Inherently Safer Chemical

Processes

Course Instructor

Engr. Kareem Bakhsh

Submitted by
Zamir Khan
UW-11-Ch.E-BSc-54

Contents
CHAPTER 2
Introduction
A Way of Thinking
The Role of Inherently Safer Design Concepts in Process Risk Management
When Do We Consider Inherently Safer Options
Inherent Safety Trade offs
Resolving Inherent Safety Issues
Inherently Safer Design Strategies

Introduction

What is inherently safer "chemical process ?

"Inherent has been defined as "existing in something as a permanent and in
separable element, quality, or attribute. According to (American College
Dictionary,1967).

safer if it reduces or eliminates

the hazards associated with Materials and operations used in the
process, and this reduction or elimination is permanent and in
separable.

A chemical manufacturing process is inherently

Hazard is defined as a physical or chemical characteristic that has the potential for
causing harm to peoples , the environment , or property (adapted from CCPS,1992).
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Some specific examples of hazards include:

Chlorine is toxic by inhalation.

Sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive to the skin.
Ethylene is flammable.
Steam confined in a drum at 600 psig contains a significant

Amount of potential energy(Pv energy).

Acrylic acid can polymerize ,releasing large amounts of heat

Growl and Louvar (1990 ) describe a three-step process which

most accidents Occur:

Initiation: the event that starts the accident

Propagation: the events that maintain or expand the accident
Termination: the events that stop the accident or diminish it in size
Inherently safer strategies can impact the accident process at any of the
three stages .The most effective strategies will prevent initiation of the
accident. Inherently safer design can also reduce the potential for
propagating an accident, or provide an early termination of the accident
sequence before the reare major impacts on people; property, or the
environment.
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The Role of Inherently Safer Design Concepts in Process Risk

Management
Risk is defined as a measure of economic loss ,human injury, or
environmental damage in terms of both the incident likelihood and the
magnitude of the loss ,injury, or damage.
In general, the strategy for reducing risk, weather directed toward reducing
frequency or consequence of potential accidents, can be classified in to four
categories.

These categories ; in decreasing order of reliability, are:

Inherent Eliminating the hazard by using materials and process

conditions which are non hazardous; e.g. substituting water for a flammable
solvent.

PassiveMinimizing the hazard by process and equipment design features

which reduce either the frequency or consequence of the hazard with out
the active function in of any device; e.g the use of equipment rated for
higher pressure.

These categories ; in decreasing order of reliability, are:

Active: Using controls, safety interlocks, and emergency shutdown system

to detect and correct process deviations; e.g a pump that is shutoff by a
high level switch in the down stream ank when the tank is 90% full. These
systems are commonly referred to as engineering controls.

Procedural:

Using
operating
procedures,
administrative
checks,
emergency response, and other management approach to prevent
incidents, or to minimize the effects of an incident. e.g hot-work procedures
and permits. These approaches are commonly refer red to as administrative
controls.

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III.When Do We Consider Inherently Safer Options?

It is never too late to consider inherently safer alternatives.

Major enhancements to the inherent safety of plants which have been
operating for many years have been reported .

Table 2.2 is a summary of some of the key questions that should be asked
at various stages in the development of a plant design, as suggested by the
INSIDE Project, a major European government/

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When Do We Consider Inherently Safer Options?

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Inherently Safer Design Strategies

Approaches to the design of inherently safer processes and plants have been grouped into four major
strategies by IChemE and IPSG (1995) and Kletz (1984, 199Ib).

Minimize: Use smaller quantities of hazardous substances (also called Intensification)

Substitute: Replace a material with a less hazardous substance
Moderate, Use less hazardous conditions, a less hazardous form of a material, or facilities which minimize
the impact of a release of hazardous material or energy (also called
Attenuation and Limitation of

Effects).

Simplify Design facilities which eliminate unnecessary complexity and make operating errors less likely, and
which are forgiving of errors which are made (also called ErrorTolerance).

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Inherently Safer Design Strategies

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 Assign a weighting factor (1 to 10) to the various parameters based on your judgment
of the relative importance of this Safety, Health and Environmental, or other issue.
For each option, assign a performance factor from 1 to 10 based on the relative
perform-ance of that option with respect to the particular parameter. This can be
based on judgment, or scaled based on some kind of quantitative analysis.
Multiply the weighting factor by the performance factor for each parameter and
process option combination.
Sum the products for each process option.
The highest total is most desirable.
NOTES:
See Kepner and Tregoe (1981) or CCPS (1995a) for additional discussion, particularly
on how potential negative consequences may impact the scoring matrix.
The weighting factors in this table are for purposes of illustrating the methodology
only, and do not represent recommendations on the relative importance of the factors
listed.

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References
Inherently safer processes :a life cycle approach by Robert E. Bellinger.[etal.]: edited
by DanielA.Crowl

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