About this Research Topic
Major industrial accidents are continuously reported worldwide, with significant implications on the environment, economy, personnel, and nearby population. For instance, the single worst industrial accident in history, Bhopal (3rd December 1984, India), the Buncefield Oil Storage Depots (11th December 2005, UK) disaster, the massive tank fire of October 23rd, 2009 at the Caribbean Petroleum Refining and the explosion of Deep-water Horizon oil ring (20 April 2010, Gulf of Mexico), among others. The aforementioned industrial accidents indicated not only the large-scale destruction in the surrounding population, together with the consequences of potential environmental issues but also the necessity to prevent similar accidents in process and energy industries by improving further process safety engineering, raising awareness and knowledge, as well as the safety training.
The goal of this effort is to emphasize the high importance of process safety. Process safety engineering, by identifying hazards and assessing the risk in a qualitative and/or quantitative approach, can play a vital role in the evaluation and identification of cost-effective engineering measures to reduce or mitigate those accident risks. To achieve the above mentioned, it is important to gain experience, competency and knowledge in areas such as practices and engineering standards, human factors, process safety technical diagrams, process hazards and technical system analysis approaches, risk analysis and assessment tools, as well as decision analysis techniques.
The scope of the proposed Research Topic is to present the impact of process safety on the Petrochemical industries. With the advent of industry and technology, industrial processes are modernized and increasing the level of automation, control, and complexity. This has significant implications for the process control needs but also increases the high levels of industrial risk of operational failure and accidents on a daily basis. Major industrial accidents such as the Buncefield oil storage depot, Piper Alpha disaster, and Deep-water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, among others, have demonstrated their significant impacts on the environment, economy, and population. Despite the great evolution of process safety, new regulations, and standards in the last decades, it is still very difficult to ensure the elimination of a potential industrial accident with unanticipated consequences. The need for new methods to predict and assess the consequences, but also to raise awareness and competency in the next generation of process/safety engineers, as well as to reduce the frequency of accidents in petrochemical industries, is always present.
Accordingly, this research topic is focused on system safety, human error/ human factors, inherently safer design, process safety management and models, occupational safety measures, safety culture and safety management systems, risk assessment, loss prevention, as well as compliance with standards and codes.
Potential topics include but are not limited to:
• Process safety risk assessment.
• Process safety culture and safety management systems.
• Accident analysis and prevention in petrochemical industries.
• Incident investigation and risk management.
• Design and reliability of protective process systems.
• Process alarm management.
• Inherently safer design.
• Human error/human factors.
• Process safety training and education.
• Policy, standards, planning, and decision-making in process safety.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in process safety and loss prevention.
• Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) in process safety.
The goal of this effort is to emphasize the high importance of process safety. Process safety engineering, by identifying hazards and assessing the risk in a qualitative and/or quantitative approach, can play a vital role in the evaluation and identification of cost-effective engineering measures to reduce or mitigate those accident risks. To achieve the above mentioned, it is important to gain experience, competency and knowledge in areas such as practices and engineering standards, human factors, process safety technical diagrams, process hazards and technical system analysis approaches, risk analysis and assessment tools, as well as decision analysis techniques.
The scope of the proposed Research Topic is to present the impact of process safety on the Petrochemical industries. With the advent of industry and technology, industrial processes are modernized and increasing the level of automation, control, and complexity. This has significant implications for the process control needs but also increases the high levels of industrial risk of operational failure and accidents on a daily basis. Major industrial accidents such as the Buncefield oil storage depot, Piper Alpha disaster, and Deep-water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, among others, have demonstrated their significant impacts on the environment, economy, and population. Despite the great evolution of process safety, new regulations, and standards in the last decades, it is still very difficult to ensure the elimination of a potential industrial accident with unanticipated consequences. The need for new methods to predict and assess the consequences, but also to raise awareness and competency in the next generation of process/safety engineers, as well as to reduce the frequency of accidents in petrochemical industries, is always present.
Accordingly, this research topic is focused on system safety, human error/ human factors, inherently safer design, process safety management and models, occupational safety measures, safety culture and safety management systems, risk assessment, loss prevention, as well as compliance with standards and codes.
Potential topics include but are not limited to:
• Process safety risk assessment.
• Process safety culture and safety management systems.
• Accident analysis and prevention in petrochemical industries.
• Incident investigation and risk management.
• Design and reliability of protective process systems.
• Process alarm management.
• Inherently safer design.
• Human error/human factors.
• Process safety training and education.
• Policy, standards, planning, and decision-making in process safety.
• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in process safety and loss prevention.
• Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) in process safety.
Keywords: process safety; loss prevention; inherently safer design; system safety; risk assessment; safety management system, accident and prevention analysis; safety culture; training and education; computational fluid dynamics
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
