Fundamentals of Process Safety

The chemical and process industries have brought benefits to humanity that are so widespread that it is only possible for us to give a few examples of them. Virtually everything we use today is a product, at least partly, of these industries.

Houses, clothes, furniture, books, computers, health products, medicines, and leisure equipment are all, to a greater or lesser degree, products of these industries. Even the automotive industry, mainly metallic raw materials, requires rubber and plastics for indispensable items such as tires,
paint, and seats. The finished product then requires fuel, produced by petroleum refining, to make it go.

When things go wrong, however, these benefits can be costly, in terms of human injury and death, and damage to property and the environment. Explosions, fires, and toxic releases, exemplified by such disasters as Flixborough, Seveso, Bhopal, and Mexico City, are examples of what can happen if those who design or operate process plants get badly wrong. Moreover, for every significant event which makes the headlines, there are perhaps hundreds of lesser events, each with its toll of injury and damage.

This book is concerned with hazards the situations which have the potential to give rise to such disasters — and the nature of the harm which may be
inflicted on people, property, or the environment when their potential are realized.