SAFETY & HEALTH
INGENIEUR
Process
Safety –
Concept and
Importance
By Azizul bin Buang, Centre of Advanced
Process Safety (CAPS), Universiti Teknologi
Petronas &
Ir. Abdul Halim Shah bin Maulud, Chemical
Engineering Department, Universiti
Teknologi Petronas
I
n process industries, raw materials are
converted into intermediate or final products
using physical and/or chemical processes.
Process industries produce, store, transport, use
and dispose of large quantities of materials, most
of which are inherently dangerous. The potential
for catastrophic accidents is very high due to
the hazardous nature of the chemicals used and
the hazardous process reactions and operations
e.g. temperature, pressure, radioactivity etc. The
potential loss of life and the economic costs due
to process accidents are huge and industries must
take steps to prevent them and minimise their
consequences.
Accidents in process industries have, in the
past led to loss of life and damage to equipment,
economic losses and environmental pollution.
Because of the inherent potential for the
catastrophic losses, the process industries have
rigorously pursued operational/process safety.
Process safety is of critical importance to
ensure the sustainability of industrial activities.
It is to ensure safe processes and operation
throughout the life of an industrial plant.
Unfortunately, the importance of process safety
has often only been promoted after highvisibility industrial incidents. The driving force for
operational and process safety has been primarily
based on catastrophic events, characterised by
dramatic casualty tolls, significant environmental
damages and financial losses.
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70
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- DECEMBER 2016
VOL68
55OCTOBER
JUNE 2013
What is Process Safety?
Simply, process safety is a subject on how to make
sure processes are safe. Process safety is centrally
concerned with preventing critical releases of
energy or of substances in harmful quantities, and
with limiting the magnitude and consequences of
such releases should they occur. Process safety is
achieved by reducing hazards and their associated
risks to a level which is deemed acceptable by the
organisation and society at large. Consequently,
process safety mainly involves identification and
control of process hazards.
Why Process Safety?
In the 1970s and 1980s there were sequences
of severe process safety accidents causing major
loss of life and asset damage. The best known
were Flixborough (1974), Bhopal (1984) and
Philips Pasadena (1989).
The release of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from
the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal,
India, in December 1984 has been called the
worst industrial accident in history. At least 2,000
people died and another 200,000 were injured
when toxic gas enveloped the city. The accident
was linked to human error - a relatively new worker
was assigned to wash out some pipes and filters,
which were clogged [1, 2]. The worker properly