Process Safety-Equations of State

Abstract

By convention, chemical engineering requires us to develop a set of empirical equations that predict the transformation of one state into another. Process Safety generally lacks that discipline and as a consequence is sometimes suggested as having a lack of academic rigour. (Apologies here to the hard working risk, fires & explosions modellers) In the tradition of empirical chemical engineering, this paper takes a philosophical approach to “equations of state” as a way of demonstrating the transitions that have taken place in the approaches to Process Safety, consider the rise and fall of the importance of key components and present a “hypothesis” for discussion, that there is a “need to move away from the Engineering model and its linear solutions, to an Organizational Model where responsibility lies with the Individual rather than the System which is still the current trend.” [1] In reviewing this text, readers are provided with excerpts from an Events History of Process Failure which is intended to be indicative rather than prescriptive in its nature. It is taken from a wide arrange of sources only to demonstrate the frequency of major events across large parts of the world-wide process industry.