Improving Safety of Process Plants, through Smart Systems for Critical Equipment Monitoring

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In the last years there has been a considerable development of wireless sensors based on technologies that allow machine-to-machine communication, thus to talk about the Internet of Things IoT and systems. Many industries, such as manufacturing and construction, are adopting smart technologies for improving all the production activities, including safety. The research laboratories have developed many Smart Safety System SSS. Many Commercial provider are already selling SSS even though the actual benefits are not yet so clear. The paper focuses on the establishments that handle hazardous chemical materials and fall under the Directive 2012/18/EU Seveso III, which requires a quantitative assessment of the risk. The goal of the paper is to assess how the use of SSS applied to critical equipment can improve the safety, reducing the likelihood of incidents occurrence or mitigating the consequences related to the loss of containment of hazardous substances. The paper proposes a method, based on some primary criteria, useful for the stakeholders to address the choice of the SSS and to assess the benefits for risk reduction. Several examples, described in the paper, show solutions of smart systems able to monitor critical equipment on more frequent mechanisms of damage, including corrosion, erosion, thinning, structural defects, and vibration anomalies. The SSS provide the operators with a huge amount of data, which may be integrated with adequate information and sound knowledge, so that to make possible a dynamic management of the risk.