(69b) Inherently Safer Design (ISD) Success Stories in Existing Plants

Inherently Safer Design (ISD) is a powerful tool which offers not only significant reduction in the risk of process safety incidents, but can also provide operability benefits and improved cost performance. Several jurisdictions in the United States, including Contra Costa County, California, and the State of New Jersey, require ISD reviews for processes handling specific hazardous substances. In other locations, ISD reviews remains a good industry practice , however, the perception is that ISD is applicable only to new process designs and that there are limited opportunities to apply ISD concepts to existing processes, and radical changes to these processes would not be feasible. This perception is incorrect.

There are many examples of where ISD changes have been successfully and cost-effectively made in existing plants, and this paper will show how ISD concepts can be applied to process operations in existing facilities. In addition, this paper will highlight success stories from industry where ISD concepts were applied to existing operations/facilities, which resulted in not only improvements in safety, but in process operability and cost performance. This paper will encourage the conduct of ISD reviews of existing facilities in order to identify potential opportunities for implementation of inherently safer options.