| dc.description.abstract | Within the process industries, a large number of incidents occur each year, leading to injuries, deaths, environmental damage, and economic losses. To address these incidents, various hazard analysis techniques are utilized within the process industries to determine barriers and strategies to be implemented within the facilities. However, up to this point, an overarching framework for safety system robustness evaluation has not been established. It is for this reason that the late Dr. Sam Mannan proposed the concept of a safety triad, which depicts the three layers of an effective safety system. The focus of my research is on the analysis of chemical hazards and how they fit within the concept of the safety triad. For analysis of the safety triad, appropriate methodologies for ensuring the robustness of each component have been identified and discussed in detail.
For identifying chemical reactivity hazards within facilities, 33 warehouses containing hazardous chemicals were analyzed. To do so, chemical incompatibility software was used to determine combinations of chemicals that would potentially result in heat or toxic gas generation. For these chemicals, the potential gas release offsite impacts were identified. In order to identify the safer operating regions for chemical processes, two reaction systems were investigated. These consist of the oxidation of 2-butanol to 2-butanone as well as the oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone. Response surface methodology was used to identify the effects of each of the parameters on the heat release as well as on the product yield. Based on the results of this work, the safety triad has been determined to serve as an effective tool for identification and response to hazards within chemical facilities. | |
