(56d) Safety First Guidelines to Implement Facility Siting Techniques in the Early Stages of Capital Projects

One of the leading movements in process safety is the implementation of inherently safer designs (ISD) in process facilities; however, this comes with a series of hurdles. The chief problem typically revolves around performing process safety analysis early enough in a capital project to be viable and effective. Early in a capital project, when it is typically the simplest to implement ISD elements, there is often a lack of information to perform traditional process safety analysis. Furthermore, the project is typically in a state of flux early on and traditional analysis may not be able to keep pace with the numerous layouts explored early in a capital project. Finally, the project manager may not be accustomed to performing this kind of detailed analysis early in the project and may need additional support to plan and implement these reviews.

Consciously incorporating process safety as part of the project Master Planning effort can help to drive down the cost of implementing safety measures. A common complaint is that safety studies conducted at the end of design phases require costly redesigns or expensive mitigation options. Performing safety studies, such as facility siting, early in the process, provides the opportunity to optimize the layout of the facility for both safety and cost. It can also allow project managers to better understand the costs associated with making design choices. This can facilitate better overall time and cost estimation throughout the project.

Because of the discussed hurdles and benefits, the process safety engineer needs to explore new techniques for increasing the efficiency and transparency of their analysis. This paper will detail guidelines for incorporating facility siting techniques throughout the stages of a capital project to reduce risk and better manage safety spending throughout the project. At each project stage, both the methodology for conducting the analysis as well as the operational and communication challenges that accompany it will be discussed. Examples will be provided that illustrate the effectiveness of the techniques to aid in cost benefit analysis and project forecasting, with the end goal of achieving corporate safety goals while effectively managing safety spending.