Process Industry Safety Lessons

My friend Kenna Amos is a  Chem E, PE, has been a magazine editor and editor-in-chief. He has written columns for me in a couple of tours of duty.

He recently wrote a series on process industry safety. Here is a guest post with one of those reports.

Chemical Safety Board Blames Deficiencies for Tesoro Refinery Deaths

Catastrophe blasted Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company LLC’s (Tesoro’s) refinery in Anacortes, Wash., on April 2, 2010. Seven workers died—and the refinery would be closed for six months. Unfortunately, maintenance, design, operations, regulatory agencies, industrial guidance and company safety culture all had roles in the incident.

The accident occurred in the Catalytic Reformer/Naphtha Hydrotreater unit. In it, two parallel banks of shell-and-tube heat exchangers operate. On the day of the disaster, workers were returning A/B/C bank into service, while leaving D/E/F bank in operation.

At 12:35 a.m., carbon-steel exchanger E, in the middle of its vertical stack, ruptured. Instantly, hydrogen and naphtha at 630-710 degrees Fahrenheit and about 600 pounds per square inch, gauge, burst out and auto-ignited. The resulting explosion’s fireball engulfed the heat exchangers. It and the ensuing fire, which burned for three hours, killed the workers.

The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) concluded the tragedy was completely preventable. So did the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) in its May 1, 2014, report—“INVESTIGATION REPORT: Catastrophic Rupture of Heat Exchanger (Seven Fatalities) – Tesoro Anacortes Refinery; Anacortes, Washington; April 2, 2010.”

High-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) caused the vessel to rupture along high-stress, non-post-weld-heat-treated regions of the inside walls of exchanger E. In HTTA, CSB says, atomic hydrogen diffuses into steel, reacts with carbon and produces methane. Because those molecules are too large to diffuse through the metal, they accumulate and exert pressure against exchanger walls.

That process fissures or blisters the steel. “As more fissures form, they can link, forming microcracks. Microcracks can also link to form larger cracks, which greatly weaken the steel and can lead to rupture of the vessel,” says the CSB report. “This process occurred in the E heat exchanger.”

But it needn’t have. Had Tesoro measured or otherwise technically evaluated the heat exchanger’s actual operating condition, existing refinery procedures would’ve required an HTHA inspection, CSB reports. “[Also] no evaluation was documented to demonstrate effectiveness of the inspection safeguards claimed by the [process hazard analysis] PHA team.” If an evaluation had occurred, investigators would’ve found Tesoro didn’t implement safeguards.

Nor did the refiner pursue safer design. None of the Tesoro PHA teams ever considered applying the principles of inherently safer design, by upgrading the heat exchangers before the incident, CSB declares.

Substandard State, Federal Oversight

Even so, for failing to evaluate/implement inherently safer design—or failing to implement HTHA inspection as a safeguard, state and federal regulators never issued citations to Tesoro, reveals CSB. But regulators couldn’t have, as the board discovered, because they have no process safety management (PSM) requirement to scrutinize inherently safer design or evaluate safeguards’ effectiveness.

No U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirement is puzzling. “Despite its acknowledged authority to do so, to date the EPA has not required industries to implement IST [inherently safer technology] through either the creation of a new rule, or the enforcement of the Clean Air Act [Amendments of 1990] General Duty Clause,” CSB states.

But would an existing state requirement have been effective? Circumstance suggests not. CSB notes for 270 PSM facilities, DOSH employs only four process-safety specialists. Only one has significant refinery experience. Only one is an engineer. And none have metallurgical experience.

The state would’ve found deficient maintenance and design programs—and problematic safety culture. Instead of incorporating design elements to eliminate HTHA risk, Tesoro used the mechanical-integrity program to identify damage mechanisms, CSB says. Also, for years, technical experts evaluated HTHA susceptibility using design parameters. But in concluding no heat-exchanger vulnerability, experts weren’t required to prove safety effectiveness.

The Chemical Safety Board also finds an inadequate American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. “API RP [Recommended Practice] 941 – ‘Steels for Hydrogen Service at Elevated Temperatures and Pressures in Petroleum Refineries and Petrochemical Plants’ is written permissively—and there are no minimum requirements for refiners to take any action to prevent HTHA failure,” CSB says. “We will consider CSB’s recommendations as part of the work already underway to prepare the next editions of refinery safety standards,” API spokesman Carlton Carroll says.

Because of a long history of frequent leaks and occasional fires when putting the six heat exchangers back into service, CSB acknowledges that startup, shutdown, and cleaning activities were a hazardous nonroutine operation.

C. Kenna Amos can be reached at [email protected].

Tools Aid Better Manufacturing

“Gary, what are you hearing about PackML lately,” asked an acquaintance the other day. “I’m getting a lot of requests for it.” My friend is a software integrator working primarily in factory automation and MES.

Developed by a working group of engineers from companies that use packaging machines, companies that design and manufacture packaging machines, and suppliers of machine automation and control, PackML defines the various “states” of a machine and provides a common vocabulary of terms.

Companies that use such machines favored the development of PackML, because it would make user interfaces and machine operations standard. This makes operator training and machine operations easier and better. Nestle and P&G are examples of companies who have pushed hard for the development of the standard.

Thought models help not only the companies who use the machines, it should help the machine builders, too. By structuring not only the programming, but also the design of the machine, machine builders can both satisfy customers, perhaps with a unique capability, but also reduce future design cost and time-to-market.

PackML was developed by an organization composed of technology developers, machine builders and end user companies. The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) Packaging Working Group developed the state model borrowing from the ISA88 standard (ISA88.05). The group itself has been quiet for the past few years, but according to my friend, companies are beginning to request it in the machines they procure.

Taking the thought process one step further, companies are beginning to look at their entire manufacturing enterprise by applying the ISA95 model to operations. Once companies understand operations and data movements, then they can begin applying information technology solutions from manufacturing execution systems (MES) suppliers.

If the machines are modeled, and operations are modeled, and data flows are defined, then connections can be made to automatically move real-time data from the machine into MES applications. These applications provide the contextualized information required to adequately manage manufacturing.

Machine builders who provide machines based on the state model that is understandable to their customers and at the same time provide pathways for information flow—such as built-in OPC servers—have a competitive advantage over their peers. Manufacturers who use these standards can benefit from using the information.

Research by LNS Research in collaboration with MESA has revealed that companies who use their MES applications have benefited from many annual performance improvements.

The recent report notes, “The average annual performance improvements listed below are each combinations of several different metrics and KPIs. The results shown are for manufacturers that indicated measuring each of the listed metrics. In some cases, such as in the financials category, up to 10 different variables were included in the calculation. This data shows improvements in those categories based on 2013 compared to 2012.”

Optimum asset performance

Add to the mix that all these standards aid interoperability of systems and data flow. When you can get data flowing from machines and processes into your management systems—MES, CMMS and EAM—then information about the state of the plant is at your fingertips.

Multi-protocol Wireless Adaptor for Wired to ISA100 Wireless Devices

The “Wireless Wars” are mostly over, now. Thankfully. While the standards were under development, companies and people took sides. The acrimony had a personal cost for many. A few companies continue to support the ISA100 industrial wireless sensor network standard. Many support the WirelessHART standard. Many are developing gateways and adaptors to allow plant systems to include both within the overall plant automation system.

Yokogawa Electric Corp. (probably the major supporter of ISA100) announced a multi-protocol wireless adaptor that enables wired field instruments or analytical sensors to be used as ISA100 Wireless devices, and will release models in May and July that support communications based on the HART and RS485 Modbus standards. To facilitate the introduction of field wireless systems in plants, Yokogawa plans to release additional models that will cover other standards.

Field wireless systems enable the field devices and the host-level monitoring, control, and other systems in a plant to communicate wirelessly with each other. Yokogawa’s release recounts wireless advantages such as allowing the placement of field instruments or analytical sensors in difficult to wire locations, eliminating the need for cables to connect devices, and costing less to install. In accordance with its Wireless Anywhere concept, Yokogawa is seeking to promote the plant-wide use of field wireless systems by developing ISA100 Wireless devices such as this multi-protocol wireless adaptor.

When the multi-protocol wireless adaptor is mounted on a wired field instrument or analytical sensor, the instrument or sensor is able to function as an ISA100 Wireless device. It may be used with any type of wired field instrument or analytical sensor commonly used in plants, including those used to monitor temperature, pressure, liquid level, or vibration, or to detect gas and is compatible with both Yokogawa devices and devices from other vendors. By giving customers a greater range of field instruments and analytical sensors to choose from, Yokogawa expects that this multi-protocol wireless adaptor will greatly facilitate the introduction of field wireless systems.

Following release of support for the ISA100 standard, the next two will support HART and RS485 Modbus. Planned for the future are support for Foundation Fieldbus and Profibus.

Learning Content Marketing For Automation Professionals

Learning Content Marketing For Automation Professionals

ISA Marketing SummitFor the automation and operations management marketing professionals who read this blog, here’s news of a learning experience that I’m sure you can’t resist.

People in classrooms and across the Web discuss how to reach professionals with information they can use–that will have a “halo” effect for the supplier company–rather than the old “beat-them-over-the-head-with-your-message” approach. After several years of examples of how this is effective marketing communications, most people still don’t get it.

I guess I can say I’m a blogging pioneer, since I started this gig in 2003 and have kept it going continuously ever since. Blogging is one of the best of the new communication methods for this new style of marketing. Why, then, do so many either not try or do it poorly? There are other tools available. Advice on how to write better white papers that “tell, not sell” exists. Yet, some marketers insist on turning a white paper which should be useful information into “marketing speak.”

Come to New Orleans September 11-13, 2013 to participate in the annual ISA Marketing and Sales Summit at the W hotel. These are always fantastic learning opportunities.

On Friday morning of the summit, I will be facilitating discussion on how you can do a better job of content marketing. Expect to walk out with at least two ideas you can take back to your company to do a better job of educating and informing your customers and prospects.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Gary on Manufacturing Podcast Interview with Mark Davidson on MOM

Gary on Manufacturing Podcast Interview with Mark Davidson on MOM

 

Mark Davidson, Principal Analyst MOM, LNS Research

Mark Davidson, Principal Analyst, LNS Research

LNS Research Principal Analyst Mark Davidson discusses the social research model and work he is doing in the Manufacturing Operations Management area with a glimpse at new technologies to watch. Check out my blog post on its new library for MOM research. He talks about the goal of LNS Research to accelerate people’s success. Topics include adding analysis of human capital and real-time information to the ISA95 model for analysis, cloud, mobility, how social research works–and what you can add and receive by participating. Simply visit the Website, click on Research Library, pick one (or more), and fill out the survey.

 

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