CCPS (Center for Chemical Process Safety)

The EPA investigation of a 1994 chemical plant tragedy concluded that «the explosion resulted from a lack of written safe operating procedures…» While good written procedures can't guarantee zero accidents, they can reduce the number of accidents caused by human error. This new book shows how to remedy this problem through selecting and implementing actions that promote safe, efficient operations and maintenance, improve quality, continuity, profitability and cost control, build upon and record...

This CCPS Guideline book outlines current transportation risk analysis software programs and demonstrates several available risk assessment programs for land transport by rail, truck, and pipeline for consequences that may affect the public or the environment. Provides introductory transport risk considerations for process engineers Gives guidance on route selection, equipment factors and materials Describes transportation security risk issues and industry practices to mitigate them Includes...

Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety provides guidelines for industries that manufacture, consume, or handle chemicals, by focusing on new ways to design, correct, or improve process safety management practices. This new framework for thinking about process safety builds upon the original process safety management ideas published in the early 1990s, integrates industry lessons learned over the intervening years, utilizes applicable «total quality» principles (i.e., plan, do, check, act), and...

Examines the concept of aging process facilities and infrastructure in high hazard industries and highlights options for dealing with the problem while addressing safety issues This book explores the many ways in which process facilities, equipment, and infrastructure might deteriorate upon continuous exposure to operating and climatic conditions. It covers the functional and physical failure modes for various categories of equipment and discusses the many warning signs of deterioration. Dealing...

The book is a guide for Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA) practitioners. It explains the onion skin model and in particular, how it relates to the use of LOPA and the need for non-safety instrumented independent protection layers. It provides specific guidance on Independent Protection Layers (IPLs) that are not Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). Using the LOPA methodology, companies typically take credit for risk reductions accomplished through non-SIS alternatives; i.e. administrative...

Layer of protection analysis (LOPA) is a recently developed, simplified method of risk assessment that provides the much-needed middle ground between a qualitative process hazard analysis and a traditional, expensive quantitative risk analysis. Beginning with an identified accident scenario, LOPA uses simplifying rules to evaluate initiating event frequency, independent layers of protection, and consequences to provide an order-of-magnitude estimate of risk. LOPA has also proven an excellent...

In today’s competitive economy, companies often augment in-house production by outsourcing chemical reaction processes and distillation, drying, formulating, blending, and packaging operations. While most of these tolling, or contracted manufacturing services, proceed without incident, recent major accidents have pointed to weaknesses in some tolling arrangements, such as reactivity of materials and processes. This Guidelines book provides the reader with proven procedures to improve process...

Batch reaction systems pose unique challenges to process safety managers because they do not operate in a steady state. The sequence of processing steps, and frequent start-ups and shutdowns, increase the possibility of human errors and equipment failures. And, since batch plants are often designed for shared use, frequent modification of piping and layout may occur, resulting in complex «management of change» issues. This book identifies the singular concerns of batch reaction systems—including...

At last, a book that covers safety procedures and standards with information that is rarely available outside of proprietary materials. A comprehensive source for basic and essential operations and procedures in use in any facility, the book offers chemical operators and first line supervisors guidance in applying appropriate practices to prevent accidents, and suggests which practices to avoid.

Written by reliability data experts, the book gives plant managers and supervisors the guidance they need to collect, and use with confidence, process equipment reliability data for risk-based decisions. Focusing on the process industries, it provides the protocol and techniques to collect and organize high quality plant performance, maintenance, and repair data from your own operations, and includes methods and examples on how the data can be converted into useful information for engineering,...

While there are many resources available on fire protection and prevention in chemical petrochemical and petroleum plants—this is the first book that pulls them all together in one comprehensive resource. This book provides the tools to develop, implement, and integrate a fire protection program into a company or facility’s Risk Management System. This definitive volume is a must-read for loss prevention managers, site managers, project managers, engineers and EHS professionals. Note: CD-ROM/DVD...

The process industry has developed integrated process safety management programs to reduce or eliminate incidents and major consequences, such as injury, loss of life, property damage, environmental harm, and business interruption. Good documentation practices are a crucial part of retaining past knowledge and experience, and avoiding relearning old lessons. Following an introduction, which offers examples of how proper documentation might have prevented major explosions and serious incidents,...

Almost all the major accident investigations–Texas City, Piper Alpha, the Phillips 66 explosion, Feyzin, Mexico City–show human error as the principal cause, either in design, operations, maintenance, or the management of safety. This book provides practical advice that can substantially reduce human error at all levels. In eight chapters–packed with case studies and examples of simple and advanced techniques for new and existing systems–the book challenges the assumption that human error is...

First-line managers have to maintain the integrity of facilities, control manufacturing processes, and handle unusual or emergency situations, as well as respond to the pressures of production demand. On a daily basis, they are closest to the operating personnel who may be injured by a process accident, and they are in the best position to spot problem conditions and to act to contain them. This book offers these managers «how-to» information on process safety management program execution in the...

Incidents That Define Process Safety describes approximately fifty incidents that have had a significant impact on the chemical and refining industries' approaches to modern process safety. Events are described in detail so readers get a fundamental understanding of the root causes, the consequences, the lessons learned, and actions that can prevent a recurrence. There are exhaustive investigative reports about these events, allowing you to apply the resulting safety principles to their current...

Inherently Safer Chemical Processes presents a holistic approach to making the development, manufacture, and use of chemicals safer. It discusses strategies for substituting more benign chemicals at the development stage, minimizing risk in the transportation of chemicals, using safer processing methods at the manufacturing stage, and decommissioning a manufacturing plant. Since the publication of the original concept book in 1996, there have been many developments on the concept of inherent...

Over the years, companies have developed independent systems for managing process safety, environment, health, safety, and quality. Many aspects of these management systems are similar. Integrating EHS management systems can yield economies and improved system effectiveness. This book explains how integration reduces cost of delivery through a reduction in the number of management program steps and avoidance of redundancy; how it results in more effective programs, since the best practices can...

Process vent header collection systems are subject to continually varying compositions and flow rates and thus present significant challenges for safe design. Due to increasingly demanding safety, health, environmental, and property protection requirements, today's industrial designers are faced with the need to create increasingly complex systems for more effective treatment, dispersal, or disposal of process gases. Safe Design and Operation of Process Vents and Emission Control Systems...