(52w) The Mihazop Method: Get the Most of Your Process Hazard Analysis and Mechanical Integrity Strategies Combined

Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) is a structured and systematic approach to improve the safe operation of manufacturing plants. It is based on identifying potential risks associated with process variables and parameters deviations from the original design intent and providing recommendations to manage risk. Mechanical Integrity (MI) encompasses the activities necessary to ensure that equipment/assets are designed, fabricated, installed, operated and maintained to achieve the desired performance safely, reliably and environment-friendly. HAZOP study results are an important input to build a Mechanical Integrity (MI) strategy. This is not always well understood and may create rework and suboptimal results. An integrated method of HAZOP and Mechanical Integrity studies: MIHAZOP, is proposed in this paper. This new method enhances the HAZOP approach by incorporating maintenance recommendations that improve the reliability and mechanical integrity of the assets related to the causes of the deviations identified in the HAZOP. It is estimated the new method will have a minimum impact in the length of the HAZOP (10-15%), while gaining considerable value added from the integration of process risk analysis (HAZOP) and reliability (Mechanical Integrity) under the same methodology. MIHAZOP promotes synergy with maintenance and reliability teams, who can contribute to strengthening process safety controls and HAZOP recommendations. Benefits of this new approach are: a) Enrichment of the HAZOP study, as the MI aspects are better understood by all participants, allowing a better team effort for defining maintenance activities; b) Better documented input for enhancing the reliability strategy; c) Reinforcement of process safety culture, allowing operations and process personnel to understand better the maintenance and reliability roles in Process Safety; d) Streamlining of the documentation that supports or justifies equipment maintenance prioritization. Additionally, a comparison between the regular HAZOP and the MIHAZOP with a real-life example is provided to demonstrate the benefits of this new approach.