Development of index system for inherently safer process design using an integrated approach

Abstract With a growing population, an increasing number of petrochemical facilities are built with larger capacity and more complexity, which pose a great risk to assets, community and environment. The value of inherently safer design is recognized with time by all stakeholders, and an effective tool is needed to evaluate and compare inherent safety of alternative technologies. This study developed a safety index to evaluate existing technologies for their safety levels and guide inherently safer design. The Integrated Risk-based Safety Index (IRSI) was developed based on a comprehensive review of petrochemical processes, incident cases from Sinopec and US Chemical Safety Board, and existing safety index systems. The IRSI included all major hazards, including fire, explosion, toxic release, dust explosion, physical explosion, and runaway. Also, the integrated life cycle approach considered chemical hazards, equipment failure rates and safety measures in this risk-based index. Advanced modeling techniques, PHAST simulation and Neural Network, were used in the development of three novel sub-indices in the projects, fire, explosion and toxic release. The index system could be easily incorporated into a user friendly tool for the ease of application. A case study of hydrogen dioxide was conducted using the IRSI, which showed its capability for evaluating the safety level of process facilities.