Chemical Engineering February 2023 - 30

Feature Report
Design for Safety: Tips for
Proactive Risk Reduction
Thoughtful design can help reduce safety risks at process plant sites by proactively eliminating
possible hazards and modifying personnel behaviors
Alan McCurdy
Independent consultant
S
IN BRIEF
FOCUS ON UPFRONT
DESIGN
PROCESS AND PLANT
DESIGN
SAFE OPERATION AND
MAINTENANCE
afety is an important value in any
organization, but is particularly important
in the chemical process
industries (CPI) when the design,
construction, operation and maintenance
of manufacturing facilities is concerned.
No company or organization wants to have
personnel injured, or to cause damages,
and no entity wants to find itself in a situation
where lawsuits are filed against it.
The design profession has an important
role in ensuring safety because many risks
can be " engineered " to be eliminated or reduced.
The designer's knowledge, expertise
and values can be leveraged to ensure that
a facility can be safely constructed, operated
and maintained. While personal protective
equipment (PPE) is of critical importance to
preventing and minimizing injuries, worker
behavior can be just as important a factor in
whether or not injuries occur, and modifying
worker behaviors through design decisions
can be a very effective way to prevent and
minimize injury.
For design professionals, a central safety
concept is striving to be proactive. Spending
resources to prevent injuries is far more
cost-effective than paying for the physical
and emotional pain, the lost time and medical
care from an injury after it occurs. Designing
with proactive safety principles in mind
can produce a facility or process with fewer
hazards and lower risk. And a design that
eliminates, reduces or mitigates hazards and
risks upfront is an inherently safer design.
This article provides a set of tips and best
practices to consider in designing plants and
process units that proactively increase safety
and reduce risk. These are only some of the
items to be considered for a safe design.
Specific applications will likely require additional
considerations.
Process and plant design
Design professionals should consider providing
input into the construction planning,
checkout and commissioning planning, as it
pertains to safety, as well as into operations
and maintenance procedures. The following
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recommendations are designed to help start
off a project with a safe design foundation.
Match design basis to service. A smart
beginning point is to develop a design basis
that is consistent with the service. This includes
the following items:
* The basis should include minimum, normal
and maximum flowrates, temperatures,
and pressures for the process. Note if these
conditions cycle frequently and if the process
is continuous or batch. Determine the design
capacity, annual operating hours, and seasonal
variation
* Use appropriate design standards and
materials of construction for the materials,
process conditions, and equipment. Consider
the materials' properties: flammability, corrosivity,
reactivity and health hazards in designs
and specifications
* Consider a " requirements exchange "
and a risk analysis early in the design process.
These documents can be updated
as the design progresses. A requirements
exchange refers to a meeting (or series of
meetings), where the client (including operations
and maintenance staff) state their
needs for the project. This could include
requirements on process performance, the
need for specific operations (for example, an
ability to put certain control loops in manual
control during startup or shutdown), or maintenance
requirements (such as a backup for
certain equipment, access to equipment for
making adjustments, or additional valves to
Shutterstock
FIGURE 1. Safe access to equipment, such as the pump with
shaft guard shown here, reduces risk during maintenance
activities
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