Facility engineers, industrial safety

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) was formally known as the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA). It represents the interests of the chemical industry. One of its activities is to research ways to minimize risks to employees and to the environment from chemical facilities. Activities include communicating with the government and the public in the areas of taxation, environmental and workplace safety regulations, and engineering and safety standards. 

For over 30 years the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has been involved with process safety and loss control issues in the chemical, petrochemical, hydrocarbon process and related industries and facilities. AIChE publications and symposia are information resources for the chemical engineering and other professions on the causes of process incidents and the means of preventing their occurrences and mitigating their consequences. 

It should be clear that a complete FMEA approach is not practical for the evaluation of production facility safety systems. This is because (1) the cost of failure is not as great as for nuclear power plants or rockets, for which this technology has proven useful (2) production facility design projects cannot support the engineering cost and lead time associated with such analysis (3) regulatory bodies are not staffed to be able to critically analyze the output of an FMEA for errors in subjective judgment and most importantly, (4) there are similarities to the design of all production facilities that have allowed industry to develop a modified FME.A approach that can satisfy all these objections. 

The EPA should also consider creating a national "Center for Engineering Research on Environmental Protection and Process Safety" that would provide both unique state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and computational resources to chemical and process engineering researchers from academia, federal laboratories, and industry. 

Industrial fire protection and safety engineers attempt to eliminate hazards at their source or to reduce their intensity with protective systems. Hazard elimination may typically require the use of alternative and less toxic materials, changes in the process, spacing or guarding, improved ventilation or, spill control or inventory reduction measures, fire and explosion protective measures - both active and passive mechanisms, protective clothing, etc. The level or protection is dependent on the risk prevalent at the facility versus the cost to implement safety measures. 

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AlChE) has helped chemical plants, petrochemical plants, and refineries address the issues of process safety and loss control for over 30 years. Through its ties with process designers, plant constructors, facility operators, safety professionals, and academia, the AlChE has enhanced communication and fostered improvement in the high safety standards of the industry. AlChE s publications and symposia have become an information resource for the chemical engineering profession on the causes of incidents and means of prevention. 

Blewitt D. N., R. L. Petersen, M.R. Ratcliff, and G. Heskestad. 1991. Evaluation of Water Spray Mitigation Systemfor an Industrial Facility. Center for Chemical Process Safety, New York American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 

For 40 years, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers has been involved with process safety and loss control issues in the chemical, petrochemical, hydrocarbon process, and related industries and facilities. 

Nir Keren, an experienced plant engineer and talented graduate student at the Mary Kay O Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A M, took on a benchmarking study to compare MOC practices. He developed a questionnaire and distributed it to more than 50 chemical and petrol chemical industries, refineries, and gas plants. There were responses from 26 facilities. The survey asked about 25 probing questions. His comprehensive paper was presented at a Mary Kay O Connor Process Safety Center Symposium in October 2001 and later published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. [9]... 

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