Case histories of some power and control-based process safety incidents

✍ Scribed by M. L. Griffin; F. H. Gurry

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 401 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1066-8527
• DOI: 10.1002/prs.680130118

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This paper presents some case histories of power‐and control‐based process safety incidents and near misses involving the Procter & Gamble Company and its affiliates.

A key part of our Process Safety Program is to learn from the incidents that we and others experience. Incidents in our facilities are investigated for basic cause, and the learnings are shared with other plants. In some cases it is necessary to change our design practices and standards. We believe that thorough incident investigation is a major tool in our continuous improvement efforts. Each of these events had the potential to cause serious personnel injury and/or major production losses. Fortunately, these incidents did not produce any reportable personnel injuries.

We are sharing these case histories of process safety incidents and near misses here so others can learn from them. The six incidents reviewed in this paper all resulted from the failure of a power or control system. We will review what happened, what we learned, and make recommendations to avoid future incidents like them. We hope that this will help avoid similar, possibly more serious, incidents in other facilities.