Development of a relational chemical process safety database and applications to safety improvements

Abstract

Industrial accidents still show a major concern to both the public and the environment. It has been a governmental objective to minimize these accidents. Several rules and regulations have emerged to reduce the impacts of chemical releases on people and environment. As a result of these rules, many databases were developed to record incidents in an attempt to learn from previous mistakes and hence to reduce accidents. Most of these databases are maintained by federal agencies. However, the taxonomy inconsistencies of these databases make it difficult to develop a national picture of the problem of accidental release. Part of this research presents an analysis of the RMP*Info database, the latest EPA database, to determine the most significant chemicals released and other trends. According to this analysis, 85% of the releases in the chemical industry are due to twelve chemicals. The sources of those releases and their consequences are presented. In addition, the effects of the chemical type, toxic or flammable, and the number of full time employees in the facilities are discussed. To increase the value of the lessons learned from this database, proposed links with failure rate databases and reactive chemical databases were discussed. The objective of the relationship among these databases is to bring all relevant information of both equipment and chemicals into one database. As a result, the new database will make possible a better understanding by plant personnel about the reliability of plant equipment and the danger of the chemicals they are dealing with. Consequently, accidents will be reduced. This research shows that relationships can be established among the three databases. Examples were given to demonstrate the procedure of establishing these relationships. This research is one step in this regard and should be followed by applying the proposed procedure in a development of a more developed and beneficial relational database that can help improve the safety performance of industry.