Inside the Manual

Chapters 1 to 4 address Risk Concepts, Regulatory Developments, Risk Terminology and Process Hazards and Risk Management Alternatives. These sections familiarize readers with the technical definition of risk, the language and terms used in the risk field and simple management strategies.

Chapters 5 to 10 address the different types of structured analytical techniques for conducting Process Hazards Analyses, such as HAZOP, "What if," Checklist, FMEA and so forth. Readers will become familiar with the different methods so they understand that different situations demand different tools when it comes to the application of Process Hazards Analysis.

Chapters 11 and 12 deal with revalidating PHAs and handling Management of Change (MOC) issues, where PHAs may or may not be required. With revalidation, it is now understood that there are many issues and concerns with the quality and validity of early PHAs, as well as new legislation. With MOC, companies are continuously updating and modifying their facilities, and the criteria demanding whether or not these changes require PHAs are proposed.

Chapter 13 provides a rapid, order-of-magnitude method of estimating the time required for PHAs.

Chapter 14 provides guidance in relation to the Management of Hazards associated with the Location of Process Plant Buildings, as well as addressing facility siting issues.

Chapter 15 provides certain important protocols for conducting PHAs and for guidance on safeguarding, especially with respect to Administrative and Engineering Controls, as well as addressing the consequences of failures of such controls.

Chapter 16 addresses human factors and stresses the need to analyze for factors that can exacerbate and increase the chances of error. Once known, these factors can be addressed in order to minimize the potential for human error.

Chapter 17 deals with Loss of Containment and qualitatively examines different factors. This section includes examples of common hazards where loss of containment might occur.

Chapter 18 deals with Managing and Justifying Recommendations that result from PHAs. Since the driving force for risk mitigation and deciding which recommendations should receive priority is somewhat arbitrary, a rationale for applying financial payback, based on rate of return applied to the risk, is presented.

Chapter 19 looks at PHA Team Leadership issues and provides guidance on preparation, setup, responsibilities, organization and documentation of PHAs.

Chapter 20 looks into the quantification of safeguards utilizing Safety Integrity Levels (SIL). This chapter addresses assessing a SIL level for existing systems and target SIL for new systems.

Chapter 21 addresses the topic of Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

Chapter 22 addresses some of the basics of Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA). Although QRA is considered to belong to a more complex form of risk analysis than PHAs, it is felt that an understanding of the basics of QRA are very important for the risk professional.

Appendix I presents a basic methodology for Deriving Deviations from First Principles.

Appendix II presents information on the different forms of HAZOP technique currently being used and includes an example of Procedural HAZOP.