Process equipment material hazards

Has all processing equipment handling hazardous materials been designed to minimize inventory ... 

Asking workers to help identify hazardous processes, equipment, materials, etc. the hazards associated with each and what needs to be done to eliminate or compensate for those hazards. Workers should be involved in every process. 

Process Safety Information PSSR assists in verifying that process safety information (PSI) for equipment, material hazards, and technology is updated in a timely shion. 

Elimination/minimization of the hazard—Designing the facility, equipment, or process to remove the hazard, or substituting processes, equipment, materials, or other factors to lessen the hazard ... 

AvaUabUity and cost of raw materials and processing equipment Simplicity and cost of manufacture and inspection Manufacturing hazards PropeUant viscosity and flowabUity Environmental considerations... 

Because many of the techniques, especially those associated with the recovery of materials and energy and the processing of solid hazardous wastes, are in a state of flux with respect to application and design criteria, the objective here is only to introduce them to the reader. If these techniques are to be considered in the development of waste-management systems, current engineering design and performance data must be obtained from consultants, operating records, field tests, equipment manufacturers, and available literature. 

Often batch process equipment needs to be located inside buildings. This is usually the case when the process needs to be shielded from extreme heat/cold conditions, the elements, and/or needs to be kept sterile. This leads to the need to provide adequate building ventilation to avoid buildup of hazardous material due to leaks and other process emissions. When the operation of a process involves opening, cleaning, charging etc., point source ventilation may also need to be provided. 

Beeause the diisoeyanate is used in exeess, there is usually free monomer present. Isoeyanates are hazardous materials particularly upon inhalation and skin contact. Chronic exposure ean lead to sensitization. The adhesives must therefore be used with proper ventilation and should not come in eontact with the skin in the unreaeted state. Vapor monitoring badges for employees and periodie real time vapor monitoring around process equipment is reeommended. 

When designing a plant, every piece of process equipment should be specified as large enough to do its job, and no larger. We should minimize the size of all raw material and in-process intermediate storage tanks, and question the need for all in-process inventories, particularly of hazardous materials. Minimizing the size of equipment not only enhances inherent process safety, but it can often save money. 

Minimize or eliminate in-process inventory of hazardous material, including inventory in the processing equipment as well as in tanks. Elimination of intermediate storage tanks will likely require improvements in the reliability of the upstream and downstream operations. 

Is process equipment located to minimize length of hazardous material piping ... 

The information to be compiled about the chemicals, including process intermediates, needs to be comprehensive enough for an accurate assessment of the fire and explosion characteristics, reactivity hazards, the safety and health hazards to workers, and the corrosion and erosion effects on the process equipment and monitoring tools. Current material safety data sheet (MSDS) information can be used to help meet this requirement but must be supplemented with process chemistry information, including runaway reaction and over-pressure hazards, if applicable. 

Leaks of process materials are the process industries biggest hazard. Most of the materials handled will not burn or explode unless mixed with air in certain proportions. To prevent fires and explosions, we must therefore keep the fuel in the plant and the air out of the plant. The latter is relatively easy because most plants operate at pressure. Nitrogen is widely used to keep air out of low-pressure equipment, such as storage tanks (Section 5.4), stacks (Section 6.1). centrifuges (Section 10.1), and equipment that is dcpressured for maintenance (Section 1.3). 

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 ... 

A traditional checklist analysis uses a list of specific items to identify known types of hazards, design deficiencies, and potential accident scenarios associated with common process equipment and operations. The method can be used to evaluate materials, equipment, or procedures. Checklists are most often used to evaluate a specific design with which a company or industry has a significant amount of experience, but they can also be used at earlier stages of development for entirely new processes to identify and eliminate hazards that have been recognized through operation and evaluation of similar systems. To be most useful, checklists should be tailored specifically for an individual facility, process, or product. 

Hazardous substances present in the process are identified on the basis of their flammability, explosiveness and toxicity. The flammability of gases and vapours of flammable liquids is a great concern in the process industries. The result of an ignition can be a fire or an explosion or both. Accidental fires and explosions of flammable mixtures with air often follow the escape of combustible materials or inlet of air into process equipment. 

Safeguards against Toxicity Hazards Certainly the best protection against toxicity hazards is complete containment of hazardous materials within processing equipment. 

Locating process equipment to minimize the length of hazardous material piping runs... 

Chemical and hazardous materials industry infrastructure includes substantial facility and equipment investment it is highly capital intensive. Most chemical industry facilities contain very specialized process equipment that would be difficult to replace quickly. A good example is an oil refinery plant, where if the cracking facilities were destroyed they could not be replaced anytime soon. It is interesting to note that some chemical industry facilities (e.g., oil refineries) require large amounts of land (have a large footprint) but are typically staffed with few employees relative to on-site land requirements. 

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