查看更多>>摘要：The term "Industry 4.0", which refers to a fourth industrial revolution, is a recent neologism. The rise of digital technology including, artificial intelligence, the Internet of things and networks, "smart" and responsive devices, etc ... is more and more omnipresent. In solving the related challenges of Industry 4.0, it is necessary to improve the involvement and training of employers and employees. This is particularly true for their education in process safety. Two surveys were submitted to the relevant stakeholders. Their results showed absence of Industry 4.0 topics in the current courses on process safety. On the other hand, a review of the master's degree programs available in Europe revealed the recent emergence of new highly specialized courses in some of the topics of Industry 4.0. The definition of "Safety 4.0" leads to recommend two potential global training pathways, with one corresponding to the requirements of Industry 4.0 & Safety 4.0 intersections, recommended within the framework of pedagogical taxonomy models.
查看更多>>摘要：Purpose: This paper examines direct and mediation relations among physical isolation variables (social isolation and loneliness), mental health (anxiety and depression), and safety behaviour (safety compliance and safety participation). Method: A cross-sectional study with data were collected by means of a questionnaire among oil and gas workers (foreign employees working at a remote oil and gas field site located in Kuwait), during a 3-month period (from October 2018 to December 2018). Regression analyses (bivariate and hierarchical), carried out on 387 responses, were employed to test the hypothesised model relating physical isolation variables, mental health, and safety behaviour. Results: The results provide support for the direct relations for the model, in that both social isolation and loneliness predicted both types of safety behaviour (compliance and participation). Further, the results provide partial support for the mediation relations for the model, as mental health was found to be a mediator of the relationship between loneliness and safety behaviour. Discussion: Physical isolation variables have negative effect on safety behaviour, while mental health can operate as risk factors. The implications of these results for physical isolation, mental health issues and/or safety behaviour interventions in the industry are discussed.
查看更多>>摘要：For a recent explosion risk assessment, a CFD (computational fluid dynamics)-based simulation has been widely employed using a 3D geometry model for a gas dispersion and an explosion simulation. For an accurate determination of explosion design loads, extensive scenarios covering various leak locations, leak directions, leak rate, wind directions and so on are treated in the simulation. In order to reflect the results of the risk assessment into detailed topside design, the time-consuming simulations should be begun from the early stage of the detailed design. However, the congestion level of 3D geometry modeling available at the early stage is considerably different from the as-built model due to the lack of modeling of small-sized piping, pipe supports, electrical supports, detailed structural outfitting and so on. This study proposes a method to generate 3D pipe modeling to compensate for the low congestion level. A random approach is made for the generation by randomly determining a starting point of a pipe spool, pipe diameter, pipe direction, a straight pipe length, number of pipes in a pipe spool and so on. For a pipe running through a given box range, it is cut out on the box boundary and a pipe type connecting with a neighboring module is also realized. For a longitudinally long pipe rack, the inside pipe spools have different features. The generation algorithm is adjusted to realize these features. The generated method doesn't include any algorithm to avoid existing other geometric entities such as equipment or structural members. Thus, the generated pipe length is generally reduced after combining with a module containing equipment and structural members. A study is also done about how much the pipe length of the as-built model needs to be increased considering the overlap. The proposed method is verified by combining the generated pipe model with a module containing only structure & equipment, and comparing explosion analysis results with the corresponding as-built model. A dispersion simulation is also performed for the validity of the proposed model in the dispersion simulation as well.
查看更多>>摘要：Sustainable development has become the cornerstone of environmental policy worldwide and a leading principle for innovative industrial processes. The philosophy lies in the progress in balance with nature that ensures the existing productive systems' survival through a new design paradigm shift. Even in the industrial framework, the sustainability concept should always drive technological innovation. The blended Life Cycle (LCA) and Risk assessment (RA) can accomplish this demanding goal to highlight the process's potential health and environmental impacts. LCA is the process that analyses and assesses the environmental impact of a material, product, or service throughout its entire life cycle. RA instead assesses imposed risks by inherent hazards of systems and substances both qualitatively or quantitatively. Different approaches typically drive LCA and RA, respectively a deterministic and a stochastic approach. This feature usually causes an unconnected use of LCA and RA quantifying the potential impact of products and processes and thus determines controversial decisions concerning a balance between environmental impacts and operational risks. The new paradigm suggests a unified blended LCA - RA approach with preliminary hazard identification, initially applied to an innovative Acid Gas to Syngas (AG2S) process for carbon dioxide emission reduction and on-site reuse, avoiding costly and hazardous waste transportation steps.
查看更多>>摘要：Serious and similar chemical accidents frequently occur, which prompts continuous exploration of an effective way to prevent chemical accidents. The purpose of learning from accidents is to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents. An in-depth exploration of the causes is a prerequisite to ensure the effectiveness of learning from accidents. The interactions among causes can explain how a particular sequence of events results in an incident with unpleasant consequences. This research aimed to provide a more concrete and intuitive understanding of the interaction of causes and represent the routes to failure, showing how the chemical accidents happened. One hundred one chemical accidents were analyzed through the extended Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) containing manifestations, and the associations between the high-frequency manifestations of adjacent levels were evaluated using Fisher's exact test. 21 groups of significant associations were identified, which clearly show how the manifestations at the upper level of the HFACS predict the adjacent lower level manifestations. A variety of potential failure paths for chemical accidents were presented, which need to be given more attention in developing future preventive measures. This work provides a new perspective and a theoretical basis for the prevention of chemical accidents.
查看更多>>摘要：Natural gas hydrate (NGH) is an outstanding alternative to conventional energy due to its cleanliness and excellent energy density. However, there are still a series of problems needed to be solved before the commercial production of hydrates is realized, one of which is wellbore integrity. Different from the traditional fossil energy wellbore, the integrity degradation of hydrate wellbore has obvious man-machine and complex system characteristics. Hence, NGH production wellbore barrier classification is defined firstly, as well as failure level and consequence judgment. The system-theoretic accident model and process (STAMP) and system-theoretic process analysis (STPA) methods are applied to establish a hierarchical control and closed-loop model of the NGH production wellbore system. Through inappropriate integrity control actions (ICAs) analysis, well integrity engineers play a leading role in the control loop, and a comprehensive monitoring network helps engineers make effective decisions. Game theory is utilized to study the senior superintendent's supervision strategy and the oil service company's investment strategy for wellbore integrity management selection preference in the test production cycle. The results show that the strategic preference of the executor is related to the frequency of maintenance and supervision, and basically does not change during the production cycle. The growth rate of policy preference value for supervisor decreases with the increase of ratio of partial strategy, but it does not affect the initial preference value. The findings of this study can provide support for wellbore integrity management during test or commercial production of offshore hydrates.
查看更多>>摘要：Accidents related to pesticides have occurred with increasing frequency in recent years. One such accident, involving O,O-dimethyl phosphoramidothioate (DMPAT), which is an essential pesticide intermediate in the manufacture of organophosphorus pesticides, occurred in Taichung, Taiwan, in 2016. The results of thermogravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimetry, and vent sizing package 2 experiments revealed that the atmosphere, heating rate, and stirring conditions of DMPAT affect its thermal stability. Multiple thermokinetic methods were adopted to determine the values of thermal safety parameters. Through multiple linear regression, a reaction model of DMPAT was developed. The time to conversion limit and self-accelerating decomposition temperature were determined. The results of this study provide a reference for ensureing the thermal safety of DMPAT processing, use, storage, and transport and preventing thermal decomposition accidents.
查看更多>>摘要：Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and process safety are traditionally separated by a fuzzy perimeter, and the need to adopt different management approaches is emphasised in the literature. However, OSH and process safety complement rather than replace each other, and their integration may achieve total safety excellence of organisations. The existing studies about this integration focus on various aspects of the risk management process and provide different types of outputs. In such a context, this paper has the objective to propose IMPROSafety (Integrated risk Management for PRocess and Occupational Safety), a risk-based framework to integrate OSH and process safety. We expand the traditional risk definition considering scenario identification, its occurrence probability, and its consequence severity, to also include other dimensions, i.e. the temporal evolution and spatial extension of the scenario, and the number of workers involved. The framework covers all the steps of the risk management process: hazard identification is performed thanks to the bow-tie chaining structure and the application of the energy theory perspective, risk estimation via quantitative analyses of the considered dimensions, risk evaluation by means of the ranking of each dimension and an overall risk level, and risk treatment through a proper safety measure identification. A case study about three real events occurred in the steel and iron industry in the last decades is used to test the IMPROSafety framework. The investigation of six scenarios highlights the most dominant event sequences and risk dimensions that should receive prioritised attention for developing effective risk reduction controls.
查看更多>>摘要：In order to scale-up highly exothermic reactions for industrial use within the process industries, cooling requirements for these reactions must be determined so as to prevent thermal runaway and associated incidents. In this work, response surface methodology is utilized to identify operating regions for the synthesis of 2-butanone from 2-butanol that minimize the total heat released, based on the three parameters of initial 2-butanol concentration, titanium silicalite-1 amount, and operating temperature. For this, it was demonstrated that the 2-butanol concentration plays a more significant role in the total heat release compared with the reaction temperatures and catalyst amounts. Furthermore, a 2-butanol concentration of approximately 0.5 mol/L combined with either a low amount of titanium silicalite-1 of approximately 8 g (2.4 wt %) or high amount of approximately 15 g (4.8 wt %) resulted in higher total heat release amounts. This provides useful data regarding the combinations of parameters that will result in sufficiently low heat release amounts for the cooling capacity of industrial facilities when the reaction is scaled up for synthesis within the facilities.
查看更多>>摘要：Combustible dust explosions continue to present a significant hazard toward industries processing, storing, or pneumatically conveying metal dusts. Recent experimental investigations performed in a Siwek 20 L sphere combustion chamber characterized the explosion severity as a function of variable aluminum particle morphology (spherical, irregular granular, and flake aluminum powder). Contained ignition of suspended particulates with increasing surface irregularity exhibited a distinct rise in deflagration severity - in this work, fuel reactivity was modeled as a means of predicting hazard potential for distinct metal dust processing methods. Applying the shrinking particle theory with reaction and species diffusion limitations, previously reported pressure evolution outcomes were verified through development and implementation of closed-vessel mathematical modeling based on derivation of fundamental mass and thermal balance equations. Geometric equivalence methods were employed to estimate particle diameter for irregular dust morphologies. The consequence prediction models are in good agreement with experimental data sets; all relevant deviations are examined in detail.
NSTL
Elsevier