7.4 Definition of Safe Process Conditions (Step 2)
167
• Description of the control philosophy, process control system, safeguards, etc.
Site Data
• Supply systems for energy utilities and chemicals
• Waste treatment
• Fire protection systems
• Environmental influences at the site including heat, cold, rain, earthquakes, etc.
Management System Data
• Operating and maintenance procedures
• Internal standards and checklists
• Emergency response plan
• Results of previous risk assessment studies (if available)
7.4
Definition of Safe Process Conditions (Step 2)
This step enables the design of the process with the most appropriate conditions to
achieve inherent process safety and reduce or eliminate process hazards. It defines
safe process conditions that should be based on the physicochemical properties and
chemical hazard data collected in the previous step, and these will form the basis for
the subsequent steps of the risk assessment.
Any safe process conditions defined in a previous risk assessment(s) (e.g.,
applicable to processes at later stages of development) should be critically reviewed.
This is important if new information is available, or if changes in the process have
been implemented.
Some examples of how collected data can be applied to define safe process
conditions include the use of:
• Health and environmental hazard data to establish critical threshold values for
health and environmental protection
• Fire and explosion hazard data to identify the need for inerting, creation of an
explosion protection zone, etc. 3
• Chemical interaction matrices to indicate which substances should never come
into contact with each other, the material that should be used for the processing
equipment, and the substances that could react with utilities, air, and water
• Thermal hazard data for the design of the heat and cooling systems, charge
volumes, etc. The analysis of thermal hazards will be introduced in detail in
Chap. 8.
3 How to establish safe process conditions in the presence of fire and explosion hazards is discussed
in more detail in Appendix C.
167
• Description of the control philosophy, process control system, safeguards, etc.
Site Data
• Supply systems for energy utilities and chemicals
• Waste treatment
• Fire protection systems
• Environmental influences at the site including heat, cold, rain, earthquakes, etc.
Management System Data
• Operating and maintenance procedures
• Internal standards and checklists
• Emergency response plan
• Results of previous risk assessment studies (if available)
7.4
Definition of Safe Process Conditions (Step 2)
This step enables the design of the process with the most appropriate conditions to
achieve inherent process safety and reduce or eliminate process hazards. It defines
safe process conditions that should be based on the physicochemical properties and
chemical hazard data collected in the previous step, and these will form the basis for
the subsequent steps of the risk assessment.
Any safe process conditions defined in a previous risk assessment(s) (e.g.,
applicable to processes at later stages of development) should be critically reviewed.
This is important if new information is available, or if changes in the process have
been implemented.
Some examples of how collected data can be applied to define safe process
conditions include the use of:
• Health and environmental hazard data to establish critical threshold values for
health and environmental protection
• Fire and explosion hazard data to identify the need for inerting, creation of an
explosion protection zone, etc. 3
• Chemical interaction matrices to indicate which substances should never come
into contact with each other, the material that should be used for the processing
equipment, and the substances that could react with utilities, air, and water
• Thermal hazard data for the design of the heat and cooling systems, charge
volumes, etc. The analysis of thermal hazards will be introduced in detail in
Chap. 8.
3 How to establish safe process conditions in the presence of fire and explosion hazards is discussed
in more detail in Appendix C.