HAZOP

HSE research, published in their book 'Out of Control', shows that 60% of all process industry accidents can be traced back to errors in the design and specification. HAZOP study is a recognised technique for checking the process plant design.

HAZOP became best practice throughout the UK following the Flixborough disaster and became fully used in Europe and the USA following the Seveso disaster. HAZOP is applied worldwide following Bhopal. The legal framework for the application of HAZOP studies throughout Europe is covered by the Seveso directives and, following the implementation of Seveso II, HAZOP studies should be applied to all process plant in all industries.

Rowan House are able to provide the following HAZOP services:

• Independent HAZOP chair
• HAZOP secretary
• Use of laptop with HAZ1508 software
• Inclusion of 61508 Stage 3 in the HAZOP study
• HAZ1508 software for both PC and server
• HAZ1508 as part of DSEAR Regulation 5
• Provide the Post HAZOP administration
• Provide the final HAZOP report
• Final Action Review and Close-Out Services

People associate HAZOP studies with safety. However the real purpose of a HAZOP study is to save you money but, to do that, it must be done at the correct time in the contract. HAZOP studies always save money if they are done when the design of the major items of equipment is nearly complete and before those major items of equipment are ordered. You must do the HAZOP study for your safety case but it is better for your business if you time it correctly and use it for optimum economic benefit.

We are required to undertake suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks associated with our process and a process HAZOP study has become the recognized and established technique for identifying, assessing and recording the process plant risks. Our briefing note includes the EU directive numbers showing how the use of HAZOP studies has become required not just for chemical plants but for all process plant. It is true that you may undertake an alternative form of risk assessment but you will need to be prepared to justify that the alternative is equal or better than the HAZOP study and this is particularly hard to do after an incident.

High Integrity Safety Critical Instrumentation is expensive. It is expensive to buy, to design, to proof test and expensive to maintain. HAZ1508, the award winning HAZOP software from Rowan House, enables the user to identify potential Safety Critical Instruments and optimise the other possible layers of safety so as to minimise the number of high-cost safety critical loops under BS EN 61508.

HAZ1508