I’ve gathered some suggested best books to buy: top books for process design, chemical engineering, business, and all the other topics this website deals with. Because sometimes the Internet is just not enough to solve your problem. I’ve gathered them into a “Store” powered by Amazon.com, so it’s easy to buy any of the picks you like. You will also find books mentioned in previous posts there.
Please send any suggestions you have, so we can gather a list of really helpful materials. Only books you really love or use every day. Send them to Admin (Jason) at smartprocessdesign {at} gmail {dot} com
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I’m sure everyone knows about the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. We are occasionally told to be in awe of how deep it is, how far below the world we know or what mere human beings could ever survive.
But being told is one thing. Check out this Infographic from Our Amazing Planet: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench. Then scroll down.
And down.
And down.
And down.
Popularity: 1% [?]
This is the second in a three part series on process hazard meetings, such as HAZOPS, PHAs, What-Ifs, Checklists, and HAZANs. Part 1 introduced the concepts. Part 2 discusses meeting attendees and preparation. Part 3, advice for running the meeting, will be posted later.
In Part 1 we learned about hazard meetings, and saw the worksheet a hazard meeting uses to study the process. But who comes to the meeting to fill this worksheet out? And how should one prepare for a meeting? Let’s discuss that today.
For this post, we will be focusing on large safety meetings that involve a dedicated facilitator, and possibly two or more companies or divisions collaborating to implement a project. For minor work in operating facilities, safety studies are often done internally with a much smaller team, and someone on the team taking the role of facilitator and scribe.
Attendees
Attendees to a hazard meeting include:
- Facilitator: this person is an expert in the hazard meeting procedure being used, but ideally they are not involved in the project. They are “independent,” an outsider. They lead/guide the meeting and keep everyone on track, while contributing an outsider’s viewpoint
- Scribe: They record what goes in the meeting: they fill out the worksheet. Normally a projected computer file, or large paper charts, are used so that everyone can see and agree to what is being written. The scribe can participate in the meeting too. Sometimes the facilitator acts as the scribe
- Project leader(s): the project leaders from the companies involved (clients, consultants, etc.) should attend. These are the doing-the-work leaders who are actively steering the project, not the CEO
- Design discipline heads: The heads of the design team’s process, mechanical, controls, electrical, piping, safety, etc. groups. In some cases a discipline head may not be very involved (for example, at a very preliminary stage there may not be much for the structural lead to say) so they may be “on call” instead of at the entire meeting. If a discipline is not involved at all, do not bring them
- Other project workers as required: sometimes the discipline heads want to bring along the people who actually designed certain things, or a very knowledgeable person
- Operations managers, and other operators as required: for their practical insight and concerns
- Plant engineers: knowing how the plant implements projects
- Plant safety representatives
- Plant maintenance chiefs, and other maintenance people as required
- Anyone else desired: consultants, specialists, etc.
So basically: read more…
Popularity: 1% [?]
This is the first in a three part series on process hazard meetings, such as HAZOPS, PHAs, What-Ifs, Checklists, and HAZANs. Part 1 introduces the concepts. Part 2, meeting attendees and preparation, and Part 3, advice for running the meeting, will be posted later.
Very often a design project will include a meeting, or a series of meetings, that systematically study the details of the design and searches for hazards. This systematic study can take place at different times in the life of a project (from proposal to detailed design) and therefore can take place at different “scales” or levels of detail. Sometimes these meetings are required by law or company procedure, but some are done just as a prudent check of the design. There is an alphabet soup of these meetings:
- HAZOP: Hazard and operability study
- PHA: Process hazard analysis
- What-If? Study
- Checklist Study
- HAZAN: Hazard Analysis
This series of posts is going to try to generally cover all of these types of meetings. The different meeting types will use slightly different lingo for all the terms, and be either broad or nitty-gritty looks at details. But in all cases the general principle is similar. In addition to the principals of this post, get your hands on your company’s hazard meeting procedure, AND find a previous hazard report. Try to get an old hazard report done with the same participating companies, at the same level of detail, if possible. You’ll want a guide to understand how much detail to put into each step of the following procedure, and what exact terms to use.
Anyway, this first post is on the concepts. To guide us, we will look at the Hazard Meeting Worksheet – the worksheet is the focus of the hazards meeting. The “deliverable” of the meeting is to have everyone attending the meeting work as a group to fill the worksheet out. In the second part of this series of posts, we will step back and learn about preparing for the meeting and who should attend. In the third post, we will learn to overcome problems that can pop up in the meeting.
Nodes: Sections of the Process
The first step of the meeting is done outside of it: the process must be broken down into “nodes,” items or sections or areas of the process to consider. Depending on the scope, they may be as large as a system of equipment (e.g. “truck unloading system,” “crude preheat train”) or they may be as small as each individual line and valve getting its own node. read more…
Popularity: 3% [?]
Check this out: the Fluid Controls Institute Technical Resources Page. If you have to select piping elements, the papers will help you. Things like:
- Strainers
- Instrumentation
- Control Valves
- Safety Vales
- Tracing
- Steam Traps
If you need a practical read on “what do these different types of equipment mean mean?” then try it.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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