This book covers myths about technology, management, toxicology, and the environment. It helps all who work in the chemical industry and all chemical engineers, including teachers and students to avoid accidents and wrong decisions and use resources more effectively.

How far will an ounce of prevention really go? While the answer to that question may never be truly known, Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design, Second Edition takes us several steps closer. The book demonstrates not just the importance of prevention, but the importance of designing with prevention in mind. It emphasizes the role of inherent safety in process safety management systems and in ensuring an appropriate process safety culture. Keeping the easy to understand style that made the first edition so popular, this book clearly delineates practical, everyday issues and complex technical ones.

The second edition provides:

• Coverage of new inherent safety metrics and how to measure the degree or level of inherent safety
• New examples of application of the various principles of inherently safer design and 20 new figures
• New emphasis on the role of inherently safer design in process safety management systems and in ensuring an appropriate process safety culture
• Discussion of dust explosion risk reduction by means of inherently safer approaches
• New chapter on case study development, providing a comprehensive approach to the prevention and mitigation of process incidents by timely incorporation of inherently safer design

This updated version of a classic text examines how to incorporate inherently safer design into process industry activities, revising and updating information based on recent research and developments. A how-to resource at its core, the book includes numerous examples that illustrate the principles of inherently safer design and how to apply them in practice. It explains how to measure the inherent safeness of a process, referencing metric tools that have been developed during the past decade and the tried and true methods that have become industry stand bys.

This revised edition provides the basics of applying hazard and operability study (Hazop) and hazard analysis (Hazan). Hazop is a creative but systematic method of identifying hazards in process plants. Hazard analysis is then used to quantify the risks from these hazards, and to assess how far to go in reducing them. This book is presented in easy-to-read style and explains: what a Hazop is, who carries it out, when, and how long it should take; points to watch during a Hazop; an example of a Hazop; Hazops on flowsheets; the stages of Hazard analysis; the Fatal Accident Rate; risks to the public; estimating how often an accident will occur, with examples; and pitfalls in Hazan.

Contents:
Part 1: myths about technology; pressure vessels must be fitted with relief valves (or bursting discs); if a vessel is exposed to fire, it should be emptied as quickly as possible; accidents are due to human failing, so we should eliminate the human element when we can; if a flammable material has a high flashpoint, it is safe and will not explode; blast walls provide the ultimate protection against explosions; we can remove hazards; the public believe we are making the world a better place; fire is worse than smoke; accidents are due to a coincidence of unlikely events; computers introduce new problems; the most valuable writings on safety are codes and standards. Part 2: myths about management; engineers should respond to market needs; many questions can be answered by substituting numbers in well-established equations; policies lead to action; treating employees, customers and suppliers well is good business in the long run; stress is a major cause of ill-health today. Part 3: myths about toxicology and the environment; we should look for the effects of substances that have not yet been studied; the causes of cancer are environmental; scientists should be held responsible for the results of their actions; we should recycle whenever possible; entropy is increasing all the time; myths in other walks of life; afterthoughts.