CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
IChemE offers free safety resources to mark Seveso 40 The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Seveso disaster by offering free safety resources to members and non-members. The industrial accident occurred in northern Italy on 10 July 1976. Significant changes to the regulation of sites presenting major accident hazards in Europe were initiated as a result. Process safety is a major par t of the study and practice of Chemical Engineering. To encourage knowledge transfer and the sharing of good practice, IChemE has made several resources freely available. These include a download of the second Trevor Kletz lecture. The lecture was delivered by the Honourable Mr Justice HaddonCave at Hazards 26, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 24 to 26 May 2016. Staged annually by IChemE, in association with the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Centre, Hazards is Europe’s leading process safety conference. The lecture examined ‘Lessons from the Nimrod Review’. The RAF Nimrod crash in 2006 caused the biggest loss of life of British service personnel in one incident, since the Falklands War. Mr Justice HaddonCave, a British High Cour t Judge, led the inquiry that folllowed. In his talk, he described the technical and human errors that occurred in the lead-up to the crash, and their relevance to the process industries. The lecture was described as ‘outstanding’ by conference delegates. Other free resources on offer include safety guidance from the IChemE Safety Centre (ISC). Two publications are available - 'Process Safety Competency - A Model' and 'Lead Process Safety Metrics - selecting, tracking and learning'. Both documents were written by ISC member companies, including ExxonMobil. Rio Tinto, Shell and Worley Parsons. 42
The competency guidance provides fur ther detail to established work in the area, defining different levels of competency for different roles within an organisation. The metrics guidance focuses on the operational phase of an organisation, helping to develop consistency in process safety metrics to allow for effective bench-marking. IChemE is also promoting the Remembering Bhopal edition of its Loss Prevention Bulletin (LPB), first published in 2014, to commemorate 30 years since the Bhopal gas tragedy. The issue is provided in advance of LPB’s next free anniversary edition, due for publication in October. The 2016 anniversary issue will reflect on the 100 years since the Faversham explosion (UK), 50 years
since the Feyzin disaster (France), 40 years since Seveso (Italy), and 30 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (Ukraine) and the Sandoz spill (Switzerland). These incidents all had an impact on process safety thinking and the free publication will reflect on lessons learnt and what is still to be done in the process safety space. The Trevor Kletz lecture, delivered by the Honorable Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, can be obtained from: www.icheme.org/haddoncave. The Remembering Bhopal edition of the LPB can be accessed by visiting: www.icheme.org/lpb Free process safety guidance from IChemE’s Safety Centre can be obtained from the website: www.ichemesafetycentre.org
Tackling memory distortion to improve process safety Hindsight bias, when the outcome of an incident is known before examining the decisions leading up to it, is a common phenomenon that is preventing engineers from learning valuable lessons about process safety. A new training offer, launched by the IChemE Safety Centre (ISC), has been designed to tackle the problem of hindsight bias. Using interactive video footage, the trainee is presented with various decisions as a process safety incident unfolds, without prior knowledge of the outcome. Traditional process safety training typically involves the study of an incident, such as Fukushima or Buncefield, and then works backwards to see where mistakes were made. This makes it easy to make assumptions on the decisions leading up to an event and causes hindsight bias, which also
THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER July 2016
prevents learning. IChemE’s new training format will provide users with a rare opportunity to make crucial safety decisions in a realtime setting, and see how those decisions impact on the outcome of the incident. ISC launched three case studies at Hazards 26 - Coal Mine, Gas Plant and Tank Farm.The Coal Mine case study focuses on simulating design, construction and commissioning decisions, while the others replicate operational decision-making scenarios which would typically occur while on shift at these facilities. The case studies include a detailed explanation of how these facilities work, so no pre-knowledge is necessary. Those interested in finding out more about the case studies and how to purchase them, may visit: www.ichemesafetycentre.org/isccase-studies.