- You are here:
- Home
Process and Plant Safety
Major safety incidents in the process industries like the Piper Alpha disaster in the UK, the Bhopal gas tragedy in India, and the Texas City refinery explosion in the USA, and a host of more minor though just as tragic incidents have all highlighted the necessity of having a disciplined framework for the design, operation and maintenance of operating systems and processes that handle hazardous substances. This disciplined framework is called "Process Safety".
It is worth noting the difference between process safety and personal safety. Process safety addresses major hazards that are more likely to result in major incidents with big consequences whereas personal safety addresses incidents at an individual level with small consequences.
Process safety focuses on preventing fires, explosions and accidental release of process fluids. Specialist process safety engineers and consultants lead this work, however Instrument engineers and designers also play a major part in Process Safety. They need to be aware of, and use the many practices employed in providing systems that ensure the safety of an industrial process through the use of instrumentation.
Examples of these practices include a method of analysing and classifying the environment where explosive gas atmospheres may occur, known as hazardous area classification; the ignition and explosion prevention techniques as outlined in the ATEX directive; the use of over pressure devices like pressure relief valves and rupture disks; the intricacies of the Pressure Equipment Directive; and process safety risk assessments.
Technical Library
The pages listed in our Technical Library below provide an insight into just some of the process safety related topics that are daily considerations for instrument engineers:
