Search

A Safety Research project was carried out in an ammonia plant of OCI Nitrogen, located at the Chemelot site in Geleen, The Netherlands. This research focused on the development of a method to monitor accident processes in the chemical industry mainly caused by mechanical integrity of static equipment like vessels, tanks and heat exchangers. A significant part of the mechanical integrity failure scenarios originates from material degradation and corrosion mechanisms which may develop over a relatively long-time period, possibly taking months, years or even longer. Mechanical failure scenarios from two process units have been worked out and visualized using a bowtie. The research project shows that the monitoring of early warnings can provide information about the current development of mechanical failure scenarios. In addition, early warnings can be used to initiate inspections if there is a likelihood that the mechanical failure scenario has been activated. Considering the shift from breakdown maintenance to preventive and predictive maintenance and risk-based inspection (RBI), inspections based on early warnings could also be a new step in the field of maintenance efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Review of knowledge development on complex domino accident processes. • Research is dominated by quantitative risk analyses, and models to calculate probabilities. • Research is closely related to political, and private decision making. • Research on barrier quality and quality of risk management is in its infancy. • Research on initiating scenarios as a starting point for domino-effects is necessary. Major accidents in Western countries, receiving a lot of media attention in the 1970s, are starting point for research into internal and external domino effects in the chemical and petrochemical sectors and clusters. Initially, these reports are published by government institutions and government-related research centres. With the upcoming quantitative risk analyses in the 1970s and 1980s, the so-called öcoloured books', published in the Netherlands, play a prominent role in quantifying these domino effects. Since the mid 1990s, the second European Seveso Directive encourages scientific research on domino effects, shown in substantially growth of academic publications on the topic. Research in Western countries is dominated by risk assessments, probabilities, and failure mechanisms are calculated for the complex phenomenon of domino effects and its consequences. Previous works are closely related to political, official and private decision-making. A transition towards risk management is still in its infancy. A future transition is necessary to understand initial scenarios as starting points for domino effects. In India a wake-up call for domino effects occurs in the mid-1990s. Chinese publications on domino effects in the international scientific press appear from the mid-2000s onwards. Due to a rapid industrialisation, the numbers in China country are overwhelming, versus chemical companies, as versus of many major accidents in this sector. This article will discuss results of research on domino effects, conducted in the period 1966–2018, as well as major determinants of these accident processes. Also present, and future transition in this research domain will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major accidents in Western countries, receiving a lot of media attention in the 1970s, are starting point for research into internal and external domino effects in the chemical and petrochemical sectors and clusters. Initially, these reports are published by government institutions and government-related research centres. With the upcoming quantitative risk analyses in the 1970s and 1980s, the so-called ocoloured books', published in the Netherlands, play a prominent role in quantifying these domino effects. Since the mid 1990s, the second European Seveso Directive encourages scientific research on domino effects, shown in substantially growth of academic publications on the topic. Research in Western countries is dominated by risk assessments, probabilities, and failure mechanisms are calculated for the complex phenomenon of domino effects and its consequences. Previous works are closely related to political, official and private decision-making. A transition towards risk management is still in its infancy, A future transition is necessary to understand initial scenarios as starting points for domino effects. In India a wake-up call for domino effects occurs in the mid-1990s. Chinese publications on domino effects in the international scientific press appear from the mid-2000s onwards. Due to a rapid industrialisation, the numbers in China country are over-whelming, versus chemical companies, as versus of many major accidents in this sector. This article will discuss results of research on domino effects, conducted in the period 1966-2018, as well as major determinants of these accident processes. Also present, and future transition in this research domain will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OCI Nitrogen, one of Europe's largest fertilizer producers, is investigating the extent to which it is possible to take targeted measures at an early stage and stop the development of major hazard accident processes. An innovative model has been developed and recently explained and elaborated in a number of publications. This current paper contains a validation of the model by looking at the BP Texas City incident in 2005. The bowtie metaphor is used to visually present the BP Texas City refinery incident, showing the barrier system from different perspectives. Not only is the barrier system looked at from its trustworthiness on the day of the incident but also from the perspective of the control room operator, and from a design to current standards of best practice. The risk reductions of these different views are calculated and compared to their original design. In addition, evidence and findings from the investigations have been categorized as flaws and allocated to nine organizational factors. These flaws may affect the barrier system's quality or trustworthiness, or may act as 'accident pathogens' (see also Reason, 1990) creating latent, dangerous conditions. This paper sheds new light on the monitoring of accident processes and the barrier management to control them, and demonstrates that the BP Texas City refinery incident could have been foreseen using preventive barrier indicators and monitoring organizational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OCI Nitrogen seeks to gain knowledge of (leading) indicators regarding the process safety performance of their ammonia production process. The current sub-study raises the question whether major hazard accidents in the ammonia production process can be predicted from organizational factors, also called management delivery systems. This paper links organizational factors to accident processes and their barrier systems, using the bowtie metaphor. It is shown that organizational factors indirectly impact accident processes as they strongly influence the quality or trustworthiness of the barrier systems. By putting the right focus on organizational factors during audits or reviews, major accident processes get the attention they deserve, and the necessary actions are taken at the right management level. Qualitative and quantitative monitoring of organizational factors can provide a picture of their operation and efficiency. Using an example on retrospective data it is demonstrated that information from organizational factors could have stopped the development of the near-accident prematurely. However, organizational factors should first be qualitatively assessed before they are quantitatively monitored. A quantitative assessment has been worked out for one of the management delivery systems so to provide an example of management indicators. Determining these (management) indicators from threshold values is an intricate matter due to the complicated influence of organizational factors on accident processes, and requires more follow-up research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]