Process Operations Safety: The What, Why, and How Behind Safe Petrochemical Plant Operations

Provides crucial lessons in process safety operations, drawing from 100 global case studies Written from an operator’s perspective, Process Operations Safety provides valuable information and education on the fundamentals of process operations safety by providing background on process safety and key leading operational management and equipment failures that have led to catastrophic process safety incidents, including loss of life. Written by an expert with more than five decades of industry experience, this book enables readers to learn how simple jobs that they perform every day can lead to catastrophic safety incidents without proper caution, protocol, and attention. A self-learning quiz is provided near each chapter’s end, with answers to all questions provided in the Appendix. A listing of additional resources or reference material, many with internet links, is also included at the end of each chapter. Readers will find: Principles of process safety, properties of hydrocarbons, vapor cloud explosions (VCE), and boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions (BLEVE) Most frequent causes of significant process safety events in refining and petrochemical industries Causal factors in over 100 global case studies of operations and incidents, divided into thirty-eight subchapters with several examples for each, explaining what happened and what could have happened Key lessons learned, written in simple terms using descriptions without jargon or complicated formulas Process Operations Safety is an essential learning resource for petroleum refining and petrochemical plant operators, line supervisors, and critical support staff with field responsibility, such as process and mechanical engineers, along with advanced students at community and four-year colleges and technical/trade schools taking a process operations course.

Table of Contents:
About the Author xxiii Foreword xxv 1 The Guiding Principles of Process Safety Management 1 2 Process Safety Background and Federal Regulations 6 3 Properties of Hydrocarbons (Fire and Explosion Hazards) 11 4 Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCEs) 22 5 Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) 32 6 An Introduction to Process Safety Management Systems 43 7 Importance of Operating Procedures 56 8 Significant Causes of Process Safety Incidents "What Has Happened, What Can Happen, and Key Lessons Learned" 68 8.1 Returning Equipment to Service 70 8.2 Safe Permit-to-Work -- Breaking Containment and Controlling Work 90 8.3 Managing Change 102 8.4 Ensuring Availability of SSHE Critical Devices (Controlling the Unauthorized and Extended Disarmament of Critical Devices) 113 8.5 Managing Critical Alarms 119 8.6 Managing Safe Operating Limits or Operating Envelopes 125 8.7 Maintaining Safe Product Rundown Control 130 8.8 Storage Tank Safety 134 8.9 Injection and Mixing Point Failures 159 8.10 Hazards of Piping "Dead Legs" 168 8.11 Brittle Fracture 177 8.12 Hazards of Furnaces and Heaters 196 8.13 Corrosion Under Insulation and Under Fireproofing 208 8.14 Hazards of Thermal Expansion 214 8.15 Hydrostatic Testing vs. Pneumatic Testing 222 8.16 Cold-wall Vessel and Piping Failures 229 8.17 Metallurgy Matters: Positive Materials Identification (PMI) 235 8.18 Hazards of Nitrogen and Inert Entry 246 8.19 Hazards of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) 261 8.20 Hazards of Product Sampling and Drawing Water from Process Equipment 270 8.21 Pyrophoric Ignition Hazards in Refining and Chemical Plants 280 8.22 Hazards of Static Electricity 289 8.23 Hazards of Hydrofluoric Acid 303 8.24 Safe Use of Utilities; Connecting Utilities to Process Equipment 314 8.25 The Hazards of Steam and Hot Condensate 321 8.26 Electrical Hazardous Area Classification System 338 8.28 Hazards of Undetected or Uncontrolled Exothermic Reactions 353 8.29 Responding to Minor Leaks and Releases 364 8.30 Electrical Safety Hazards for Operations Personnel 369 8.31 Hazards of Chemical Incompatibility or Reactivity 393 8.32 Hazards of Unintended Process Flow (The Mixing of Hydrocarbons and Air) in Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units (FCCU) 402 8.33 Hazards of "Normalized Deviation" 412 8.34 Criticality of Car Seal Valve Management Plan 418 8.35 Small Piping Guidelines for Operations Safety 423 8.36 Overpressure Protection (All About Relief Valves and Rupture Disks) 439 8.37 Special Hazards of Rotating Equipment 457 8.38 Two Insidious Hazards Associated with Petrochemical Plants (Popcorn Polymer and Ethylene Decomposition) 491 9 Importance of Operations Emergency Response Drills and Exercises 497 10 Ensuring Comprehensive Shift Turnover 499 11 The Importance of Leading and Lagging Indicators for Process Safety 504 12 Process Safety Hazard Recognition and the Importance of Field Presence and the Value of Periodic Field Walk-arounds 507 13 Process Safety Leadership 513 14 Process Task Management System 515 15 Process Operator Rounds -- Timely, Systematic, and Comprehensive 518 16 The Importance of Behavior-based Safety and Human Factors to Process Safety 520 17 Use of Inherently Safer Design and Technologies 526 18 Putting It All Together and Making a Difference 529 Appendix A End of Chapter Quiz with Answers 531 Appendix B Worldwide Process Safety Incidents and Numbers of Lives Lost 611 Appendix C Auto-Refrigeration, When Bad Things Happen to Good Pressure Vessels 641 Appendix D OSHA Hazards of Combustible Dust Poster 642 Appendix E HF Water Mitigation -- Techniques and Design Considerations 643 Appendix F Authorization for Disablement (Example Only) Safety, Security, Health, and/or Environmental Critical Devices 644 Appendix G Petroleum Refining and Petrochemical Plant Process Operations Safety 646 Appendix Ha The Hazards of Nitrogen Asphyxiation 648 Appendix Hb Safety Bulletin -- Hazards of Nitrogen Asphyxiation 649 Appendix I Technical Guidance -- Car Seals 650 Appendix J Example Blind List and Simplified Blind Sketch 654 Appendix K Chemical Segregation and Storage Table 656 Appendix L Process Safety Field Walkabouts (Example) 657 Appendix M Internal Combustion Engines as Ignition Sources 660 Appendix N The History of Diesel Engine Runaway Accidents and Related Regulations 667 Appendix O Potential Startup Issues -- M. Darry Yoes's "Worry List" 670 Index 675

About the Author :
M. Darryl Yoes is a practical experienced refinery supervisor and manager, having spent over fifty years in the refining industry. He is the founder and President of Safety Consulting International, LLC, the developer of this helpful guide to preventing process safety incidents. He is currently employed by EcoScience Resource Group, LLC in Baton Rouge, a firm specializing in developing process operations and environmental procedures for the refining and petrochemical industry.