Chemical Engineering November 2014 - 22

Newsfront
Don't Let Your Disaster
PLan CoLLeCt Dust
New software and
technologies turn dated
disaster plans into
active, realtime safety
systems
A
ccording to the Federal Emergency
Management Agency
(FEMA; Washington, D.C.)
there were 95 Federal disaster
declarations in the year 2013 in
the U.S. The state-by-state disaster
statistics show even higher numbers
of events, emergencies and
disasters in 2013 for many states
in the U.S.
For the same year, there were at
least four major explosions at chemical
plants, including the West Fertilizer
explosion and fire in West,
Tex., which killed 15; the Williams
Olefins plant explosion and fire in
Geismar, La., which killed two; the
CF Industries fire and explosion in
Donaldsonville, La., which killed
one; and the Danlin Chemical Plant
fire and explosion in Thomas, Okla.,
in which no one was injured, but the
facility was destroyed.
Obviously, when serious disaster
strikes at a chemical processing
facility, the aftermath can be tremendous,
not only for the employees,
emergency responders and the
financial health of the company, but
also for the communities surrounding
the facility. According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA; Washington, D.C.), about 480
chemical facilities in the U.S. each
could put about 100,000 or more
people at risk both in the plant and
in the surrounding communities if
the chemicals produced or stored
Figure 1. Providers of automation and safety systems suggest looking at " layers
of protection " to ensure the highest level of safety
were to be released during an accident
or by terrorists.
For this reason, it is of the utmost
importance that chemical processors
have emergency response plans
in place. The good news is that most
of them do. The bad news is that in
some facilities, the plans are created,
placed in a series of binders
and set on a shelf. The experts will
tell you that preparing for disaster
is not something that is done once
and then left to collect dust. Rather,
it is an active and ongoing process
in which both plans and safety technologies
are updated on a regular
basis. Fortunately, as automation
systems and software are improving,
becoming more advanced and
increasingly more user friendly,
these technologies can help chemical
processors transfer those dated
plans into realtime, active safety
systems and software packages
that can help the plant and its personnel
react much faster to prevent
disaster or manage an emergency,
should one occur.
22 ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com noVemBer 2014
Source: Emerson Process Management
Layers of protection
Automation solution providers
work diligently to provide safety
systems with the primary function
of preventing incidents that may
cause damage, pollution or injury.
For example, safety instrumented
systems (SIS) are designed to detect
an out-of-control process and take
automatic action to ensure that the
process and the plant are returned
to a safe state.
" To prevent disaster, we design
safety in layers, each one of these
layers is designed to perform independently,
providing its own safety
function, so when we talk safety and
disaster prevention, we talk about
'layers of protection,' " notes Pete
Skipp, engineering manager of applied
technology with Rockwell Automation
(Milwaukee, Wisc.; www.
rockwellautomation.com).
A common industry illustration
shows the layers of protection (Figure
1). The lowest two layers show
the areas of prevention provided by
the control system and operator in
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Chemical Engineering November 2014

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