Hey guys, hope you are doing well. Today we are discussing "Double Jeopardy" which creates regular dilemma and stirs up arguments during PHA sessions. If you have participated as a team member or facilitated or scribed in a PHA session, you would be aware of the term "Double Jeopardy". When someone declares, “That’s double jeopardy,” during a PHA, they are definitely not fighting a legal case in court where double jeopardy prevents a person from being tried in court twice for the same offense. Instead, they are arguing that because two things have to go wrong to cause a scenario, the likelihood is so low that it is not credible and there is no need to consider the scenario.
Process Safety and Risk
Discussion on Process Safety Issues and Precautions. The primary focus will be on PHA, Dust Explosion Risk, Electrostatic Hazards, Chemical Reaction Hazards, Hazardous Area Classification among others. You can always drop in your suggestions
Wednesday 14 April 2021
Wednesday 3 February 2021
Strategy to define risk reduction measures in PHA
Hope you and your families are keeping safe from COVID. I have been away from writing for some time now as I took up a new professional role in July and had a lot going on. But one of my new year resolutions was to again start writing the blog and share valuable information with you all. Today I am writing about a strategy one can opt for while providing recommendations in a PHA in order to ensure the provision of effective safeguards.
Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) identifies and evaluates hazardous scenarios forming an initiating event - consequence of interest pair. Evaluating a hazardous scenario helps to determine the adequacy of safeguards for a scenario and to establish requirements for improvement of existing safeguards or installation of new safeguards.
The need for risk reduction measures is defined based on risk assessment usually utilizing predefined risk matrices. Risk reduction measures fall in either of the two categories “Preventative” and “Mitigative”. Preventative is a category that focuses on preventing the hazard while Mitigative is a category that focuses on minimizing the consequences of an event.
In order to define risk reduction measures, one of the useful strategies is to employ the hierarchy of controls:
Thursday 4 June 2020
Recent incidents in Indian Industry creating turmoil
The incident has been said to be in the tank farm area. As per the initial reports, the fire in the tank farm has lead to an explosion of solvent storage tank/ tanks. In multiple images, damaged tanks, hydrogen trolley and multiple other plant units could be seen in the near vicinity of the tank. The other images of the incident are quite disturbing with charred bodies lying on the ground. There is a disturbing video of a charred man asking for help outside the plant that is being circulated in social media. The root cause of the incident still needs to be confirmed by the authorities.
- Do you think that the understanding of Indian industry to process safety has improved? Do you think enough measures are taken in a plant to prevent unsafe acts and unsafe conditions?
- Do you think that management of your plant or the neighbouring plant is seriously implementing measures and filling gaps identified in audits and PHA studies?
- Do you think that government authorities are seriously making proactive reviews of the sites?
- Do you think our laws and regulations related to industries are stringent enough to make the industries realise that they have more to lose in an accident than to gain in the normal operation of the plant?
Tuesday 7 April 2020
Remote HAZOP & LOPA Workshops
I thought it would be helpful to share some tips for remote facilitation based on my experiences:
Wednesday 23 October 2019
St 1 dust - Dangerous or not?
Friday 6 September 2019
Importance of Facility Siting
If you have wondered about this ever, then you should read this article to understand Facility Siting. Some incidents from the past have cleared the importance of facility siting in a plant.
The Flixborough explosion in 1974, where cyclohexane explosion shattered control room windows, collapsed its roof and demolished the brick-constructed main office block. Twenty eight people died, and thirty-six were injured in this accident out of which Eighteen of the fatalities were in the control room. Fortunately, over 200 fatalities were averted as the incident took place on Saturday when the main office block was unoccupied.
The Phillips disaster of 1989, where 40000 kg (85000 lbs) of a mixture of ethylene, isobutane, hexene and hydrogen was released and exploded. The second explosion involved BLEVEs of two isobutene storage tanks and the third explosion was the catastrophic failure of the ethylene plant reactor. The explosions killed 23 employees and injured 314.
Friday 28 June 2019
ATEX - Compulsion, Option or Need of the hour?
If my company is not in Europe, why should we perform an ATEX risk assessment? It's not applicable in my country, why should I perform modification to the existing equipment and fittings?
- Do not have a flammable atmosphere, but if you do...
- Do not ignite it, but if you do…
- Do not hurt anyone.
- Substances with flammable, explosive and oxidising properties. ATEX also covers Corrosives and compressed gases.
- Substances which can create potentially explosive atmospheres
- Controlling work activities involving other substances that could create a fire or an explosion
Friday 21 June 2019
Dust Explosion in Equalizer 2 - Have you seen it yet?
Did you happen to notice Denzel Washington creating a flammable dust cloud?
The movie market was too saturated with Gas Explosions, so here comes a new type of explosion. The director took full advantage of the shot inside a bakery.
Thursday 23 May 2019
Process Safety Strategy - Chemical Reaction Hazard
- Lack of proper understanding of the thermochemistry (heat of reaction) and chemistry (balanced chemical equation)
- Insufficient engineering design for reactor heat transfer system
- Inadequate control and safety back-up systems including emergency relief systems, process vent, and other engineering controls
- Poorly written batch procedures and insufficient operator training.
Concept Sciences Inc. Explosion |