Chemical process accidents are often the result of unexpected interaction between automated process equipment and operators. In the drive to improve safety and reliability, chemical process facilities tend to rely heavily on automation using sophisticated instrumentation, computers, and programmable logic controllers to run their plants. In an effort to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution, various pieces of equipment are interconnected in ways that complicate their operation. Equipment failures or operator errors can lead to sudden and unexpected changes in the plant operation. If these disruptions to normal process operation exceed the capabilities of the operators or the capacity of the safety systems, a severe accident can occur, potentially producing a devastating fire, explosion, or toxic release.
The
petrochemical process industries represent a significant contribution
to the world economy. Companies in this industry produce a wide variety
of products, including ethylene, vinyl chloride, styrene monomer,
propylene, benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are the raw materials for
many plastics. Producing these chemicals involves handling hazardous
materials and managing large amounts of energy. Because of these
conditions, when something goes wrong at a petrochemical processing
facility, it can have catastrophic consequences.
With
more than 40 years of experience analyzing thousands of failures,
Exponent is a leader in loss investigation, including material failures,
fires, and explosions. These investigations range from high-loss
disasters to small incidents for major national and international oil
refiners. This experience provides Exponent engineers and scientists
unique insights in addressing various risk and reliability issues and
assessing environmental and health impacts, to help our clients increase
the safety of their personnel, processes, and facilities and minimize
operational disruptions and property loss. Additionally, our expertise
in risk assessment, release characterization, dispersion modeling, vapor
cloud explosion analysis, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and
epidemiology allows us to comprehensively examine the consequences of
both hypothetical and actual releases of toxic and flammable substances.
Exponent has a wide range of in-house expertise that integrates the
latest process, safety, risk, and environmental developments into our
work. As a result, we can address everything from small, focused
analyses to complex, multi-disciplinary projects. The capabilities of
our experts allow Exponent to offer the following services:
- Accident and incident investigation
- Root-cause analysis (RCA)
- Fire and explosion analysis
- Fire protection engineering
- Fitness-for-service evaluation
- Specification, corrosion control, and failure analysis of materials
- Evaluation of pressure relief systems, vessels, and piping
- Analysis of atmospheric releases, spills, and environmental fate
- Groundwater and soil remediation support
- Compliance with standards and regulations
- Risk and reliability analysis and quantitative risk assessment
- Process hazards analysis (PHA)
- Hazard and operability analysis (HAZOP)
- Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)
- Review of process safety management (PSM) and risk management program (RMP)
- Safety and health training
- Environmental impact and baseline assessments
- Site security and vulnerability analysis
- Site investigation and remediation
- Hydrology and groundwater monitoring
- Project management, performance, scheduling, and construction delay analysis
Further,
Exponent is actively involved in providing risk assessment services for
owners and operators of onshore petrochemical process facilities. These
assessments focus on naturally occurring hazards such as hurricanes and
earthquakes, and also on man-made hazards such as vapor cloud
explosions. The scope of services provided by Exponent includes
probabilistic and deterministic hazard definitions, onsite inspections,
structural and material load and stress analyses using advance modeling
tools, vulnerability determinations, probable maximum loss estimations
for property and business, and mitigation planning. The broad range of
expertise among various Exponent practices enables us to offer clients
the skills necessary to conduct such assessments in a thorough and
timely manner. The benefits include better understanding of employee
exposures to potentially hazardous situations, current knowledge of
asset vulnerabilities, identification of opportunities for
cost-effective mitigation measures to reduce potential losses, and
better knowledge of loss exposures from an insurance perspective.
Exponent engineers and scientists regularly publish in leading
technical journals, present at conferences, serve on National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) and American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM) technical committees, chair American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE) conference sessions, and provide peer review
for journals such as Process Safety Progress, Journal of Petroleum Science & Engineering (JPSE), and Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries (JLPPI).
