Process Safety - Keep it simple

I often think that today we are complicating things too much in process safety, in an already complicated World! This generation of plant operators have been inundated with technology. While some of the technology is excellent, not all of them really help the plant operator. Information overload is the bane of today's PSM programs. When I was a shift in charge at an ammonia plant, we had pneumatic control system (no DCS), but it was so user friendly. I would sit in the center of the control room and at a glance I got to know the plant status. The control room had three operators - one for the front end of the plant, one for the back end and one senior guy looking after both. During emergencies, the senior guy would coordinate the actions very swiftly as he could see the complete plant status just at a glance. The whole ammonia plant had only about 200 alarms that were located on the panel. The critical ones were painted red. By experience we would know which alarm meant what! We never had a serious process safety incident!!I managed to get some pictures to illustrate what I am talking about. 

Our control room looked similar to the one at the left. The table at the center was a flat table. The shift engineer used to sit at this table.The control panel is just below the clock.The flowsheet of the entire plant (called a mimic) was depicted at the panel top

This was a field controller.  See how simple it is! The red arrow is the setpoint.

 This temperature recorder was similar to the one we used to record secondary reformer top temperature and methanator temperature.









The message I am trying to convey is try to keep it as simple as possible. Buy only what you want and not what you get! (This is especially true for DCS and electronic instrumentation)

PSM and PDCA cycle

The PDCA cycle is the core of any management system. I have seen a common trend from investigating root causes of many chemical plant process incidents - it appears that many of the root causes are due to following the PDCA cycle in a different way: DCA,no P -DO, CHECK, ACT and No PLAN! Fire fighting efforts take place to immediately attack an issue. Productivity, cost cutting and efficiency improvements often take place without undergoing the management of change process. This is why I feel that while certifications to OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001, Responsible Care etc are good, the sustainability of such certifications become questionable. This is evidenced by fatal accidents in companies that are certified. How do we solve this issue? I believe that the onus lies with the top management. If top management are clear about process safety and its implications, then you do not need any system at all! Unfortunately, there is a huge knowledge deficit about the technical aspects of running a chemical plant and the importance of PSM. Recently I had implemented PSM in a pesticide manufacturing unit where the head of the unit was a hardcore experienced chemical engineer. His understanding of the technical nitty gritties of PSM helped me greatly during the implementation. I will end my ranting by repeating two things that Dr Trevor Kletz has said and is highly relevant to Process safety management: 1.Walk the talk! 2.Keep it simple!

WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all my subscribers and readers,
Wish you and your family a very happy New Year!

Fatality at ammunition factory

A fatal accident at an ammunition factory has even experts "baffled". The article mentions "Mule, a permanent employee, was described as a highly skilled worker. The incident happened around 2.10 pm when he was about to go for lunch. AFK officials said there was a spark and suddenly Mule was on fire. Showing presence of mind, Mule sprinted towards a water tank and doused the fire. Otherwise, the fire could have spread causing much damage, said some of the employees". Maybe static electricity was the cause??
Read the article in this link
Read another article in this link

The dangers of aerosol cans

Yesterday I had been to the birthday party of my friend's eight year old daughter. The kids were playing with an aerosol can which generated foam thread, when pressed. None of the kids were aware of the hazards of the aerosol can and that the gas used as a propellant was flammable! What does this have to do with process safety? We also use aerosol cans for dye checking or lubricating/removing rust etc. Read the warnings on the can before you use them. Propane and butane are often used as propellants and the escaping gas can catch fire if a source of ignition is present. Also do not dispose empty aerosol cans in a fire. They can explode.
Thanks to R.Sriram for sending these tips on aerosol cans:

• Aerosols contain a product and a propellant that are packed under pressure.  
• Many people use aerosols without realizing some of the potential hazards associated with them. 
• Oven cleaners, tile cleaners, pesticides, disinfectants, hair sprays, room deodorizers, paints, and furniture polishes are examples of aerosol products. 
• When the nozzle of an aerosol is pressed, the product and propellant are released from the container in a fine mist. The actual product propelled by the aerosol, such as some oven cleaners, can be corrosive, flammable, or poisonous. Acute symptoms of aerosol exposure include headache, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, throat irritation, and skin rash. 
• A misdirected spray can cause eye injury and chemical burns. 
• Never leave or place an aerosol can near high heat sources, such as a heater, direct sunlight, or fire. 
• Keep aerosol cans away from children and pets. 
• Never puncture or subject an aerosol can to sharp impact; a sudden puncture may cause an explosion. 
• Dispose the Aerosols in a proper way.

A water tank kills

A supervisor was killed when he attempted to rescue his fellow worker who had collapsed after entering an empty water tank. Investigation is on to determine what was present inside the water tank. If a water tank can kill, just imagine the hazards you face when you enter a confined space in a chemical factory. Follow your company procedures strictly and don't take any confined space for granted. Read the article about the water tank fatality in this link.

Two killed in pharma factory fire near Hyderabad

A news article mentions that a fire in a pharma factory at Patancheru has killed two people. The article mentions that
"According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuit. The fire broke out in the evening, and spread to neighboring factories. Fire-fighting personnel had to battle for five hours to control the flames.This is the second such accident in three days. Four workers of a chemical factory were killed in a reactor blast at Polepalli Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla in Mahabubnagar district near Hyderabad last Friday".
Read the article in this link
See a photo in this link.

The dangers of sewers

Two people were reportedly killed in a factory in Chennai when they entered a sewage tank that was not opened for a long time. Be careful of sewers in your factory and residential colonies. Entry should be done only with proper confined space entry permits

The dangers of water hammer

Many of you would have heard the "banging" noise that a water hammer produces inside a pipeline. We also do not expect a pipeline to be destroyed by water hammer. But it happens. An article by Gregg Basnight mentions the following:
"Contrary to old operating practices to drain and warm up steam lines, "Cracking Open" valves in lines to bleed condensate under steam pressure is NOT safe and has resulted in numerous reported water hammer fatalities.Before admitting steam to any line, the condensate must be removed. Condensate should be assumed to be in all low points and dead legs until proven otherwise by verification of drain or steam trap position and operation. Pressurized dead legs without functioning traps or periodic manual blowdowns will have condensate present. The affected section of piping should be isolated, depressurized and drained before restoring steam to the system".
Read the full article in this link.

Give importance to sight glasses

30 years ago, in the ammonia plant where I worked, the sight glass of a high pressure (200 Kg/cm2) ammonia separator leaked during start up. Luckily we managed to shut the plant down safely with no injury to anyone. The root cause was the wrong torquing procedure used. A good article about sight glasses mentions the following:

"Proper design, installation and maintenance of sight glasses are the keys to their safe and effective use....a sight glass almost always fails in tension rather than compression. This is similar to the case for concrete, because glass is not ductile and cannot stretch like metal. Therefore, tiny imperfections in a sight glass window can create stress concentrations, which are potential failure points. Just the touch of a finger on the window can reduce the tensile strength of a virgin glass element by three orders of magnitude from one million to 1000psi. Although design and manufacturing flaws are important, most sight glasses fail due to improper installation. Mechanical stress is a frequent cause, arising from the over-tightening or uneven torquing of bolts that generate bending loads on the glass. When an existing sight glass window is replaced, trapped debris may become a problem if old gaskets have baked onto the flanges. While this may seem trivial, it is actually very dangerous. Even small contaminant particles or build-up might be enough to scratch, pit or bend the new glass during installation".

Read more: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Sight-Glass-Safety-A-Major-Process-Plant-Concern/1604779#ixzz1gkkBXVxV
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

Laser scanning - a tool for Management of change and Asset Integrity

The most difficult elements to implement in a PSM program are management of change and asset integrity simply because of the large quantity of data involved and less time available. I was reading an interesting concept of laser scanning in an article in Power magazine. It mentions the following:
"Laser scanning also provides a dimensionally accurate representation of the plant and all its equipment as well as a photographic quality visual representation. The laser scan database can be integrated with a variety of plant design applications to provide comprehensive facility management support".
The concept will be very useful for PHA teams who are analysing changes/modifications as they can virtually "see" the proposed modification. It is also an useful tool for managing your asset integrity as another article mentions.
Read the article on laser scanning in this link
Read the article on Virtual asset integrity management in this link.

US Unions briefing on Process Safety

The USW union of the US has briefed the US Congress about health and safety problems in the oil industry. As per a news article,"USW Health and Safety Specialist Kim Nibarger outlined five fatal flaws at the briefing on where the oil industry needs to improve its health and safety record: process safety, mechanical integrity, management of change, incident investigation and control room alarms and instrumentation. “When things go bad in a refinery, they go really bad and people die,” he told the briefing. “Focusing on personal safety—the wearing of hard hats and safety glasses, slips, trips and falls—says nothing about how safe a refinery is for workers and the surrounding community. BP had a low personal injury rate at its refineries, but the 2005 explosion and fire at its Texas City plant showed it failed miserably in terms of process safety. Fifteen people were killed and 170 were injured in the 2005 accident as a result of this failure. “The oil companies are playing Russian roulette with their equipment,” Nibarger said. “They are doing quick, stopgap fixes, like placing clamps on pipes instead of replacing the pipe. They’re extending the time between unit shutdowns when all the equipment is checked. When there is a shutdown they’re not always repairing or replacing critical equipment. When they do repair equipment they’re not bringing it up to current RAGAGEP (Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices) standards.”
If the above sound familiar to you, take a hard look at your PSM program!
Read the full article in this link.