A web-based collection and analysis of process safety incidents

Analysis of Chemical Engineering curriculum to improve process safety competency

Continuous process safety (PS) development is the key to maintain a good PS system where its competency plays a substantial role. However, PS incompetency can still be found in several process-related accidents particularly major catastrophic incidents. To mitigate this gap, analysing universities' PS education is performed. Because PS is an important element of chemical engineering (CE), this study seeks to identify the most prevalent PS subjects taught in the top 300 QS ranking (2019) universities. Findings exhibited PS education remain insufficiently addressed in undergraduate CE curriculum over the years. 12 common topics i.e., human factor, management: hazard, incident, and risk, design, fire and explosion, legislation and standards, sustainability, process control, economics, toxicology, and software are discovered. Notably, sustainability is acknowledged to be a new common PS topic, depicting its demand for industrial revolution. Ultimately, strengthening the collaboration between universities and industries is required for the development of graduates' PS competency.

Survey of psychiatric impairment among residents exposed to environmental pollution from a petrochemical complex

PURPOSE

This study first assessed the occurrence of major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), symptoms of poor sleep quality and high levels of distress among residents, caused by reported long-term stress from environmental pollution emitted from the biggest petroleum chemistry factory (PCF) in the world.

METHODS

A total of 328 long-term residents (Mean age = 57.5, SD = 16.5 years, ranging from 22 to 95) were recruited randomly from a total population of 26,632 in Mailiao township in Taiwan next to the PCF. Trained assistants used the Disaster-Related Psychological Screening test, the Perception of Life Threats Caused by the SCNP questionnaire and the Sleep Quality Scale to interview the participants.

RESULTS

The results support our hypotheses that most of the residents (71%) would report life threats caused by the PCF. The residents displayed higher rates of major depressive episodes (24.1%), PTSD (24.5%) and symptoms of poor sleep quality. The more they felt threat from the PCF, the stronger the connection with MDD and PTSD symptoms.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate an increased prevalence of MDD, PTSD and symptoms of poor sleep quality in those exposed to environmental pollution from the PCF, highlighting the need for prompt prevention, diagnostic and therapeutic attention.

Guidance to improve the effectiveness of process safety management systems in operating facilities

The Process Safety Management (PSM) systems at the operating facilities in the Oil & Gas and in Chemical manufacturing industries have matured over the years and have become, at most facilities, very robust and sophisticated. These programs are administrated by Process Safety (PS) teams at both the corporate business units and plant levels and have been effective in reducing the number and severity of PS events across the industries over the past 25 years or so. Incidents however are occurring at a regular interval and in recent times several noteworthy PS events have occurred in the United States which have brought into question the effectiveness of the PSM programs at play. These facilities have been applying their PSM programs with the expectation that the number and severity of PS events would decrease over time. The expected result has not been realized, especially in context to those facilities that have undergone the recent incidents. Current paper reviews a few publicly available PS performance reports of Oil & Gas and Chemical manufacturing industries. The authors identified a few factors at play that have led to these PS events based on their experience, literature review, and incident investigation reports. Most of the factors are intertwined with multiple PSM elements and it requires a holistic approach to address them. Each of the factors is described and the path forward is proposed to improve the effectiveness of PSM programs.

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Incidents keep happening even though there is substantial decrease in PS incidents.

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Recent PS events in US show necessity for continuous improvement of PSM program.

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Authors use experience/findings to identify factors at play that affect PSM programs.

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Guidance is proposed for improvement of PSM programs.

Liquid flammability ratings predicted by machine learning considering aerosolization

Liquid flammability is classified based on flash point as in NFPA 704, GHS, and OSHA. However, flash points become insignificant when the liquid is in aerosol form, which is evident from numerous incidents revealing that a liquid can be ignited below its flash point when an aerosol. In this study, two machine learning (ML) methods are utilized to propose liquid flammability ratings while considering aerosolization. 823 compounds from the Design Institute for Physical Properties 801 database are used in this study. The first method rates the liquid flammable hazards and probability of aerosolization separately and then uses the proposed safety index to combine the contribution of flammable hazards and aerosolization. The second method uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to create two principal components, then clusters the liquids based on these two principal components. The PCA method advange is the weight of each property is automatically considered. A traditional risk assessment utilizes a risk matrix, this study uses two ML clustering algorithms are applied, K-means Clustering (KC) and Hierarchical Clustering (HC). Based on expert judgment, the HC algorithm gives a more reasonable rating of the probability of aerosolization, while the KC algorithm has a more reasonable rating on liquid flammability clustering.