Scott Berger
President, Scott Berger and Associates LLC
+1.609.462.5057
Abstract
Process Hazard Analyses (PHAs) are conducted at various stages of process development as well as during operations, both as part of management of change and as part of regular assurance and improvement efforts. Effective PHAs can go a long way to identifying process hazards related to normal operation, process deviation, start-up/shut-down and process upset so that engineers can design engineering and operational controls to prevent these hazards from escalating into incidents.
Unfortunately, many PHAs are treated as check-the-box activities which must be done to keep the project on track and satisfy corporate EHS and the regulators. In such a climate, PHA teams can fail to identify obvious deviations, disregard potential consequences, and fail to make meaningful recommendations that can reduce hazard, likelihood, or risk.
To make PHAs count, PHA teams must work with a Sense of Vulnerability (SoV), a deep-seated intellectual and emotional understanding that the process contains hazards that if not properly managed can lead to destruction of property, injuries, and deaths. When the PHA team understands and feels that lives are on the line, they will be more likely to identify hazards, deviations and consequences and produce effective recommendations.
This paper will discuss techniques to instill a SoV in PHA teams and to determine if your PHA work product shows a strong or weak SoV.
See more of this Group/Topical: Global Congress on Process Safety