(55as) A Case Study on Application of HAZOP for a Brewery

Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and most popular beverage after water and tea. It’s an alcoholic beverage produced by the saccharification of starch, often derived from the malted grains such as barley and wheat, and the fermentation of the resulting sugar. The brewing process can be broken into four main constituents before the bottling line, Mashing, Lautering, Wort boiling and Fermenting. Breweries commonly rely on ammonia refrigeration to keep their supplies cold. However, some brewers fail to realize that ammonia is one of the dangerous chemicals covered under 29 CFR 1910.119, OSHA’s regulation for preventing or minimizing the release of toxic, reactive, flammable or explosive chemicals. “Safety matters at all levels”, even for companies that may not be PSM level facilities.

A HAZOP study identifies hazards and operability problems. The study involves investigating how the plant might deviate from the design intent. It is based on the principle that several experts with different backgrounds can interact and identify more problems and failure scenarios working together and combining their results. This paper presents a review of consequences identified in brewery HAZOP. It also outlines some of the recommendations and action items identified from the case study of a brewery.

Keywords: Process Safety Management (PSM), PHA, HAZOP, Brewery, Ammonia, OSHA.