Challenges to ISD application

Abstract

Inherent safety will have a crucial role in future process and plant design. The selection of inherently safer processes and the design of inherently safer plants are required to support the further development of the chemical industry and the progress of our society. A number of studies evidence that the inherent safety approaches may be used to orient the conceptual process design, to include inherently safer solutions in basic and detailed design, as well as to apply inherently safer procedures during the operational life of industrial facilities. However, even if the inherent safety concept was introduced more than three decades ago, several challenges hindering the widespread application of inherently safer design are still present. In order to unlock the potential of Inherently Safer Design (ISD) in industrial practice, quantitative metrics need to be introduced and validated, able to support decision-making in the design and operation of complex systems. Even if several methods, as the consequence-based approaches, are suitable candidates to support such decision, three prerequisites need to be fulfilled to accelerate the penetration of ISD methods in current industrial practice: the development of guidelines for ISD application by professional bodies and/or international organizations, the inclusion of ISD practices and tools in current international safety standards and the integration of ISD in broader design review practices addressing safety and sustainability.