Home
| Services | Extreme Loads &
Structural Risk
Facility Siting
Facility siting is the process of identifying hazards that may affect process plant buildings, assessing the potential consequences and developing a means of managing the risks of these hazards. In short, Facility siting is used to assess process buildings (i.e., location, construction and function) based on the known hazards (i.e., toxic, fire and explosion). Past incidents at petrochemical facilities have been the initial catalyst for the recognition of building siting issues. Investigation of explosion incidents has indicated that in many cases the people inside a building may be at higher risk to injury than those outside of a building.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) addresses facility siting in 29 CFR Part 1910.119 Process Safety Management (PSM). The OSHA stipulations in 1910.119 require facility siting to be addressed in the facilities’ Process Hazard Analyses (PHAs). Other countries throughout the world have also recognized facility siting as a safety concern and have been adopting similar facility siting requirements. The industry has responded to these requirements and developed guidance documents related to facility siting.
ABS Consulting was involved in the development of many of these guidelines, such as:
- API Recommended Practice 752, Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Buildings
- ASCE publication, Design of Blast Resistant Buildings in Petrochemical Facilities and the Center for Chemical Process Safety
- CCPS publication, Guidelines for Process Plant Buildings for External Explosions and Fires
Facility Siting Services
ABS Consulting’s services include developing potential accident scenarios, predicting explosion, toxic and fire hazards, determining consequences, evaluating risks and developing remedial actions. Since assisting both the American Petroleum Institute with the development of API RP 752, and the CCPS with the development of their book on Evaluating Process Plant Buildings, ABS Consulting has become a leading provider of facility siting services. Over the past 10 years, ABS Consulting has performed more than 200 facility siting projects using these guidelines. Studies have involved the analysis of over 1,600 buildings, covering all types of typical process plant construction for control buildings and service buildings. Assessments of existing buildings, conceptual upgrade designs, and development of construction drawings and specifications for modifications have been included in the studies.
If the following is applicable to you and your company, ABS Consulting provides services to meet your needs.
- Need facility siting evaluation
- Update your current facility siting study
- Manage hazards within locations of portable buildings
ABS Consulting has developed corporate facility siting guidelines and risk criteria for clients for nearly equal numbers of refining and chemical locations. ABS Consulting’s studies have analyzed a wide range of explosion, fire and toxic material hazards. These hazards were found in a diverse range of refining, petrochemical, and specialty chemical processes. When ABS Consulting applies siting methodologies to the facility, the result is a manageable number of buildings of concern—generally logical “first steps” toward reducing overall risk to your employees and corporation.
The typical facility siting evaluation process generally incorporates the following steps.
- Hazard Identification (Fire, Toxic and Explosion)
- Toxic Modeling
- Explosion Modeling
- Building Assessment
- Consequence Modeling
- Risk Assessment
ABS Consulting provides clients with risk reduction options, which include:
- Preventive measures such as procedure or process equipment changes to reduce the likelihood of a process accident
- Preventative measures such as relocating personnel
- Mitigative measures to reduce magnitude of a hazard’s effects
- Mitigative building measures such as structural or window/door enhancements to improve the building’s response and, hence, improve occupant vulnerability
In addition to providing evaluations, ABS Consulting also offers the following facility siting services:
- Software solutions that perform occupancy, explosion consequence and risk screening analyses and can incorporate other consequence modeling results, such as toxic dispersion endpoints, radiant heat endpoints, etc.
- Structural assessments of existing buildings for blast loads as well as blast modeling.
- Development of facility siting guidelines and corporate risk criteria.
- Explosion testing to evaluate structural response to blast, including structural retrofits.
- Training in the facility siting methods through public and private training.
Industry Updates
For the past year, ABS Consulting has been working for the BP Independent Safety Review Panel chaired by former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III to evaluate the effectiveness of process safety management systems and safety culture at BP’s five North American refineries. This project was an outgrowth of the March 23, 2005, accident at BP’s Texas City refinery. Many of its findings center on BP’s implementation and execution of process safety management at its U.S. refineries. View the report at www.bp.com/bakerpanelreport.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is in the process of developing a new Recommended Practice (RP) concerning the siting of portable buildings at process plants and refineries and is designated API RP-753. API RP-753 addresses what types of portable or temporary buildings should be sited and where they should be sited. API RP-753 addresses occupancy of portable buildings and use by non-essential personnel. API RP-753 identifies appropriate analysis methods for siting portable buildings and gives specific siting distance guidance for vapor cloud explosion hazards. Fire and toxic hazards are also addressed along with general risk reduction recommendations. A draft version of API RP-753 was published in late 2006 and the final version is anticipated by mid-2007.
API is also planning an update to API RP-752, which addresses management of explosion, fire and toxic hazards associated with all types of process plant buildings. This includes such permanent buildings as control rooms, laboratories, shops, fire stations, and administration buildings. The update of API RP-752 is planned to start in early 2007.
For more information:
Mark Whitney
Director
1-210-495-5195 | mwhitney@absconsulting.com
Steve Arendt
Vice President
1-281-673-2914 | sarendt@absconsulting.com
|
