HAZOP-What does it mean?

For more information about HAZOP and safety assessment, please get the HAZOP training course.
In this post we will diversify a bit away from our topic of Gas Monitors and go a bit into risk assessment techniques. One of the better known ones is the HAZOP technique.
HAZOP that started out in somewhere around the 1960s in ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) UK when some some bright spark decided to try it out on a spanking new design of a phenol plant was on the design board.This was a phenol plant that wa sto produce phenol through the Cumene route (Benzene + Propylene-->Cumene-->Phenol)

Well, he opened a can of worms, as it were, because the study found several holes in safety aspects and the technique of HAZOP was born. Initially it was confined only to ICIs internal departments, but later on it spread via conferences and seminar papers to other organizations as well and soon became an established risk assessment and safety technique.

The Bhopal incident that happened two decades later spurred action in the global chemicals and process industries and HAZOP began to be used not only for new plants at the design stage but also for older plants, modifications, shutdowns and turnarounds and so on. The process not only improved Safety but also operational ease.

In the typical HAZOP methodology, a plant or a subsystem of the plant (called a node) is chosen for study. Then all deviations are studied against the original intentions and permutations and combinations give rise to possibilities that can result in accidents. These are then assessed to modify the design or the work flow, so that the process becomes safer. There is much more to this and it requires training in the technique plus a few real life HAZOP studies to really master the technique.

Today one cannot think of not using HAZOP in a process plant, it has become commonplace in many industries. However being subjective, the result of the HAZOP study depends greatly on the people that comprise the team carrying it out and a bad HAZOP from a bad team results in the plant being even more unsafe than had there been no HAZOP at all!
So it is very important that only trained and competent people are in charge of HAZOPs.Hence HAZOP training should be a pre-requisite for anybody wishing to take up the task.

Dangers of H2S gas-Use a personal gas monitor

For more information about Gas Monitors, please enroll in the online Gas Monitor Training Course

Hydrogen Sulfide gas (H2S gas)is commonly encountered in many industrial facilities especially those in the Oil and Gas industry and petrochemicals production. It is commonly referred to as "Sour gas" in oilfields. Is it hazardous? You betcha! Reportedly the most deaths in the Oil and Gas industry have occurred till date are due to H2S. But if your only plan to survive it is by smelling it and running off in the other direction, then re-work your strategy!

Hydrogen Sulfide gas does have a smell, similar to eggs gone bad (rotten eggs) but the human nose can get sensitized very fast. So though one can smell it in lower concentrations, if the smell goes away, it does not mean that the gas has gone away-it simply means that the nose has stopped detecting it, though the concentration may be increasing!
Unbelievable but true- so the only great way to work in areas that may have H2S is not to trust your nose, but have a personal toxic gas monitor. If you have no idea of how to select one and use and calibrate it, then have a look at the online gas monitor training here. You will find it to be useful and a life saver!

Gas Monitors in Confined Space Entry situations

In situations that require confined space entry (for more details about what are confined spaces, please see the brief tutorial here) Gas Monitors are absolutely essential. Most dangers in confined spaces relate to either lack of breathing air (oxygen)or exposure to toxic or explosive gases and vapors. Lack of breathing air can cause asphyxiation, whereas exposure to toxic fumes can cause death or disablement, or injury. Explosive vapors and gases can of course explode, blowing people and equipment to smithereens.
But you will be surprised to know that despite there being several good, reliable and working personal gas monitors, how few are really used by workers. They are not to blame however, it is either lack of knowledge of the part of their supervisors, or a "cost cutting" mentality. This can result in needless injury, death and invitation to liabilities by the company if it can be proven that a worker got injured simply because he was not provided with a portable gas monitor.
Incidentally, here is an excellent training resource on confined safety procedures that is in an e-learning format. It means that with just one such course, you can train your workers in confined space safety procedures.

Interesting video on Gas Detector training

For more information about Gas Monitors, please download the Gas Monitors Training Course here