The Ingenieur Vol 59 July-Sept 2014 The Ingenieur Vo. 59, July-Sept 2014 | Page 21

Photo 3.0: Scene after the explosion and fire in the MgSt and ZnSt processing plant.

of explosive atmospheres being present, require
engineering specialists capable of assessing,
designing and project managing all aspects of
potentially explosive process risk. There is a
Malaysian Standards, MS IEC 60079-10-2:2010
for such combustible dust atmospheres which
engineers and plant owners should follow.
Process system safety is concerned with
understanding the consequences of failure as it
affects people, environment and property. Hence,
for such combustible dust process plants the
engineers must undertake assessments of the
risks associated with the zoning and location of
a product (system), relative to people and other
highly hazardous systems. This is important in
the design of safe systems to determine what can
go wrong and how to mitigate actual or potential
losses.
Consequently, chemical plant and refinery
explosions that have happened globally in the past
have brought about inherent safer design concepts
which are similar to process safety systems in the
mitigation, if not the elimination of hazards, but are

primarily directed toward the controlled release of
unwanted energy.

Conclusion
Hazard and risk analysis requirements have to
be taken seriously by engineering professionals if
they are to achieve the goal of reducing product
failures. Too often the method is given lip service
as a mere paper exercise, so that serious failures
continue to plague specific industries.
The aforesaid engineering failures and
incidents that have given rise to fatalities, serious
injury or property losses including incidental and
consequential losses, can be mitigated if safe
engineering practices are adopted and upheld. It
clearly follows that hazards and risks arising from
product are foreseeable and, if failure were to
happen, they can be mitigated or localized and will
not lead to the total failure of the product.
This paper also illustrates briefly how forensic
engineering investigation can play an important
role in reducing risk and improving technology
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