Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
A few weeks ago, Senator Frank Lautenberg proposed Secure Chemical Facilities Act (S. 3559) to the Senate committee on Homeland Security. The bill mandates Inherent Safer Technology (IST) or Inherently safer design (ISD) at high-risk chemical facilities.
Knowing the uncertainties surrounding the mere definition of inherent safety, one could say that it ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Risk Perception, Security | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Chemical processes and designs are increasingly being evaluated for inherent safety - i.e. reduce the hazard rather than the risk. The philosophy behind inherent safety is 'What You Don't Have, Can't Leak' and so you take necessary steps to reduce the hazard.
Issues where inherently safer approaches can be successfully applied are fairly ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Natural gas pipelines have caused incidents leading to fatalities, injuries, and property damages.
To be precise, there have been an average of 50 serious gas pipeline incidents every year in the U.S. between 1990-2009 (Source: http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/comm/reports/safety/SerPSI.html?nocache=4823) resulting in more than 300 fatalities. Majority of the reported gas incidents have occurred on the gas ...
Posted in Failure Data, Inherent Safety, Natural Gas Pipelines | 4 Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
A process is described as inherently safer if it reduces or eliminates one or more process hazards and this reduction or elimination is accomplished through changes that are permanent and inseparable.Below are strategies for achieving inherent safety:
Minimize : Use small quantities of hazardous substances
Substitute: Replace a material with a less ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Inherently safer philosophy represents a slightly different approach to risk mitigation. Instead of focusing on mitigating risks, an inherently safer alternative focuses on eliminating the hazards.Let us look at couple of inherently safer examples.
HF Alkylation
There are four alternatives available to perform alkylation:
Pure HF: Potential high ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Regulations | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
A few weeks ago, I had written about a recent fire at the alkylation unit in Citgo’s Corpus refinery, and raised the question about HF usage. Today, I would like to further delve into the alternate technologies for alklyation and also take this opportunity to summarize feedback I have received ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 31st, 2009
On the morning of July 19, a fire in CITGO's Corpus Christi refinery injured a worker. The incident occurred in the alkylation unit of the refinery.
The refinery used Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) as a catalyst for alklyation . Typically in the alkylation process, isobutane and olefins are combined (in presence of ...
Posted in Chemical Accidents, Inherent Safety, Toxicity | 4 Comments »
