(32a) The History of the Loss Prevention Symposia

In about 1965, a number of sizable explosions and fires occurred in the oil and petrochemical industries. A light hydrocarbons plant and a refinery, both in Louisiana, suffered vapor cloud explosions. This phenomenon, while it had occurred before, was largely unrecognized in industry. At about the same time, the process industries were moving toward the ?jumbo? plants. Formerly, ammonia was produced in multiple plants of 100 to 200 t/d capacity with reciprocating compressors. In the early ?60s ammonia plants of 750, 1000 and 1500 t/d with centrifugal machines were rolling off the designers boards. Large, single train olefins plants, with capacities of 1.5 billion pounds per year, were also being designed and erected. As a response to these trends, a number of people from industry and insurance put together a symposium to explore ways to improve loss prevention in the process industries. This symposium contained six sessions and was held at the AIChE National meeting in Houston in 1967. Attendance was excellent and a committee was formed to prepare annual symposia on the topic. These symposia are still held at AIChE National meetings with the 40th being held this year. This paper will discuss some of the highlights of these symposia and some of the people that have made them so successful over the years