The Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association (CAIA) presented the Responsible Care (RC) Process Safety Management workshop in Johannesburg and Durban to share their knowledge and experience in Process Safety in an endeavour to prevent chemical releases, explosions and fires at chemical process facilities.
It is indicated that as many as 80% of serious incidents in the chemical industry are related to uncontrolled change. Rod Prior, Managing Director of SHEexcellence, illustrated the Management of Change as one element that must be considered in a Process Safety Management system. “All change has the potential to alter the risk profile of a plant or operation”, said Prior.
Louise Lindeque, Responsible Care Manager at CAIA, introduced the new mandatory RC Process Safety Management Practice Standard that drives the continuous improvement of overall Process Safety performance in the chemical industry. Lindeque commented that: “An effective Process Safety Management system assists companies to reduce risk and to manage the potential safety, health and environmental implications of their activities”.
Other speakers presented on topics that included a demonstration of a process safety tool – RMP*Comp – that can be used for the reliable prediction of the consequences and safe exposure distances of chemical release, fire and explosion scenarios. Francois Holtzhausen from Sasol (Pty) Ltd then provided criteria that can be used to identify “safety critical” equipment that should receive priority attention for maintenance.
RC Process Safety Workshops, together with the RC Process Safety Management Practice Standard, support chemical companies in setting up internal management systems which allow their operations to be conducted in a safe and responsible manner. The workshops have contributed towards an improved understanding of Process Safety and its management, the implementation of best practice within the chemical and allied industries, and the potential saving of lives and assets, as well as the protection of the environment.
The workshop was concluded by an interactive session concerning an explosion at Formosa Plastics in Illinois that killed five and injured three employees. A discussion around the causes of the explosion, and actions that could have prevented it was facilitated by Carina Burger, Environmental Manager at Impala Platinum (Pty) Ltd.
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