Chemical Process Safety

ChE 405: Process Design I

Dr. Syeda Sultana Razia

Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering

 Overview of Presentation

❑ Process Safety: what, how, where/when?

❑ Occupational vs Process safety

❑ How accidents occurs: Examples

❑ Bangladesh Scenario

❑ Existing rules and regulations

❑ Safety culture

❑ Process Safety Management System

 Chemical Process Industry

Processes that belong to chemical industry are

• Manufacturing of substances/materials on an
industrial scale from other materials
– by chemical processes
– by separation refining and purifying
The industry also includes gas and oil
industry and power generating plants
 Chemical/Process Industries in Bangladesh
(Public Sector)
• BCIC: Bangladesh Chemical Industries
Corporation
– Fertilizer factories: Urea , TSP, DAP
– Glass/ ceramics/ insulators/cement factories
– Paper mills
• BPC: Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation
– Crude oil refinery
• Petrobangla:
– Gas well drilling (?), gas processing and distribution
 Chemical/Process Industries in Bangladesh
(Private Sector)

• Urea Fertilizer factory: • Salt and sugar

KAFCO • Pulp and paper
• Gas drilling(?) and • Soap and detergents
processing: Gazprom, • Beauty products
Chevron, NIKO, • Food processing
ConocoPhillips, Santos
• Gas transmission
• Glass and ceramics • Basic Chemicals
• Cement factories • Pharmaceuticals
• Condensate refineries • Textiles and leather
 What is ‘Safety in Process Plants’?
• The word “safety” used to mean the older strategy
of accident prevention through the use of hard hats,
safety shoes, and a variety of rules and regulations.
The main emphasis was on worker safety.
• Much more recently, “safety” has been replaced by
“loss prevention.” This term includes hazard
identification, technical evaluation, and the design
of new engineering features to prevent loss.
Example: LPG safety
LEL: approx. 2 vol%

PEL: 1,000 ppm for

LPG
 Safety in Chemical Industry
Occupational Safety Process Safety
(Safety in the use of chemicals) (Major Hazard control)

We need to ensure both occupational and Process Safety

 Process Safety vs Occupational Safety
Process safety Occupational safety
• Focuses on prevention of • Primarily covers the
fires, explosions and management of personal
accidental chemical releases safety: creating working
in chemical process facilities conditions that prevent
or other facilities dealing injuries in general.
with hazardous materials • Examples: falls ,tips, slips
• Examples: Toxic release, crushing, electronics etc.
fire, explosion • Low consequences, High
• High consequences, Low frequency
frequency accidents
Improvement of personal safety does not mean automatic
improvement in process safety
BP Texas City Refinery Explosion 23 March, 2005
• Hydrocarbon vapor
cloud exploded at
the isomerization
process unit killing
15 workers and
injuring more than
170 others
• Miscommunication
and instrument
malfunctioned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goSEyGNfiPM

Updated BP Texas City Animation on the 15th Anniversary

of the Explosion - YouTube
 Why is Process Safety Important?

“Chemical plants are the safest of all manufacturing facilities.

However, the potential always exists for an accident of
catastrophic proportions.”(Source : Crowl and Louvar, 2002)
 Why is Process Safety Important? (cont’d)
• Immediate effects Bhopal, India (December
3, 1984)
– Fatalities within the  Immediate effects: Killed
boundary and 2000 civilians in adjacent
town and injured 20,000
surrounding
 Long term effects:
communities
 Soil and ground water
– Property damage pollution inside and
nearby area
• Long term effects  gas affected population
– Environment of 520,000.
 200,000 were below 15
– Future generation years of age, and 3,000
were pregnant women
Process Safety: Where to Apply ?
Process safety is applied to
• Storage of materials
• Transportation of materials on road, rail,
water and in air
• Manufacturing and refining of materials
Process safety is for all materials with
hazardous properties or under hazardous
conditions
 Process Safety: When to Apply?
Safety at All stages
• Design
• Construction and Commissioning
• Operation
• Shutdown
• Maintenance
• Transportation
The concept of inherently safer design starts from the
Process development (R&D) and pre-design stage
 Definitions

• Safety/loss prevention: the prevention of accidents through

the use of appropriate technologies to identify the hazards of
chemical plants and eliminate them before an accident
occurs.
• Hazard: a chemical or physical condition that has the
potential to cause damage to people, property, or the
environment.
• Risk: a measure of human injury, environmental damage, or
economic loss in terms of both the incident likelihood and
the magnitude of loss and injury.
 Risk Assessment
Chemical Accidents: Consequence
Risk = Probability  consequence

Risk
assessment

Hazard Scenario
information consideration

Probability
Industrial Chemicals

Occupational safety

Globally Harmonized System

GHS classification (UNEP)
Environmental safety

Prevention of
Chemical
disaster
 Types of Chemical Plant Accidents

Type of Probability Potential Potential

accidents of for for
occurrence fatalities economic
loss
Fire High Low Intermediate

Explosion Intermediate Intermediate High

Toxic Low High Low

release
The 4 Main Causes of Accidents in a Chemical Plant

• Human error
• Improper training
• Manufacturing defects
• Improper maintenance
Hardware Related to Accidents
 Layers of Protection
Typical Layers of
Protection
exist in process
industries
 How Accident Occurs (cont’d)
The ‘Swiss cheese’ model of

SSAP
organisational accidents 2

Some holes due Hazards

To active failures

Other holes due to

latent conditions
Losses
Successive layers of defences
Reason’s “Cheese Model”
James Reason, presentation to Eurocontrol 2004
James Reason - The Management of Safety, SSAP Launch Event 17/02/2004
 Inherent Safety Technique
• Depends on chemistry or physics to prevent accidents rather than on control
system, interlocks, redundancy, special operating procedures
• It specially directed to process design features , for example:
– Minimize:
• reduce storage, hold-up, inventory of hazardous material
– Substitute:
• use chemicals with higher flash points, use water as heat transfer fluid instead of oil
– Moderate:
• reduce process temperature & pressure, control room away from operations
– Simplify:
• keep piping system neat and visible
Example of Disaster: Bhopal, India (December 3, 1984)

• Plant Location: Madhya Pradesh, central India; nearest inhabitants

were 1.5 miles away, but a shanty town grew nearby.
• Produced Pesticides; owned by Union Carbide and partially owned
locally
• Intermediate compound methyl iso-cyanate (MIC): reactive, toxic,
volatile, flammable and vapor heavier than air.
• MIC unit was not operating because of labor dispute
 Example of Disaster cont’d

• Accident:
– Storage tank containing large amount of MIC became contaminated by water, heated by
reaction; vapor traveled through pressure relief system into a scrubber and flare system
that was not operating
– 25 tons toxic MIC vapor released, spread to the adjacent town killing over 2000 civilians
and injuring 20,000 more. No plant workers were killed.
• Recommendation:
– Alternative reaction scheme or redesigning of the process with reduced inventory of
MIC (less than 20 pounds)
 Example: Bhopal Tragedy (Dec 3,1984)
➢ 40 tons of
toxic MIC
vapor was
released
➢ Failure of
several
safety
system
➢ Inadequate
emergency
planning
and
community
awareness
 Major Incidents in Bangladesh
Date Location Release Consequence Short Description
Sep 1974 UFFL, NH3 2 killed, 17 injured Ammonia Control room explosion
Ghorashal
June, 1991 UFFL, CO2/NH3 11 Fatalities,50 injured, Explosion of high pressure CO2 stripper during
Ghorashal Estimated property loss: the startup, release CO2 and NH3, Employee
US$ 60 M exposed to toxic gas and 7 died on spot
June 2005 Magurchhara NG Environmental damage Gas well blowout (Occidental)

Jan 2005 Tangratilla NG Environmental damage Gas well blowout (Niko)

October, 2011 Global Heavy Cl2 100 seriously exposed Pipe failure due to rust and Cl2 gas leaks to
Chemicals, to toxic surrounding area
Narayongonj gas
22 Aug, 2016 DAP-1, NH3 50 hospitalized, 325 tons of ammonia release due to a drastic
Anawara, environmental damage explosion of 500 MT ammonia tank.
Chittagong
4 March 2023 Seema O2 six people died and caught fire after and explosion
Oxygen Plant injured 30 more
in Sitakunda
 Case-1: CO2 Stripper failure (UFFL, 1991)
Incident Description:
▪ On 20 June 1991, at 00:10 AM, Carbon
dioxide stripper exploded during start-
up.
▪ CO2 gas and liquid ammonia was
pumped into the high pressure
stripper. At the time of the explosion,
stripper pressure reached 160 kg/cm2.
▪ Two loud explosions occurred and a
large quantity of toxic gas was
released to the environment. Control
room power system failed. Stripper
main body fell out and was lifted up
30-35 ft. CO2 stripper after the
▪ 11 fatalities and estimated property explosion
loss 62.5 million USD
 Case-1: Safety Issues

▪ Pre-start-up safety reviews were not

adequate
▪ Process Hazard Analysis was not performed
▪ Mechanical Integrity failure: defective
fabrication/welding of stripper column.
▪ Faulty facility layout and poor design of
control room
▪ Safety drill and procedures were not
followed
▪ Absence of emergency response planning
 Case-2: NH3 release (DAP-1, 2016)
Incident Description: Top

▪ At around 9:30 PM on 22 August 2016,

500MT anhydrous ammonia tank suddenly
exploded catastrophically and released 325
tons of anhydrous ammonia
▪ The tank was completely lifted from its base
and landed about 35 ft away from its base
▪ Fire fighters used water to contain the
release toxic gas
▪ 250 people became sick and many were
required hospitalization
▪ Ammonia that diffused into water bodies
increased pH and had an adverse impact
on the overall aquatic ecosystem
Bottom
 Case-2: Safety Issues

▪ Failures of pressure relief system, alarm

system
▪ Process Hazard Analysis was not performed
▪ Mechanical Integrity failure: inspection and
certification
▪ No safety audit and inspection
▪ Absence of additional layer of protection
▪ Absence of emergency response planning
▪ Inadequate community planning and lack of
awareness of potential impact of NH3 release
 Challenges
▪ Could these incident have been prevented?
▪ Do we have any safety regulation and good
safety culture?
▪ Do we have any management system that is
needed to control process safety issues?
 Existing Rules and Regulations
• The Boiler Acts 1923
• Industrial rules and regulations 1961
• Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI)
Ordinance, 1985
• Bangladesh National Building Codes,1993
• The Environment Conservation Rules,1997
• Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, amended in 2013
• The Chemical Weapons (Prohibition) Act, 2006 and
Enrolment Rules, 2010
• National Occupational Health and Safety Policy, 2013
 Summary of rules and regulations
• Sultana Razia Syeda, Framework for Sound Management of
Chemicals: Toward a Sustainable Chemicals Industry in
Bangladesh , ACS Chem. Health Saf. 2020, 27, 288−298
 Existing Rules and Regulations

• Occupational safety : Bangladesh Labor

(Amendment) Act, 2013 (Issued on September
2015)
– a new section concerning emergency exits (section
62);
– a new section for access to gangways, stairs etc. for
workers (section 72)
– a new section 78a concerning mandatory use of
personal safety equipment
– notification of competent authority in case of
incident (section 80)
– a new section on formation of a safety committee
(section 90a); (Chemical Management Guides)
Codes for Indoor Storage of Hazardous Material

• Bangladesh National
Building Code 2020
– Containment
– Access to the facility
– Number of exits
– Fire detection, alarm, and
extinguishing system
– Fire protection plan
– Fire safety staff
– Fire safety drill
Existing Rules and Regulations
Bulk storage:
• Petroleum Rule 2018 and
BERC LPG Storage, Bottling,
Dispensing and Distribution
Codes and Standards (June,
2016)
Chemical Transportation safety
• Petroleum rules 2018
– at least one guard/crew
accompanying the driver in
the vehicle
– driver/crew trained in the
handling of accidental spills
 What do We Need?

Safety Regulations
Safety Education and Safety culture
Safety Management System

• Management of Occupational safety

• Two noteworthy US regulation for Process safety management and improving safety
culture
• PSM (OSHA-1992): General requirements for managing hazardous substances; with focus to
protect on-site people
• RMP (EPA-1996)- is aimed at decreasing number & magnitude of accidental releases of toxic
& flammable substances, with focus to protect off-site people & environment
• These are applicable to facilities producing greater than a threshold amount of hazardous
substances
Process Safety Management System
OSHA: Process Safety Management (PSM)
General requirements for managing hazardous substances; with
focus to protect on-site people

Why do we need Process Safety

Management (PSM) ?
❑ Prevent Catastrophic release of Highly
Hazardous Chemicals.
❑ Minimize consequences of such release to
employees and the community and the
Environment
 14 Elements of PSM
Management of Risk
Commit to Safety
▪ Operating Procedures
▪ Employee Participation
▪ Training
▪ Contractors Safety
Understanding hazard and risk
▪ Pre-startup Safety Review
▪ Process Safety Information
(PSI) ▪ Mechanical Integrity
▪ Process Hazard Analysis ▪ Hot Work Program
(PHA) ▪ Management of Change
▪ Emergency Planning and
Learn from experience Response
▪ Incident investigation ▪ Trade Secrets
▪ Compliance audit
Process Safety Information (PSI)
Technology Information:
Process flow diagrams, process chemistry, maximum
inventory, safe upper and lower limits, consequences of
deviation
Chemical Information:
Physical data, toxicity information, permissible exposure
limits, reactivity data, corrosivity data, thermal and chemical
stability data, hazardous effects of inadvertent mixing
Equipment Information:
Materials of construction, P&ID, electrical classification, relief
systems design and design basis, ventilation system design,
design codes employed, material and energy balances, safety
systems
Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)
PHA Should be Performed
at Least Every Five Years to Minimize the Likelihood of
Occurrence and the Consequence of a Dangerous Substance
Release
Recommended Methods:
✓ What If (what could go wrong)
✓ Checklist (specific issues, no brainstorming)
✓ What If/Checklist
✓ HAZOP (rigorous, HAZard and OPerability study)
✓ FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis)
✓ FTA (Fault Tree Analysis)
Need timely resolution of issues identified by PHA
Objective: Hazards Identification and Control of Hazards
 Operating Procedures
Written Operating Procedures which are specific to the person or
persons for each of the facility's operating areas

The Procedures Must Address Each of the Following:

✓ Initial Startup
✓ Normal Operation
✓ Temporary Operations
✓ Emergency Operations
✓ Normal Shutdown
✓ Startup Following Turnaround
✓ Any other work activity even if taken on a one-off basis
 Employee Participation

❑ Written plan of action

❑ Consult with employees on the conduct and

development of process safety programs

❑ Provide access to PHAs and all other information

developed for the process safety programs

Objective: Accountability
 Training and certification
Certified Training Must be Provided to all Personnel
Responsible for Operating the Facility

Training Should Include:

✓ Initial Training
✓ Refresher and Supplemental Training
✓ Communication of Facility / Process Changes
✓ Contractor Training
 Pre-Startup Safety Review
Pre-Startup Safety Review for New and Modified
Facilities
• Construction is in Accordance with Design
Specifications
• Safety, Operating, and Emergency
Procedures in place
• Resolution of PHA Recommendations
• Employees and contractors have been
trained

Objective: Hazards Identification and Control of Hazards

 Mechanical Integrity
▪ Establish and implement written procedures to maintain
the mechanical integrity of:
- Pressure vessels and storage tanks
- Piping systems
- Relief and vent systems
- Emergency shutdown (ESD) systems
- Controls, alarms, and interlocks

▪ Includes written procedures, training on preventative

maintenance, schedule for inspections / testing, process
to correct deficiencies, and process to ensure
equipment & spare parts are being maintained.
 Safe Work Practice
▪ Permit to work system, e.g., for hot work, confined
space entry, de-energizing equipment and lock-out/tag-
out
▪ Fire Prevention and Protection Requirements
▪ Safe Conduct of Operating, Maintenance, and
Modification Activities
▪ Control of Materials and Substances
▪ Control of Access to Process Areas
 Management of Change

Establish and Implement Written MOC

Procedures Which Address:
✓ Technical basis (except for in-kind
replacement)
✓ Potential impact on safety and health
✓ Modifications to operating procedures
✓ Necessary time period for the change
✓ Authorization requirements

Objective: Hazards Identification and Control of Hazards

 Incident investigation
Accidents and Incidents that Result in, or Could
Reasonably have Resulted in, a Major Accident Must be
Investigated
Incident Investigation Report:
• Date of Incident
• Team knowledgeable of process
• Date Investigation Began
• Description and duties
• Drill down and establish roots causes and relevant
factors
• Summery of lessons to be learned
• Recommendations to reduce hazards and likelihood of
future incidents

Objective: Accidents and learning from accidents

Emergency planning and response
➢ Establish and Implement an Emergency Action
Plan

➢ Plan generally includes written procedures,

internal and external notifications, by & to
whom, training / drills, and timeframe

Objective: Checking that there is an emergency plan

that is fit for purpose and that when practiced it works
well
 Compliance Audit
An audit is only possible when there is a management system in place with
procedures and requirements for record keeping.You then audit to test
whether these standards are being met.

Conduct Audit
✓ Certify evaluation of compliance
✓ Verify procedures and practices are adequate and being
followed
✓ By self, by company representatives, by a consultant
Audit Team (At least one person knowledgeable in the process)
Report of Findings
Determine Appropriate Response to Each Finding
✓ Correct Deficiencies
✓ Document actions at least Every
✓ Track to completion Three Years
Retain Two Most Recent Audit Reports