NTSB Safety Alert Urges Pilots to ‘See and Be Seen’ in the Air

NTSB Safety Alert Urges Pilots to ‘See and Be Seen’ in the Air

The safety alert has parallels in Process Safety. I feel that with overdependence on automation and technology, plant operators also are slowly forgetting how to run a plant!


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Piping failure incident

 Read about a case study of a piping failure incident due to external corrosion in this link


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Phosphoric acid tank explosion

The late Dr Trevor Kletz had written about this incident in a safety bulletin:

'Small quantities of hydrogen are usually produced when corrosion occurs. If the hydrogen cannot escape and accumulates in the plant, an explosive mixture may be formed. This has caused some fires or explosions in surprising places. Some years ago an explosion occurred in a storage tank of phosphoric acid due to hydrogen produced by corrosion. The tank vent discharged downwards near a walkway. A welding spark ignited the escaping hydrogen and blew the roof off the tank.

The tank was modified so that the vent was in the centre of the roof and the hydrogen could escape easily".

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OSHA cites DuPont for deadly 2014 leak at La Porte facility - FOX 26 News | MyFoxHouston

OSHA cites DuPont for deadly 2014 leak at La Porte facility - FOX 26 News | MyFoxHouston



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HPCL pipeline bursts in Panjikallu - diesel leakage creates scare

HPCL pipeline bursts in Panjikallu - diesel leakage creates scare



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Process Safety Challenge

PROCESS SAFETY CHALLENGE

A fertiliser plant burns natural gas in a hot air generator and uses the hot air to dry the product. The natural gas line inside the enclosed fertiliser plant building is getting corroded due to the corrosive atmosphere inside. Recently, a leak occured in the natural gas line due to corrosion. The NG line pressure is 2.5 barg. A suggestion to enclose the NG line inside the building with an enclosure and providing gas detectors within that enclosure has been raised. You are the MOC (management of change)  approving authority. Will you agree for this change? If not, please list down your comments.

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Firefighters, DuPont employees evaluated after leak at plant

Firefighters, DuPont employees evaluated after leak at plant


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Be careful while cleaning "empty" drums

During drum washing operations, a 45 gallon drum exploded due to a buildup of pressure inside the drum.The force of the explosion resulted in the drum flying out of the site onto the roof of a neighbouring building.The drum was one of a batch 70  "empty" drums delivered to the site to be cleaned.The drums all contained residues of acetyl-chloride (a water reactive substance).
Treat "empty" drums with great care! It may look innocent but can kill.


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Flames shoot out of smokestack at oil refinery | The Pueblo Chieftain

Flames shoot out of smokestack at oil refinery | The Pueblo Chieftain

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LOPA and its usefulness

 I posted this question in a PSM group in LinkedIn:

"I am interested to know whether a comprehensive study has been done anywhere, after the introduction of LOPA in the late 90's, with the study objective - "Has LOPA actually led to a reduction in incidents?"
Thanks, in advance.."

William Bridges, one of the co inventors of the LOPA technique posted his comments as follows:

"I doubt seriously if such a study is possible as you have to hold ALL OTHER influences constant and then start doing LOPA after that. I think this would be useless graduate project as well (for the same reason).

As one of the co-inventors of LOPA, the greatest improvements I have seen from the introduction of a LOPA, are from using the definition of an IPL within PHA/HAZOPs and from maintaining all IPLs per their respective industry best practices.

At a macro scale, it does not appear that introduction of LOPA or even introduction of process safety best practices have reduced the number of catastrophic accidents. This is no fault of the methods or disciplines; this is because Most companies still choose to do the bare minimum. Some companies have made great strides due to implementing best practices in risk assessment and process safety management; the majority have NOT improved because (1) their PHAs/HAZOPs still fail to find scenarios during all modes of operation so they are missing IPLs they need for those modes of operation, or (2) they fail to maintain IPLs appropriately, or (3) they fail to implement effective steps against the effectives of corrosion, erosion, or external impacts (for which there are no IPLs)."

 
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Process safety and jugaad!

During my trips to Uttar Pradesh, I often see a "Jugaad" modification that highlights the innovativeness of India.  A people transporter, fitted with a agriculture pump set engine powers the vehicle. I was commenting about the vehicle to my driver, when he asked me a question "Do you know what is the brake fluid they use in that vehicle?". Then he told me that it was sachets of one rupee shampoo!!
I marvelled at the inventors ingenuity. Which brings me back to PSM and management of change. India should not loose its sense of innovation, while at the same time, it should manage the changes in a technically right way.....

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