An expanded HAZOP-study with fuzzy-AHP (XPA-HAZOP technique): Application in a sour crude-oil processing plant

Abstract

An integrated Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study with the Decision Risk-Matrix (DRMA) and the Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy-Process (FAHP) is suggested as an alternative approach to identify and prioritize potential hazards in a sour crude-oil processing plant, located in the prefecture of Eastern Macedonia region in Greece. Therefore, the aim of our work is the development and application of the expanded FAHP-HAZOP-DRMA approach (XPA-HAZOP) in this industry. Firstly, the conventional HAZOP-analysis is applied for identifying the potential fault causes of abnormal circumstances in the plant. With the combination of HAZOP with DRMA for assessing the risks, the Fuzzy-AHP process is then introduced in order to broaden HAZOP-study and prioritize the hazards of the plant. The proposed XPA-HAZOP technique could be a functional tool for the decision makers about: (i) the ranking of hazards, compared to conventional HAZOP, and (ii) the emergency of investing restricted budget in actions preventing particular type of deviations.