Operations risk reduction

The book does not focus on occupational safety and health issues, although improved process safety can benefit each area. Detailed engineering designs are outside the scope of the book. This book intends to identify issues and concerns in batch reaction systems and provides potential solutions to address these concerns. This should be of value to process design engineers, operators, maintenance personnel, as well as members of process hazards analysis teams. While the book offers potential solutions to specific issues/concerns, ultimately the user needs to make the case for the solutions that best satisfy their company s requirements for a balance between risk reduction and cost. In many instances the book provides one or more sources of additional information on the subject which could be of value to the reader. 

Hazards and Operability (HAZOP) analysis is an accident detection and prevention technique used primarily by the chemical process industry (CPI) (Lees, 1980). Even though the CPI operates in a different regulatory environment from the commercial nuclear power industry, the goals of risk reduction while maintaining productivity are similar. 

Even, limited PSAs use and contain much information. This information may come as memos and process reports and flow sheets, equipment layout, system descriptions, toxic inventory, hazardous chemical reactions, test, maintenance and operating descriptions. From this, data and analyses are prepared regarding release quantities, doses, equipment reliability, probability of exposure, and the risk to workers, public, and environment. An executive summary analysis is detailed, and recommendations made for risk reduction. Thus the information will be text, calculations of envelope fracture stresses, temperatures, fire propagation, air dispersion, doses, and failure probabilities - primarily in tabular form. 

The Chemical Process Industry (CPI) uses various quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess the reliability and risk of process equipment, process systems, and chemical manufacturing operations. These techniques identify the interactions of equipment, systems, and persons that have potentially undesirable consequences. In the case of reliability analyses, the undesirable consequences (e.g., plant shutdown, excessive downtime, or production of off-specification product) are those incidents which reduce system profitability through loss of production and increased maintenance costs. In the case of risk analyses, the primary concerns are human injuries, environmental impacts, and system damage caused by occurrence of fires, explosions, toxic material releases, and related hazards. Quantification of risk in terms of the severity of the consequences and the likelihood of occurrence provides the manager of the system with an important decisionmaking tool. By using the results of a quantitative risk analysis, we are better able to answer such questions as, Which of several candidate systems poses the least risk Are risk reduction modifications necessary and What modifications would be most effective in reducing risk ... 

Risk Assessment - to identify the risk of an EHS accident associated with a particular EHS operation and, if required, determine the likelihood and consequences of the accidental release in order to develop a risk reduction plan that focuses on accident prevention... 

Notwithstanding the preceding notes, the fact is that whether large boilers or small boilers are involved, the starting point for the proactive reduction in operational risk is effective control of water chemistry. 

One risk-reduction option is to construct a new blast-resistant building in the same location as the existing building. This involves demolishing the existing building, which may cause significant disruption to process plant operations. 

Bioventing technology was developed by the U.S. EPA Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory to treat soil contaminated by numerous industrial wastes, which is subjected to aerobic microbial degradation, especially to promote the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.65 It uses a series of air injection probes, each of which is attached to a low-pressure air pump. The air pump operates at extremely low pressures to allow the inflow of oxygen without volatilization of contaminants. Additional additives such as ozone or nutrients may also be supplied to stimulate microbial growth.77... 

The gap between the process risk and the owner/operator s risk criteria establishes the requirements for risk reduction. The risk gap can be managed by a single safety function or by multiple functions allocated to protection layers. The team defines the risk reduction that must be provided by each safety function and allocates the safety function to a protection layer that is designed and managed to achieve the allocated risk reduction. 

Subsequently, three methods indicating safety risks will be evaluated on these nine criteria discussed above whether indirect safety related operational deviations are used, general conclusions can be derived, detailed cause-effect relationships are available, the method is feasible, the results are reliable, only limited resources are needed, the results can be ranked, a clear link between risk reduction and operational benefit is present, and if all (root)cause areas are included. 

From this analysis it appears that a huge discrepancy exists between deviations prior to accidents, that can be found in normal operation and the pro-active safety indicators and methods in current use. The re-occurring indirect safety related deviations that are the dominant class of events causing accidents are therefore defined as the precursors for accidents, as stated in Chapter 1. Furthermore, from Table 5 it can be concluded that a clear link between risk reduction and the normal way of working is not explicitly present in one of the three methods. Finally, the feasibility of methods (except PRISMA) needs some attention additional expert knowledge is often necessary to apply the method. The focus of the method indicating safety risks developed in this thesis will lie especially on these three criteria. 

Whatever risk reduction methods or technologies are applied, the net result will be a system that must be operated within certain limits. It is essential that safe operating limits be established, documented, and incor-... 

Recommended actions should measurably reduce risks by reducing vulnerabilities and/or consequences through improved deterrence, delay, detection, and/or response capabilities or by improving operational policies or procedures. Selection of specific risk reduction actions should be completed prior to considering the cost of the recommended action(s). Facilities should carefully consider both short- and long-term solutions. An analysis of the cost of short- and long-term risk reduction actions may impact which actions the utility chooses to achieve its security goals. 

Process Hazard Analysis— An organized effort to identify and evaluate hazards associated with chemical processes and operations to enable their control. This review normally involves the use of qualitative techniques to identify and assess the significance of hazards. Conclusions and appropriate recommendations are developed. Occasionally, quantitative methods are used to help prioritize risk reduction measures. 

This principle is fundamental to numerous multilateral agreements and treaties. As mentioned in the conclusions quoted above, in order to make Precaution operational, pre-marketing measures ensuring the availability of an adequate set of information on the properties of chemicals are essential. Thus in order to be "safe instead of sorry" REACH establishes not only the "no data no market" approach but also an authorisation regime for substances of very high concern as they are representing serious hazards to human health and the environment. Particular inherent properties are directly linked to risk reduction measures - an unprecedented application of the Precautionary Principle. 

European eco-labeling of paper products, and in the existing European eco-labeling for cleaners under Regulation 1980/2000/EC. In addition, the EU Commission made further recommendations on risk reduction measures for EDTA. First, it asked EU Member States to establish Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for EDTA, and the national pollution reduction measures to achieve those EQS in 2015 should be included in the river basin management plans in line with the provisions of Directive 2000/60/EC. Second, EU Member States should specify in IPPC permits measures on EDTA to operate to BAT by October 2007, taking into account local circumstances. Further, as BAT is developed, this should be incorporated into the permits. 

These two initiatives, complementary in nature, can make a substantial contribution to the SAICM implementation in terms of risk reduction, knowledge/ information and capacity building/technical co-operation. 

The aim of PRIO is to facilitate the assessment of health and environmental risks of chemicals and identify the need for risk reduction by environmental managers, purchasers or product developers. To achieve this, PRIO provides a guide for decision-making that can be used in setting risk reduction priorities. PRIO was developed in co-operation with other authorities, industry organisations and companies within different sectors. 

Risk assessment. The systematic evaluation of the risk associated with potential accidents at complex facilities or operations. Or, the process by which the results of a risk analysis are used to make decisions, either through relative ranking of risk reduction strategies or through comparison with risk targets. The terms risk analysis and risk assessment are often used interchangeably in the literature. 

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