Analysis of Key Contributors to Process Safety Incidents in the Chemical Process Industry

Process safety incidents involves the release of hazardous chemicals from primary containment, which are potentially catastrophic to personnel, assets, and the environment. The severity of process safety incidents is determined by the rate of release, chemicals properties, and the quantity of hazardous chemicals released. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed fourteen PSM elements, with the objectives of reducing catastrophic process safety incidents in the chemical process industry. This research aim at investigating the key contributors to process safety incidents in the chemical process industry. The research study results should assist chemical process industry to ascertain key contributors to incidents across the world. It remains crucial for organizations to understand process safety incidents root causes, and share the learnings from previous incidents. Sharing of learning from previous incident remains critical in the incidents prevention efforts. In this research paper, a multiple case studies approach is selected for critical evaluation of 63 case studies to determine incidents root causes. The identified root causes are further analyzed using process safety incident evaluation framework to determine PSM element failures. The case studies are obtained from several process safety incidents databases such as the Centre of Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), Health and Safety Executives (HSE), and Chemical Safety Board (CSB).Based on the results the key contributors are identified to be operating procedure (21% of total process incidents), process hazard analysis (17%), mechanical integrity (16%), management of change (14%), and training (11%). In depth, analysis on individual PSM element are made for better understanding of element failure causes.