All Things HAZOP

HAZOP

Over the last 16 years I have accumulated in excess of 450 days HAZOPing.  For those who know what HAZOP is, you may wonder what I did in my previous life to deserve this.  My involvement has ranged from observer, scribe, process engineer, process safety engineer, independent engineer to Chair.  I actually thoroughly enjoy HAZOPs especially those which are well prepared.  It is a time for the team to get together, get into the details of the design.  In this article I will share some best practice from my experience, some areas to find more information, what the guiding standard is and later in the month I will share some incidents and top tips on how to audit your process and write great actions.  I do not aim to rewrite the standard so I will refer.

For those of you who do not know what a HAZOP is I will provide a short description.  A hazard and operability (HAZOP) study is a systematic approach to examining a process system with guide words and deviations with the aim of identifying, examining and mitigating hazards of the system in various modes of operation.  For examples of HAZOP worksheets keep an eye out for my post later this month.

This process was first developed by ICI and was shared with the industry as Best Practice.  It is now used widely by various industries to examine processes.  This without doubt has made the process industry safer, however, as you will see the technique is only as strong as your weakest link.  The international standard BS EN 61882:2016 provides useful examples and details of the requirements for good HAZOP practice.  In addition, more detailed guidance on application can be found through courses such as the IChemE HAZOP leader training.  As mentioned, this article and supporting material is not to replace these but to help people improve their HAZOP performance or for people visiting HAZOP’s to better understand the intent. If you are new to HAZOP be sure to alert the Chair as they will run through the mechanics of the process to help you understand the flow of the meeting, this is not covered here. A good HAZOP will ensure that all attendees better understand the hazards associated with the process and how to control and mitigate them effectively. A poor HAZOP will at best be boring, at worst leave people with a false sense of security that all hazards were identified and managed.