Publications

 Hazard analyses help to prevent incidents before they happen and incident investigations help prevent incidents from reoccurring, but what about at the onset of an incident? When you detect something abnormal, but do not have time to analyze the situation, abnormal situation management works to return the process back to normal, preventing a potential incident.

Increased automation can improve operations, but can cause operators’ cognitive skills to decline. This is often referred to as the paradox of automation. To prevent skill degradation, some companies use training simulations and virtual reality to give operators the opportunity to manage abnormal situations without experiencing real consequences. 

  The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), with its incident investigation recommendations and videos help industry and communities to maintain the safety and security of US businesses and citizens which save both money and lives. The president's recent budget request seeks to eliminate the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB). While this tiny agency requires a budget of only $12 million, the "America First; Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again" overlooks the value of that small financial investment. If the CSB's work saves only two lives a year it is worth the cost to keep it in operation.   

 Safety interlocks and emergency shutdown (ESD) systems are critical and should be connected and operable whenever a process is in operation. In a very small number of scenarios, however, it may be necessary to bypass or inactivate a safety interlock or ESD system for a short period of time using fully reviewed and approved procedures that implement alternative safeguards. 

 If a free tool that improves process safety and saves lives were available, would you use it?

The Process Safety Beacon is available in more than 25 languages, enabling readers to share its lessons with colleagues around the world. It can be used as a tool to frame discussions about process safety, and help you and your colleagues understand past hazards and identify similar issues at your plant. The 180 issues of the Beacon that have been released to date provide a trove of information that can be used at toolbox meetings and for safety moments. It is estimated that the Beacon reaches nearly a quarter million readers every month.  

 As chemical engineers, we deal with safety issues every day — in chemical plants, on oil and gas rigs, at fracking sites, food processing facilities, or power plants. At work, we vigilantly look for safety hazards and keep watch over processes to prevent accidents. However, during our personal time and travel between work and home, are we just as vigilant and watchful? Are we engaging in unnecessary hazards that can increase the likelihood of accidents?

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees not only job sites but trips to and from job sites, and according to OSHA, texting or programming a device while driving is one of the most preventable forms of distracted driving. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary at OSHA, explains, “It is well recognized that texting while driving dramatically increases the risk of a motor vehicle injury or fatality.” This article presents statistics on distracted driving and precautions that you can take to minimize your risk of an accident. 

 If you are a new graduate starting your first job or a student beginning a summer internship, this might be your first time working in the presence of heavy machinery and chemicals. Although hazards exist, safeguards are in place to protect you. One safeguard that you can control is your knowledge of hazards and situational awareness, which you can build before you even enter the workplace. 

 Resources — money, personnel, raw materials, etc. — are finite, and it is vital we value and protect them. Perhaps our most precious resource is the youth who are poised to pursue careers in chemical engineering, where they will take up the mantle of workplace and process safety. The hope is that they will adopt the standard industry goal: to send employees home in the same condition as they arrived at work. Often a student’s first exposure to safe workplace and chemical-handling practices occurs in the school laboratory. After a lab fire injured five students and a teacher at a Virginia high school on Oct. 30, 2015, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced that it would renew efforts to prevent lab accidents related to the use of flammable chemicals in classroom demonstrations. 

 Most of us are fortunate enough to have five working senses - sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. We use these personal, internal feedback loops to perceive and understand our surroundings, which makes senses some of our most valuable and essential safety equipment. Before the advent of optical, vibration and auditory sensors , the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) depended on sensory perception to identify operational upsets or changes. Although sensing equipment in now ubiquitous in CPI facilities, we must also use our senses to collect critical safety data, rather than blindly relying on equipment to signal unsafe conditions. 

 Verify-then-act is a practice and mindset that all engineers and personnel in the chemical process industries (CPI) should adopt. Mixing the wrong chemicals, setting temperatures or pressures outside of safe operating limits, or performing a step out of sequence can result in a range of consequences, from a bad batch or loss of production to a catastrophic incident. However, simply verifying before acting can reduce the risk of these penalties and save time, money, and lives. 

 The 30-year anniversaries of two significant events to the chemical engineering profession, particularly the process safety community, occurred in Nov. and Dec. (2014) - the PEMEX disaster outside of Mexico City, and the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal, India. These two incidents molded my career and motivated me to work for CCPS where our mission is to prevent such tragedies from occurring. 

 One of my favorite warm weather activities is kayaking. The river provides a respite away from crowds and electronic distractions. Daily stressors are erased by the warm sun, a light breeze, and the sound of water lapping at my boat.

A recent weekend with great weather afforded the perfect opportunity to go out on the river with my husband. Earlier that week, severe storms blew through the area with significant rainfall and flash flooding. This increased the volume of water in the river, so conditions would be perfect for a fast and exciting ride. It also called for a more-mindful approach to safety hazards, like swift currents and debris in the water. 

 Whether we are talking about occupational safety or process safety, normalizing a deviation can result in unsafe practices, conditions and operations. Getting comfortable with and accepting these deviations can cause a shift in our perception of what is safe. Why does this matter? Moving the target for safe operating limits and tolerating the higher risks associated with doing so can ultimately lead to a catastrophic incident. 

 What does it take to attain great process safety performance? How do you “get it,” or where do you “find it”? How do you instill that desire in others? This article explores CCPS' Vision 2020 and how to focus on the one thing that makes a difference.

Finding your one thing is about focusing on what is ultimately most important for you. A lot of us get lost in the trivial many (versus the important few) every day. It is a constant battle for me. With distractions, e-mails and many performance indicators to measure – how do you determine what is important? You focus on what makes a difference; what you can do that will positively affect the outcome or minimize the negative impact. It depends on the risk and the consequence. Focus first, on what limits or reduces your risk. 

 Twenty-five years later, the lessons learned from Piper Alpha are still relevant. When companies lose focus on process safety and fail to maintain a sense of vulnerability, the result is an inadequate understanding of the impacts of loss of containment and control of hazards. Could this happen at your facility? Evaluating and planning for these potential events are critical. 

 On a cold February day in 1996, I was on a flight from Washington DC. Due to a horrific snowstorm, the flight landed 30 minutes late and passengers scrambled to make their connections. I turned to the pregnant passenger next to me to see if she needed assistance. The last thing I saw was her wide eyes and her wide-open mouth. When I came to, I had excruciating pain in my neck, arms, and back; my head was throbbing, my eyes were tearing, and my mouth was watering. I thought, “What just happened?” 

 Improbable does not mean impossible. As engineers we tend to consider improbable things that have happened and discard or minimize the improbable things that (to our knowledge) have not happened. This article identifies activities that can help reduce the likelihood of black swan events (highly improbable / massive impact) from happening in your operations. 

 Companies in Latin America face the same process safety challenges as companies in other parts of the world, and take pride in keeping current on the latest technology and management practices. Due to the limited amount of information available in Spanish and Portuguese, this can be a challenge at times. CCPS plays an important role in helping the thought leadership in the industry, and brings ideas on how improvements can be made. 

 The biofuels industry is an emerging market with enormous potential. Commercialization of new products and processes both create opportunities and introduce risks. Identifying and managing those risks, and applying lessons learned from incidents in other industries that could occur at a biofuels facility, can be key to improving safety and reducing injuries and potential losses. 

 In the midst of rapid economic growth and industrialization, China faces many challenges in creating and maintaining a safety work environment. To address these challenges, the Chinese government has taken significant steps to improve worker and process safety. Their ongoing efforts have reduced the number of incidents, injuries and fatalities in that country.  

The objectives of this book are to: identify safety concerns unique to batch reaction systems; provide a how-to guide for the practicing engineer to indentify, define and address unique safety issues; provide a range of criteria and techniques to be considered in the development, design and maintenance of batch reaction system; provide an aid to identify potential sources of unsafe conditions encountered; provide guidance in applying appropriate practices to prevent incidents and identify sources for specific expertise and reference them accordingly. 

Replacing old and inefficient insulation resulted in 85% reduction in heat loss and quick payback of investment.