Inherent Safety

Copyright 2011, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Principles of Inherent Safe Design

Jo Fearnley
CIE Conference
10 May 2011
Copyright 2011, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. All rights reserved. May 2011 | Slide 2
Fxborough 1974
Presentation outline
What is inherent safety?
Inherent safety implementation techniques
Conflicts in inherent safety
Human factors and inherent safety issues
Definition
Inherent safety:
An approach to process design and operation
which builds in safety, health and
environmental considerations at the start
Definition
Inherent safety:
What you dont have cant leak!
Trevor Kletz 1978
Definition
Inherent safety:
A low level of danger, even if something goes
wrong
Wikipedia.
Inherently safer design
In reality no design can be inherently safe
However you can have an inherently safer design
Inherently safer guidewords
Guideword description
Substitute Replace a substance with a less hazardous material or processing route
with one that does not involve hazardous material. Replace a hazardous
procedure with one that is less hazardous.
Minimise Use smaller quantities of hazardous materials when the use of
such materials cannot be avoided - also called intensification.
Perform a hazardous procedure as few times as possible when
the procedure is unavoidable.
Moderate Use hazardous materials in their least hazardous forms or identify
processing options that involve less severe processing conditions -
also called attenuation or limitation of effects.
Simplify Design processes, processing equipment and procedures to
eliminate opportunities for errors by eliminating excessive use of add-on
(engineered) safety features and protective devices - also called error
tolerance. Less equipment of any kind means that there is less
to go wrong.
Other options not inherent safety
Reduce consequential harm
risk to people is dependent on their presence in the
harm zone
risk to environment is dependent on the sensitivity
of species within the harm zone
risk to asset is not location specific
Other options not inherent safety
Locate process in region with no harm consequences
is it justified to release hazardous material into an area
which has
low population numbers
no special environmental features?
in the UK severity of harm is based on
people number of fatalities and injuries estimated
environment potential for a major accident to the
environment (MATTE) which is relative to the special
features nearby
Other obvious options
Design piping for maximum pressure and temperature
under fault conditions rather than installing pressure
and temperature trips
Minimise pipe route lengths to limit quantity available
to leak
Use all welded lines
Select materials of construction for the worst case
conditions they could see, not the normal conditions
Design support structures for the worst credible
external events such as wind, flood, earthquake, fire
Layers of process safety
Layers of process safety - inherent
Ideally this means eliminating the hazard from the
design
Layers of process safety - passive
This is building the protection into the design so it cannot
be (easily) changed
Reduce frequency and / or consequence of hazard
e.g. design conditions should mean that process
cannot move outside of the safe envelope under
any circumstances however external factors such
as external damage exist
future design / process changes could invalidate
protection
Layers of process safety - active
These layers are intended to prevent, control or mitigate
a potentially hazardous scenario: e.g.
Prevent: high level trip isolates flow into a tank before
it can overfill and lose containment
Control: a restrictive orifice plate limits the rate of loss
of containment if a line fails
Mitigate: heat activated links open deluge valves to
spray water in case of fire
Layers of process safety - procedural
These are systems which are intended to manage risk
Safety / process management system (SMS) / (PMS)
company policy
site rules
operating procedures
training / refresher training
maintenance and inspection regimes
test procedures and schedules
emergency response plans (on- and off- site)
Tolerability of risk - ALARP
People and inherent safety issues
Constructive questioning for example:
Is it necessary?
Why do it that way?
Why that material?
Why so much?
How can we make it simpler?
Alternatives for lower impact?
Alternatives to minimise inventories?
Alternatives for benign process conditions?
Ultimate fate of all substances?
Designed for minimum purges?
Designed for minimum effluent & waste disposal?
Designed to minimise consequences of releases?
Impact of increased SH&E standards on costs?
People and inherent safety issues
Inherent Safety is not always obvious
Cost implications
Flexibility
Personal choice
Balance of demands
Judgement
Information available
etc etc
Inherent safety design depends on extent of
understanding:
Experience of people
Experience of process
Industry knowledge
History of incidents
Data availability (e.g. MSDS, compatibility, etc)
New / novel / innovative then what??
Task design / workload
Motivation
Complexity
Time available in which to
make a decision
Procedures design ease of
reference, correct, detailed
Communications
Organisational structure
Management attitude
production is more important
than safety
Non-compliance with
standards accepted as
normal
Poor training / inexperience
Lack of self belief (in ability
to make correct decision)
Poor design (too many
alarms arising so ignores
them no distinction of
important alarms)
Colour blind
Too busy / distracted
Poor environment (too hot /
cold / cramped / poor lighting
/ layout not conductive to
seeing fault warning)
Misleading information
Alarm fault ( e.g. alarm often
in spuriously, so ignored)
Stress / fatigue / boredom
Contact details
Please make contact through Jo Fearnley, Principal Consultant
Jacobs
Consultancy Services
Phoenix House
3 Surtees Way
Surtees Business Park
Stockton-on-Tees
TS18 3HR
Tel: +44 (0)1642 334 053 (direct dial)
Mob: +44 (0)7799 343 392
jo.fearnley@jacobs.com www.jacobs.com
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Copyright 2011, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. All rights reserved.

Principles of Inherent Safe Design

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