OverviewEvent Tree Analysis (ETA) uses the same logical and mathematical techniques as Fault Tree Analysis. However, whereas a fault tree analyzes how an undesirable top event may occur, an event tree considers the impact of the failure of a particular component or item in the system, and works out the effect such a failure will have on the overall system risk or reliability. Event trees use an…
The content of this Article has been moved to Safety Moment #94: Fault Tree Analysis. Details to do with the application and use of this technique are provided in the book Process Risk and Reliability Management and in the ebook Frequency Analysis.Copyright © Ian Sutton. 2020. All Rights Reserved.
The material in this article is extracted from Chapter 1 of the 2nd edition of the book Plant Design and Operations and in the ebook 52 Process Safety Moments.A hazard that is of great concern to virtually all process facilities is fire — most of the materials being processed, stored or transported are flammable and/or explosive. Therefore, when designing a process facility, the prevention…
Dateline: July 2021Update: September 2021A Clunky Yet Memorable SentenceThe report Global Warming of 1.5°C, published in the year 2018 by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), is important for two reasons. First, it provides a thorough summary of much of the research that had been carried out on climate change up until that time. Hence it has high credibility. The second reason…
The matching YouTube for this article is located at the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Scopes video.Many companies in the energy and process industries have committed to a Net Zero program. Their aim is to cease net emissions of greenhouse gases by a specific year, often 2050. In order to properly define their goal these companies need to identify the emissions for which they are…
Dateline: August 2021Story-TellingMost of the people reading posts such as this are aware that earlier this month the IPCC issued an alarming report on climate change that should make society change its ways. Failure to do so could lead to catastrophe and a possible breakdown of civilization within just 20 years. Yet nothing happened; the report changed almost nothing. It was just a blip in…
VideoHistory Safety Management: we have published a 30 minute video package that shows how safety management systems in the process and energy industries have developed during the course of the last 300 years. The YouTube video shown at the end of this page provides a short extract.Historical SequenceWe can look at the development of the history of industrial safety programs using the…
The Primer Distillation is priced at $25 (U.S.) It can be purchased here. The Kindle link is here.HSE in the Process and Energy Industries offers a clear, concise, and authoritative guide to managing Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) programs in high-risk industrial settings. Designed for engineers, operations managers, safety professionals, and executives, this primer…
Alan Mills - CEO of Global Falcon
“The past is where you learned the lesson. The future is where you apply the lesson. Don’t give up in the middle!” Dale Carnegie, American writer and lecturer.This article by Alan Mills discusses the critical importance of safety, and of learning from those who have experienced events such as Piper Alpha and Deepwater Horizon.For me, there can be…
In Safety Moment #8: “But We’re Different, You Know” we show that risk analysis techniques have much in common across different parts of the process and energy industries. Lessons can be shared across industries such as oil refining, chemicals manufacture, pipeline operations and offshore oil and gas production. But, given that the first word in the phrase Process Safety Management (PSM) is…
Shown below is a summary of the post Industry Leadership.In the post Net Zero: The Business Opportunity we saw that many businesses have adopted a ‘Net Zero by 2050’ strategy. This means that these organizations intend to have ‘net zero’ emissions of greenhouse gases by the year 2050. One way — and by no means the only way — of achieving this goal is to develop and adopt new technologies that…
This primer provides a concise and structured overview of how major accident hazards are regulated around the world. It explains the foundations of process safety regulation, compares national and regional systems, and highlights global trends that are reshaping expectations in the process and energy industries.Written for engineers, operators, safety professionals, and policy analysts, it serves…
The book Limits and Beyond, edited by Ugo Bardi and Carlos Alvarez Pereira, provides a 50th anniversary review of the seminal report Limits to Growth (LtG). The following is from the back cover of the book.50 years ago the Club of Rome commissioned a report: Limits to Growth. They told us that, on our current path, we are heading for collapse in the first half of the 21st century. This book,…
This blog is a summary of the post Limits and Beyond: The Yawning Gap. The book Limits and Beyond, edited by Ugo Bardi and Jorgen Randers, provides a 50th anniversary review of the seminal report Limits to Growth (LtG). The following is from the back cover of the book.50 years ago the Club of Rome commissioned a report: Limits to Growth. They told us that, on our current path, we are heading…
The material here is a summary of the post Lithium and Its Limits.Supply and DemandClassical economics states that supply will always meet demand. If the demand for a resource or product increases then the price of that resource will probably go up, but it is taken for granted that the supply is always there. In other words, supply and demand are fundamentally a financial issue.One of the themes…