Do you require your HAZOP Chairman to have good knowledge of your process to be HAZOP'd...

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Do you require your HAZOP Chairman to have good knowledge of your Latest Updates
process to be HAZOP'd? If so don't you think you're limiting your candidate
field?
As a HAZOP Leader that has done many HAZOP's I find that initimate knowledge of the
particular process to be HAZOP'd is not really necessary. My approach is that the participating
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HAZOP team members are the experts. I have now led HAZOP's on a range of diverse facilities
such as LPG storage depot, Rice husk power plant, Dry Chemical Product Packaging plant,
Heat Recovery Boiler for Cement plant, and now about to start on a Plasma technology Waste
to Energy plant.
In most cases it only takes about a day of pre-preparation reading and looking at the drawings
to get a good idea of the systems and likely nodes.
Prior and intimate exposure to the process to be HAZOP'd is thus not critical. Do you agree?
1 month ago

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14 comments

Colin S. Howat • I tend to agree as long as the team is well-balanced, with detailed
knowledge. I do believe that pre-prep is necessary to have an overview of the process. I
use this to develop questions that I will need answered during the course of the HazOp to
ensure that the team hasn't overlooked some aspect of installation, operation and
underlying fundamentals. Ads by LinkedIn Members
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Denise Chastain-Knight, P.E., CFSE • The HAZOP facilitator does not need to be
knowledgeable in the process. Their role is to guide the technical team through a proper
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review methodology. Even if the facilitator is knowledgeable in the process, they should
not participate technically in the HAZOP. Social Recruiting
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I find that a brief review of the P&IDs is adequate to get a sense of any unfamiliar process.
As we move through the nodes, I ask a process expert to provide a detailed description of Candidates, Extend Your Reach. Free!
the process.This calibrates the team to 'normal operation'. I define the first node befor the
meeting, but assign others as we progress thru the process.
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1 month ago • Like

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Omar Bin Zia • Going back to the basics of HAZOP, the HAZOP Leader/Chairman needs
to be skilled in asking questions. You need not to be an expert in that field.
1 month ago • Like

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Gary Pilkington • In addition to having a good grasp of the technique and leading the
team, there are a couple of other thoughts I have on HAZOP leadership:

--- It adds a lot of value to a HAZOP if the leader is extremely competent in process safety
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management generally. In many of the plants that I have led HAZOPs the teams have not
had a concept of some of the potential risks on the plant and I have had to call on my
experience to 'educate' the team. Not to have done so would have meant an inneffective
HAZOP.

--- Experience of a wide range of industries is an advantage as this means that good
practices from these can be brought into the HAZOP, rather than being limited to the usual
assumptions.

--- An independent member of the team who is not too familiar with the process design
can 'ask the stupid question'.
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On balance, I think an independent, experienced with a wide variety of industrial Director
experience is a must for an effective HAZOP. Manager

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Gary
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Jeremy Goldbloom • I agree. The facility of intelligent lateral thinking is far more
important than specific experience of the Hazoped process.
1 month ago • Like
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Ian Bell • No different to incident investigations really. Omar is correct, it is about asking
good quality questions, probing answers and selecting relevant people who will challenge
each other and understand the interconnections between assets in the HAZOP team.
1 month ago • Like
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Daniel Wege (daniel.wege@gmail.com) • I do agree! Once I had to do a HAZOP of a

wall! And know nothing of civil engineering. Focus on technique is the way to aply a
HazOp on any system (from a glass of water to a nuclear reactor)
1 month ago • Like
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Jack O'Keeffe • A Lead does need to know enough about the subject to know when a
comment or question in the discussion is significant and should be developed. The
fundamental requirement is that there is enough expertise at the table and like an
orchestra conductor - the leader must be able to bring out the important contributions and
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quieten the "noise"
1 month ago • Like

subhash kumar choudhary • i have carried out hazop for the cychlohaxane reactor at
fact(fertilizer and chemicals trawankor).i am doing project on the hazop for the neptha
craker unit at iocl,panipat india...
1 month ago • Like
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kumar

Omar Bin Zia • For HAZOP the team members need to be experts and the team would be
cross functional, however (as commented earlier) the team leader should be well versed
in asking questions. While doing HAZOP the chairman would indeed be coming with some
relevant background e.g. HAZOP for refinery unit will require services of a chemical
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engineer as lead who indeed has some background knowledge of fundamental principles.
The skill of the recorder should also not be underestimated.

All in all, for doing PHA a broad mindset is needed to think what can go wrong. Fixed
ideas are dangerous. If only expertise had been the yardstick, then there would never
have been accidents on the units which have carried out PHAs'.....
1 month ago • Like 1

S M Kumar • I suggest you all look at the responses on another query raised 3 months
back - "Do you think the experience based on being in operation units is necessary for a
chairman or experience based on engineering works in EPC, consultants, etc companies"

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It is good to say that the team members need to be experts. In how many hazops, you get
the right team. I used to think that hazop leader need not know the process being
hazoped. But after reviewing missed hazards or poor recommendations, I am no longer
sure.
27 days ago • Like

Ochuko Emetovweke • HAZOP study is a team based activity. For me, the HAZOP
leader should:
Have basic operational knowlegde of the facilities he is hazoping. This will help him to
know when the team is deviating from what is required. Usually, prior to the hazop study,
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the chairman is given documents (P&IDs, basics of design, operating manual etc) From
this documents he does his personal study of the process. Also every HAZOP study is
espected to produce recommendations that when impleted will help to improve the
operation of the process. So if he lacks basic knowledge of the process, how will he
differentiate good recommendations from poor ones. So saying that HAZOP chairman is
not required to have a basic knowledge of the process is not acceptable in the industry.
4 days ago • Like

David Graham • I always prefer to know something about the process being studied. That
allows me to know when the designer is trying to "cover up" things which they should have
included in the design.
It happens you know! In one case, the Contractor would not accept perfectly sensible
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recommendations to relocate instruments so that they would be in the process flow, rather
than in a stagnant zone. The client wasn't there!

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In another case, the HAZOP leader went ballistic when the process engineer contributed a
safeguard that was completely wrong.
If the HAZOP team includes an independant person who knows about the type of process
being studied, then the HAZOP Leader doesn't need to know.
HAZOP used to be a relatively standard procedure, but it's now bastardised by numerous
procedures, some of which I've seen are completely mickey-mouse.
4 days ago • Like 1

Daniel Wege (daniel.wege@gmail.com) • I agree with David.

I think the leader should have a trained reasoning to find "the devil in the details", if he
knows the process will be easier, if do not know, he will depends more on the team,
having to have constant feedback from the team.
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This may affect your critical thinking about the validity and relevance of the
recommendations, since the team is likely to include recommendations of lower work effort
and design change, some of them may increase the cost effectiveness of the project
without the risk.
How many times have you heard?
- Do not need to put this cause, it never does happen here.
And you have to force: - Is it possible?
4 days ago • Like

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