Process Plant Safety

CHE F413

Text Books:

BOOKS

T1: Crowl D.A., and Louvar J.F., Chemical Process Safety:

Fundamentals with Applications, Pearson Education,
India 3ed , 2013.
T2: Fulekar M.H., Industrial Hygiene and Chemical
Safety, I.K. International, New Delhi, 2006.
Reference Books:
R1: Sanders R.E., Chemical Process Safety: Learning from
case Histories, Butterworth-Heinemann, An imprint of
Elsevier, Boston, 2007.
R2: K.S.N.Raju, Chemical Process industry safety, TataMcGraw Hill Pub, 2014
R3: Loss Prevention Hazard Idenitification, Assessment
and Control Volume 1-3 by Frank P Lees, B-H publication

Safety-Evaluation Scheme
EC Evaluation
No. Component

Duration Weigh Date & Time

(min)
tage

1.

Test I

60

25

22nd Feb (4-5

PM)

CB

2.

Test II

60

25

28th Mar(4-5
PM)

OB

3.

Attendance/Quiz
>85%
80-85%
70-80
<70
Comprehensive 180
examination

4.

Nature of
Exam

10
To be announced
100%
75%
50%
0
11th May 2016 OB/CB
40
AN

Chamber consulting hr : Friday (AN :3-5 :PM)

Safety-Overall Course
Topics :
1.Introduction
2.Toxicology
3.Industrial hygiene
4.Source models
5.Dispersion models
6.Fire and Safety models-Flammability
diagrams
7.Hazard identification, HAZOP
8.Risk assessment
9.Relief concepts-types
10.Onsite, Off site emergency and safety audit

Introduction to Safety

The chemical industry more complex
processes, high pressure, more reactive and exotic
chemistry

More complex process requires complex safety
technology which leads to chemical engineers
need a more detailed and fundamental
understanding of safety.

Safety is equal in important to production and
has developed into a scientific discipline

Introduction to Safety Continue

Examples of the technology of safety
include
Dispersion models representing the
spread of toxic vapor through a plant
after a release.
Mathematical technique to determine
the various ways that process can fail,
and the probability of failure

Introduction to Safety Continue

The word safety older strategy
accident prevention by using hard
hats, safety shoes, and variety of
rules and regulation.

Now replaced by loss prevention
which includes hazard identification ,
technical evaluation, and the design
of new engineering feature to prevent
loss

Three important terminologies

Safety or loss prevention the prevention of accident
through the use of appropriate technologies to
identify the hazards of a chemical plant and eliminate
them before accident occurs
Hazard a chemical or physical condition that has
the potential to cause damage to people, property or
the environment
Risk a measure of human injury, environmental
damage or economic loss in terms of both the
incident likelihood and the magnitude of the loss or
injury

Three important terminologies-Cont

Chemical plants contain a large variety of
hazards.
There are the usual mechanical hazards that cause
worker injuries from tripping, falling or moving
equipment
There are chemical hazard includes Fire and
explosion hazards, reactivity hazards and toxic
hazards.

Safety Programs
A successful safety program requires several
ingredients.
System
Attitude
Fundamentals
Experience

Time
You

Safety Programs-Contd
System: the program needs a system:
To record what needs to be done to have
an outstanding safety program
To do what needs to be done.
To record that the required tasks are done.
Attitude:
The participants must have a positive
attitude. This includes willingness to do
some of the thankless work that is required
for success.

Safety Programs-Contd
Fundamentals
The participants must understand and use
the fundamentals of chemical process safety
in the design, construction and operation of
their plants.
Experience
Everyone must learn from the experience of
history or doomed to respect it.
Read and understand the case histories of past
accidents
Ask people in their own and other organizations
for their experience and advice.

Safety Programs-Contd
Time
Everyone should recognize that safety takes time.
This includes time to study, time to do the work,
record results, share experience and to train or be
trained.
You
Everyone should take the responsibility to
contribute to the safety program.
A safety program must have the commitment
from all levels within the organisation.
Importance equal to production.

Accident and loss statistics

It measures the effectiveness of safety program.
Whether process is safe or safety procedure is
working effectively.
Many statistical methods are available but must be
used carefully.
Like most statistics are only averages and do not
reflect the potential for single episodes involving
substantial losses.
No single method is capable of measuring all required
aspects.
The three systems to be considered are
OSHA incidence rate
Fatal Accident Rate (FAR)
Fatality rate or deaths per person per year

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

OSHA
Occupational safety and Health Administration
OSHA is responsible for ensuring safe working
environment.
OSHA incidence rate
It is based on cases per 100 worker years. A worker year
assumed to contain 2000 hours (50 work weeks/yr x 40
hrs/week).
It is calculated from the Number of occupational injuries
and illness and the total number of employee hours worked
during the applicable period.

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

OSHA incidence rate
It provides information on all types of work
related injuries and illness , including fatalities.
It provides better representation than system
based on fatalities alone.
For instance , a plant might experience many
small accident with resulting injuries , but no
fatalities.

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

Fatal Accident Rate (FAR)
It report number of fatalities based on 1000
employee working their entire lifetime.
The employee assumed to work a total of 50
years. So FAR based on 108 working hours

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

Fatality Rate
The fatality rate or deaths /person/year is
independent of the no of hours worked and it
report only the no of fatalities
expected/person/yr

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

Recognizing that the chemical industry is safe,
why is there so much concern about chemical
plant safety?

The concern has to do with the industry's
potential for many deaths, as, for example, in
the Bhopal, India, tragedy.

Accident statistics do not include information
on the total number of deaths from a single
incident. Accident statistics can be somewhat
misleading in this respect.

Accident and loss statistics-Contd

For example, consider two separate chemical plants.
Both plants have a probability of explosion and complete
devastation once every 1000 years.
The first plant employs a single operator. When the plant
explodes, the operator is the sole fatality. The second plant
employs 10 operators. When this plant explodes all 10
operators succumb.
In both cases the FAR and OSHA incidence rate are the
same; the second accident kills more people, but there are
a correspondingly larger number of exposed hours.
In both cases the risk taken by an individual operator is
the same

Nature of the Accident process

Fires are the most common, followed by explosion

and toxic release.

With respect to fatalities, the order reverses, with
toxic release having the greatest potential for
fatalities

Nature of the Accident process

Types of loss in largest chemical plant accidents

Engineering Ethics
Engineers are responsible for minimizing losses
and providing a safe and secure environment for
the company's employees.
Engineers have a responsibility to themselves,
fellow workers, family, community, and the
engineering profession.