTK3243

CHEMICAL PLANT SAFETY

Chapter 1
Introduction

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 n t (s )
c ci d e
s of a
u e n ce
se q
Con
• Human consequences
- Off-site
- On-site
• Environmental consequences
• Business consequences
 Course Synopsis
• This course is primarily to expose students with the
fundamental concepts, practical aspects and applications of
occupational safety and health (OSH) in process industries.
Among others, the students will be taught the fundamental
application and day-to-day aspects of OSH and at the same
time, the management aspects of it. Local and international
regulations related to SH&E such as OSHA and FMA will also
be covered. Major accident’s case studies and lesson learnt will
also be discussed in details.
 Learning References

• Crowl, D.A. and Louvar, J.F., Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with
Applications, Prentice Hall , USA, 1990.

• Allen, DT and Shonnard, DR., Green Engineering: Environmentally

Conscious Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice Hall, USA, 2002.

• Perry, RH and Green, DW, Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook, 7th Ed.,
McGraw Hill, USA, 1997.

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 Definitions
• the prevention of accidents through the use of appropriate
Safety & loss prevention technologies to identify the hazards of a chemical plant and
eliminate them before an accident occurs.

• a chemical or physical condition that has the potential to cause

Hazard damage to people, property, or the environment

• An undesirable event which has a potential to cause a serious

Near misses accident.

• a measure of human injury, environmental damage, or economic

Risk loss in terms of both the incident likelihood and the magnitude of
the loss or injury.

• unexpected and unplanned incident or sequential incident that

Accident causes injury and illness, material damage or process loss.

• is arisen when one is exposed with the hazard.

Danger
 Introduction
• In 1987, Robert M. Solow, an economist at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, received the Nobel Prize in economics
for his work in determining the sources of economic growth.

Professor Solow concluded that the bulk of an economy's growth is

the result of technological advances.

• It is reasonable to conclude that the growth of an industry is also

dependent on technological advances.
Cont…………..

• This is especially true in the chemical industry, which is

entering an era of more complex processes: higher pressure,
more reactive chemicals, and exotic chemistry.

• More complex processes require more complex safety

technology.

• Many industrialists even believe that the development and

application of safety technology is actually a constraint on the
growth of the chemical industry.
Cont………

• As chemical process technology becomes more complex, chemical

engineers will need a more detailed and fundamental understanding
of safety. H. H. Fawcett said, "To know is to survive and to ignore
fundamentals is to court disaster."

• The interest is to set out the fundamentals of chemical process

safety.

• Since 1950, significant technological advances have been made in

chemical process safety.

• Today, safety is equal in importance to production and has

developed into a scientific discipline that includes many highly
technical and complex theories and practices.
 Historical mileage * Chemical factory-fire, 2004
disaster/accident in Malaysia
Non-exhaustive technological * Chemical warehouse-explosion,2004
* Gas processing-fire, 2002
* Refinery plant-fire,
West Malaysia, 1997
* Petroleum complex-fire,
East Malaysia, 1997
* Chlorine release, KWSB 1997
* Fire & explosion, Beranang 1991
* Choon Hong III ship, Tiram kimia
(explosion), 1992
* Bright Sparkle factory explosion, 1991
* Occupational Safety & health Act, 1994
Some of Malaysia's

* Factory & Machineries Act, 1967

(come into force in 1970)
OSH-related

* Machinery Enactment, 1914

legislations

* Regulations with regards to boiler in Pahang * Electrical Supply Act, 1990

& Negeri Sembilan, 1908 * Fire Service Act, 1988
* The Perak Boiler Enactment, 1903 * Machinery Ordinance, 1953 * Atomic Energy Licensing Act, 1984
* Petroleum Act, 1984
* Selangor Boiler Enactment, 1892 * New Machinery Enactment, 1932
* Environmental Quality Act, 1974
* Uniform Building by-Laws, 1984
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 ???? Year

The inspection era The noise era & The behaviour-based era & human era
safety management era
The era(s) of

management

The accountability era

safety

The industrial hygience era

The unsafe act & condition era The occupational safety & health era

Organizational
Equipment

Human error

Safety Management

Individual plant safety

Multi-plant safety

Cluster-safety culture
Safety management

focus

System

culture
"evolution"

culture
Source : Azizan et al. (2014)
OSH Structure function and organization in Malaysia

Services Sosial partners Educations, research &

- Government agencies - Employer training
(JKKP, NIOSH, associations
PERKESO) (FMM, MEF) - NIOSH
- NGO's - Employee - Academic Institutions
- Ministries associations - Private Institutions
- Academic Institutions (MTUC, - NGO's
- SIRIM CUEPACS) - Consultants
- Consultants - NGO's - International organisations
- Certification & audit - International - ASEAN partners
(system) organisations
- ASEAN partners
Legislation
- OSHA
Administration & - FMA
enforcement
Workplace
- JKKP Safety Protection &

Emergency - PERKESO,
- Government KWSP,insurance
- Medical scheme,
agencies
- NGO's KWSP, pension,
Policy advisory & promotion ex-gratia
- Ministries
- MKN (National - MNKKP (National Council
Security Council) for OSH)
 Process Safety vs. Occupational Safety

• Occupational safety primarily covers management of personnel

safety and incidents affecting individual workers such as slips
and falls.

• Process safety addresses major hazards that are more likely to

result in major accident such as gas explosion or fire.

• Process safety focuses on three key aspects:- plant (hardware),

process (systems), & people
 Process Safety vs. Occupational Safety

• All behavior influenced by context in which it occurs

• Both physical and social context
• Occupational safety focuses on changing individual behavior
• Process safety focuses on design of system in which behavior occurs

• To understand why process accidents occur and to prevent

them, need to:
• Understand current context (system design)
• Create a design that effectively ensures safety
 Fundamental principles

Using knowledge & skill for enhancement of human

welfare

Honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the

public, their employers and clients

Striving to increase the competence and prestige of the

engineering profession
The aspects to consider while developing a safety & health
plan

Consideration of loss of life, human pain

HUMANITARIAN and suffering, family suffering and
hardship and etc
Employer is legally responsible to
LEGAL maintain employees safety and health at
OBLIGATION the workplace and pay for any cost of
injury.

ECONOMIC Prevention cost less that accident

 Theories of Accident Causation
• There are several major theories concerning accident causation, each
of which has some explanatory and predictive value.

1.The domino theory developed by H. W. Heinrich, a safety engineer and pioneer in

the field of industrial accident safety.
2. Human Factors Theory
3. Accident/Incident Theory
4.Epidemiological Theory
5.Systems Theory
6.The energy release theory
7.Normal Accident Theory
8.Swiss-cheese theory
9.Behaviour Theory

• Accident theories guide safety investigations. They describe the scope of an

investigation.
 Heinrich's Domino Theory
According to Heinrich, an "accident" is one factor in a sequence
that may lead to an injury.

The factors can be visualized as a series of dominoes standing on

edge;

When one falls, the linkage required for a chain reaction is

completed.

Each of the factors is dependent on the preceding factor.

 Heinrich’s Dominos – The Process

1. A personal injury (the final domino) occurs only as a result of an

accident.

2. An accident occurs only as a result of a personal or mechanical hazard.

3. Personal and mechanical hazards exist only through the fault of

careless persons or poorly designed or improperly maintained
equipment.

4. Faults of persons are inherited or acquired as a result of their social

environment or acquired by ancestry.

5. The environment is where and how a person was raised and educated.
 10 Heinrich’s Axioms of Industrial
Safety
Injuries result from a completed series of factors, one of which is the accident itself

An accident can occur only as the result of an unsafe act by a person and/or a physical or
mechanical hazard
Most accident are the result of unsafe behaviour by people

An unsafe act by a person or an unsafe condition does not always immediately result in an
accident/injury
The reasons why people commit unsafe acts can serve as helpful guides in selecting corrective
actions
The severity of an accident is largely fortuitous, an the accident that caused it is largely preventable

The best accident prevention techniques are analogous with the best quality and productivity
techniques
Management should assume responsibility for safety because it is in the best position to get result

The supervisor is the key person in the prevention of industrial accident

In addition to the direct costs of an accident, there are also hidden or indirect cost
 Heinrich’s Domino Theory – Corrective
Action Sequence
(The three “E”s)
1. Engineering
Control hazards through product design or process
change

2. Education
• – Train workers regarding all aspects of safety
• – Impose on management that attention to safety pays off

3. Enforcement
• – Insure that internal and external rules, regulations, and standard
operating procedures are followed by workers as well as
management.
Hazards in Process Industry
 Process Industries
• Chemical
• Petrochemical
• Oleo-chemical
• Pharmaceutical
• Mineral processing
• Oil and gas (upstream and
downstream)
• Food processing
• Utility etc.
 Major Hazards

•There are common 3 Major Hazards:

• Fire
• Impacts on plant, people and environment
• May also followed by toxic release
• Explosion
• Same as fire but more severe
• Toxic Release
• Impacts of people and environment
  Jet Fire

Types of Fire

 Pool Fire
• Flash Fire
 Types of Explosion  Boiling Liquid Expanding
Vapor Explosion (BLEVE)

• Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE)

 Dust Explosion
Toxic release
 Direct Vs. Indirect Incident Cost Iceberg

It is estimated that for

Direct every $1 in direct incident
Costs costs, there are anywhere
from $4 to $11 in indirect
or “hidden” costs.

Indirect
Costs

Insured Costs -- covering injury, ill health, damage.

Hidden Uninsured – 8-36 times as much as insured costs
 Accident costs

Example
• Toulouse in 2001 (ammonium nitrate explosion). Killed 30
people and injured 10,000 others : 1.5 – 2 billion pound
sterling

• Buncefield in 2005 (explosion at petrol storage depot).

Injured 43 people: 1.0 billion pound sterling

• Texas City in 2005 (Oil refinery explosion). 15 killed and

180 injured: estimated US$2 billion in civil claim & US$1
billion spent on reviewing and upgrading site.
 Direct cost @ immediate cost

• Rebuilding
• Replacing damaged stock / material
• Lost production
• Temporary production / relocation to other
sites
• Additional transport costs
• Injured people
• Staff cost (e.i sick pay, replacement
staff/overtime, training / redeployment of staff
Source: IChemE
 Investigation @ legal cost

• Site investigation costs

• Regulator investigation costs
• Prosecution and court costs/preparing defence
• Fines
• Environmental clean up/ongoing monitoring
• Restocking rivers/woodlands etc
• Civil claims

Source: IChemE
 Indirect @ long term cost

• Company image / reputation

• Public relations / media
• Community
• Neighbouring businesses
• Staff morale
• Health costs / long term health monitoring
• Loss of customers due to inability to supply
• Customer may go to dual sourcing or stay with other
supplier so sales might not come back to same level
• Review / upgrade of sites facilities
Source: IChemE
THANK YOU

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