Facility Hazard Analysis

Various extractions have been taken fiom the basic hazard analysis format. The SSHA looks only at hazards within a subsystem. Likewise, the SHA concentrates on system-level hazards. PHA looks only at the initial design of the system. Fault hazard analysis emphasizes faults in a system that can create hazards. As stated previously, these hazard analyses reaUy are all the same thing. 

There is one that is sufficiently different that it should be treated separately— the facility hazard analysis. As the name implies, it focuses on hazards in a facility. The same hazard analysis procedure is used, but emphasizing facilities and the facility acquisition process. The purpose of the facility hazard analysis is to apply hazard analysis techniques to a facility and its operations for the entire facility life cycle—from concept through disposal. The facility is construed to mean actual buildings, the area around the buildings, and the operations into, out of, and inside the buildings. Specifically, it looks at items such as the following  

It is difficult to list all, or even the majority, of the items that fit into the description of a facility. The purpose of the preceding list is to give a flavor of what kinds of things you need to look at in a facility hazard analysis. Appendix C offers a very general outline of some of the items that should be considered in a facility hazard analysis. Obviously, you should start with this list and expand it to include the unique features of your facility. The functional divisions in Appendix C also can help you set up your functional tree. 

System Safety Engineering and Risk Assessment A Practical Approach 

a PHL is developed (use Appendix C as a starting point). The PHL is divided into hazard categories. The functional tree is created. Then the actual facility hazard analysis is started. Each hazard is assigned a severity and probability level, and the other portions of the hazard analysis worksheet are completed. Then a system safety assessment is performed and the worksheet results are analyzed. 

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It is also beneficial to use system safety tools from other industries. One snch tool is hazard analysis, which is used to help identify and control hazards in a syston. The technique, though invented in the military and aerospace industries and used in the mass transit industry, can easily be applied to the manufacturing world. In fact, facility hazard analysis is a specific use of hazard analysis in facility acquisition. The U.S. Navy has used it for many years in all of their facility constructions and renovations. The Navy has used it for such things as construction or modification of fuel depots, pier, and dry dock upgrades and for entire submarine bases. 

The facility hazard analysis follows the same path and sequence of order as the hazard analysis process (review Figure 5.2 to refresh your memory). As mentioned in Section 2.6, the safety managanent system in a facility should also use the hazard reduction precedence design out the hazard, use safety devices, use warning devices, and finally, use special procedures and training. 

A few deviations from the hazard analysis procedure are unique to facility hazard analysis and need to be discussed. 

The purpose of a facility hazard analysis is to identify and evaluate hazards and make recommendations for the elimination and control of hazards. The major safety concerns that facility managers should address are loss of life or serious injury to personnel, reportable (to the Enviromnental Protection Agency and/or state and local agencies) hazardous materials discharge to the environment, serious damage to facilities or equipment resulting in large dollar loss, and hazards that could have serious adverse effects on the plant or company mission capability, operability, or public opinion. 

As with other safety analysis tools, the facility hazard analysis should be performed as early in the program as feasible. The same hazard analysis format can be used, with the columns filled in with preliminary or available information. The facility hazard analysis should be revisited at the 30%, 60%, 90%, and 100% design review stages, updating the worksheets as information becomes available. When the acceptance inspection and operations review is conducted, the facility hazard analysis should again be updated. The same holds for facilities that are modified or retrofitted. 

This section gives detailed, real-life examples of how hazard analysis, facility hazard analysis, and operating and support hazard analysis are applied. It is a difficult exercise to devise examples that are not overly complex, and therefore too long to be included here, and yet not make them trivial and nonrepresentative. The examples presented are actual engineering problems however, the presentation has been truncated while retaining the important points that must be emphasized. It should be noted that these are not complete analyses but rather pieces of analyses that demonstrate how the technique is applied. 

Brief Example of a Hazardous Waste Storage Facility Hazard Analysis... 

We have seen considerable detail of how to conduct a hazard analysis with an example of shooting lasers into the ozone layer and have also learned how to perform a facility hazard analysis. Though the processes of performing a hazard analysis and a facility hazard analysis are the same, it is still worthwhile to show very briefly the advantages of one application of facility hazard analysis—analyzing a hazardous waste storage facility, something all industries around the world must contend with. 

The engineers performing the facility hazard analysis of the hazardous waste facility used the following hazard resolution process ... 

The facility hazard analysis worksheets will not be reproduced here, but some of the more interesting findings were as follows ... 

The test facility safety analysis can be conducted with a facility hazard analysis. The facility hazard analysis is performed when the facility is brought online and periodically when facility modifications take place. 

Chapter 5 discusses tracking hazards to closure. A sample facility hazard analysis template is shown. Many safety and risk experts will use the term risk register. It is essentially the same thing. Table 13.2 illustrates an example risk register. 

This generic checklist can help identify hazards and hazard sources in a facility. As you can see, this list is very similar to the two previous appendixes, mixing both functional areas and specific devices. Also, some of the areas overlap, just as they do in many industrial plants. Because there are a plethora of different kinds of facilities around the world and in different industries, this list is only something to help get you started on a facility hazard analysis. 

I thank Bill Crittenden and John Rauscher for their incisive comments and support in developing the HAZOP example. Albert Powell contributed significantly with his ideas for the facility hazard analysis section. Special thanks to Adrian Rad for supplying information for the laser example. Because their examples are so useful, I ve reproduced them for this edition. 

A PHA has heen performed for new facilities. The management of change documentation packages and referenced documents should indicate when a process hazard analysis was performed for the modification or new facility. The PSSR Team should verify all of the PHA recommendations have been implemented or otherwise resolved before the toll process can be judged ready to operate. 

For new facilities, the initial process hazard analysis (PHA) has been performed and recommendations have been resolved. ... 

While RP14C provides guidance on the need for process safety devices, it is desirable to perform a complete hazards analysis of tlie facility to identify hazards that are not necessarily detected or contained by process sLifety devices and that could lead to loss of containment of hydrocarbons or otherwise lead to fire, explosion, pollution, or injury to personnel. The industry consensus standard, American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 14J, Design and Hazards Analysis for Offshore Facilities (RP14J), provides guidance as to the use of various hazards analysis techniques. 

Hazards analysis techniques fall in two broad categories. Some techniques focus on hazards control by assuring that the design is in compliance with a pre-existing standard practice. These techniques result from prior hazards analysis, industry standards and recommended practices, results of incident and accident evaluations or similar facilities. Other techniques are predictive in that they can be applied to new situations where such pre-existing standard practices do not exist. 

The trainee will visit other departments in the head office to learn about the supporting facilities which are available such as non-destructive testing, metallurgical and failure analysis, hazard analysis and quality assurance. Emphasis is laid on safety, i.e. the integrity and safety of the plant in operation and on the surveyor s own personal safety. It is important that the trainee understands the techniques involved, particularly the limitations of their application. 

According to DOE-STD-1027-92, the level of hazard analysis required for a nuclear facility SAR is determined by the facility s nuclear hazard classification as follows. 

Although risk analysis of new facilities is required by Ref. 39, the method of conducting the analysis is left quite open. The reference suggests fault hazard analysis, fault tree analysis, or sneak circuit analysis. Ref. 41 is an example of a thorough hazards evaluation and risk analysis for a new facility at Radford Army... 

A designer, as part of his facility design analysis, should perform a hazards analysis or risk assessment of the various processes which will be conducted within the facility in order to determine what potential thermal dangers or threats exist to personnel and equipment. A hazards analysis or risk assessment will provide for the identification of potential hazards and of the necessary corrective actions/measures to prevent or control the hazard. Early in the design of a facility, the processes and equipment may be conceptual and at this stage, a preliminary hazards analysis can be performed. It is early in the design that a preliminary hazards analysis can be most helpful because its... 

The facility is subjected to a process hazard analysis commensurate to the level of hazard the facility represents (i.e., Checklist, PHA, HAZOP, What-If review, Event Tree, FMEA, etc.). The results of these analyses are fully understood and acknowledged by facility management. Where high risk events are identified, quantifiable risk estimation and effects of mitigation measures should be evaluated and applied if productive. 

American Petroleum Institute (API), RP-14J. Design and Hazards Analysis for Offshore Production Facilities. First Edition, API, Washington, D.C., 1993. 

For larger or more complex facilities, a systematic approach to identifying incompatibility scenarios and analyzing their severities and likelihoods may be warranted. A process hazard analysis (PHA) approach such as a hazard and operability (HAZOP) study can be an effective tool to facilitate such an effort, and may be required by regulation if the process falls within the scope of regulations. These methods are discussed in Section 4.5. 

Realistically, the information available to perform risk studies varies over the lifetime of a process. During the early stages of process development, analysis teams may only have access to basic chemical reactivity hazard data, such as may be obtained from suppliers and literature resources. By the time a facility reaches the detailed design phase, most of the basic design and operating information should be available and used in any study of the facility hazards and risks. 

The Paterson facility was not aware of the decomposition reaction. The Process Safety Information (PSI) package, which was used at the Paterson plant to design the Yellow 96 production process in 1990, served as the basis for a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) conducted in 1995. The PSI noted the desired exothermic reaction but did not include information on the decomposition reaction. 

This checklist may be used to stimulate the thinking of inherent safety review and process hazard analysis teams, and any other individuals or groups working on process improvements. It is intended to promote "blue-sky" or "out-of the-box" thinking, and to generate ideas that might be usable in an existing facility or a "plant of the future" concept. 

The concept of a safety case comes from the requirements of the European Union/European Community (EU/EC) Seveso Directive (82/501/EC) and, in particular, regulations that the United Kingdom and other member states used to implement that directive. United Kingdom regulations (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards [CIMAH], 1984 replaced by Control of Major Accident Hazards Involving Dangerous Substances [COMAH] in 1999) require that major hazardous facilities produce a safety report or safety case.64 The requirement for a safety case is initiated by a list of chemicals and a class of flammables. Like the hazard analysis approach (Section 8.1.2), experts identify the reactive hazards of the process if analysis shows that the proposed process is safe, it may be excluded from additional regulatory requirements. 

The General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 states that "Each employer. shall furnish to each of his employees, employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees ... More specifically, Section (e)(3) of 29 CFR 1910.119 states that process hazard analysis shall address facility siting. OSHA has recognized and pointed out the... 

The EDS II test program includes testing and design studies needed for a preliminary design of a full-scale pilot plant, a preliminary hazard analysis, development of a full-scale cost estimate, and a schedule for construction and operation of a facility employing the AEA technology. 

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