Model-based analysis of the health, safety and environment domain in the process industry

Abstract

The chemical process industry needs well-defined, engineering-controlled operation procedures to insure the safety of their plant operations and to protect the people working with hazardous materials. Accidents may seriously harm the employees, destroy expensive factory equipment and contaminate and deteriorate the environment of the entire areas. The engineering control can be significantly enhanced through the use of process models for situation analysis. Process models will also provide effective decision support in the plant operation. The objective was to develop in Elf-Atochem a reference model for improving the complex process for implementing and tracking a work permit for people working in plant areas with health, safety and environmental risks. This permit documents all protection and formal authorisations required prior to any work in the hazardous areas of a chemical plant. The model consists of a process model and an information model. It further provides the identification of knowledge required to manage the work permit and to facilitate the automation of a number of activities. The model serves to analyse the process and to define the user requirements for a workflow application program. The methodology CimOsa/rg, which is based on CIMOSA, has been applied together with the modelling tool CimTool to document the requirements model.