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Explain, in 3-4 sentences, the author’s perspective on the importance of designing and operating a process with a sense of vulnerability to workspace safety.
We often tend to deem catastrophic incidents as unthinkable consequences of seemingly minor process safety shortcomings, and consequently overlook the shortcomings. History, however, shows that addressing these pitfalls (instead of overlooking them) would have prevented many of the well-documented calamities with which the industry is now familiar. Moreover, implementing the process safety recommendations presented in the documentation of past incidents has led to safer operating procedures at other production facilities. Therefore, acknowledging that an operation is vulnerable to failure, and designing processes to account for the unthinkable, makes industrial operations inherently safer and minimizes the risk of significant damage to people, businesses, and the environment.
You have been hired as a full-time chemical engineer at a fluid catalytic cracking unit. Months prior to your start date, you have been provided with documentation of an incident at another FCC unit, in which the accidental addition of hot chemicals to boiling water led to an explosion. Apply the author’s principle of vulnerability to this scenario. How can you bolster safe operation at the plant after you begin working? Your response should contain 3-5 sentences.
Reading the incident constitutes a valuable learning opportunity for understanding possible process safety pitfalls which may lead to a similar catastrophe at your plant. The reading would likely induce you to consider possible ways wherein the undesirable combination of water with hot chemicals could occur at your unit. Perhaps an automated system for removal of water from the unit prior to the addition of hot chemicals may malfunction during any given operation. You could then assess the safeguards in place to prevent an incident should the system malfunction occur and inform management of any shortcomings. Safety recommendations from the documentation of the previous incident may prove helpful here. Likewise, this understanding may result in an inherently safer re-design of the system so that hazardous chemicals are never in contact with one another. Another result may be the development of improved procedures so that the system is checked by multiple people and by computer control before start-up.