The use of PC-based risk management software in the process industries

Abstract

Abstract The use of Risk Management techniques by the Chemical Process Industries (CPI) is growing, largely in response to new regulations that are directed at reducing the risk to the public caused by releases of hazardous chemicals. The purpose of this paper is to show how the use of risk management techniques in the CPI will be enhanced if software that is designed to meet the needs of the industry is developed and marketed. This involves addressing the following specific issues. 1. • Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) have developed into a widespread and standard method of improving safety in the CPI. New risk management initiatives in the CPI need to understand the reason for the success of the HAZOP method, and to ensure that it is included in the overall software package. 2. • The nuclear Power Industry and CPI are similar to one another in many ways. It is natural to take the successful Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) software techniques that are used in the nuclear industry and to apply them to the CPI. However, in order to do so successfully, the differences as well as the similarities between the two industries need to be fully examined and understood. 3. • Although engineers working in the CPI have a strong, practical training in safety, their training in formal risk management is usually quite limited, indeed it is often non-existent. For example, until recently, very few chemical engineering courses included a section on risk management.