Process safety consulting for the chemical, petrochemical, refinery, and oil and gas industries

Resources

Presentations

Training Courses

Training appears in the project safety lifecycle twice: in the project implementation phase and in the operation phase. A safe operation depends on operation and maintenance personnel understanding their process and its safety features before it ever starts up, and on ongoing training in a variety of topics. Bluefield Process Safety has developed a range of courses to meet these training needs, and is able to develop and conduct specific training as is required.

Please contact Bluefield Process Safety to schedule training.


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TC-102: OSHA General Industry 10 Hour Training

Summary

This 10 hour course was designed by OSHA for managers, engineers, technicians, mechanics, operators, and other personnel that work in any manufacturing facility. It includes required core topics, elective topics, and additional topics you can choose that are especially suited to your organization. It can be scheduled to be completed in one very long day, or more typically, over two days, or even in a series of one-hour sessions scheduled over the course of time (up to six months).

This course establishes a familiarity with the OSHA standards that are most commonly cited and covers the key requirements of OSHA compliance.

Students receive a manual for reference. OSHA provides certification in the form of wallet cards that Bluefield Process Safety will mail to each participant who successfully completes the course.

Prerequisites

N/A

Outline

Core Topics (seven hours total)

Introduction to the OSH Act and OSHA (2 hours)

Walking and Working Surfaces

Exit Routes, Emergency Action Plans, Fire Prevention Plans

Personal Protective Equipment

Electrical

Hazard Communication

Elective Topics (at least two topics for an hour each)

Hazardous Materials (PSM and HazWOpER)

Machine Guarding

Bloodborne Pathogens

Ergonomics

Additional Topics (these or elective topics to complete 10 hours)

HazOps

Lockout/Tagout

Permit Required Confined Space Entry

Incident Investigation

Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

Safety Culture and Ethics

Product Liability and Safety

TC-107.8: Investigating Incidents

Summary

This is a one day course intended for process safety personnel who participate in or lead incident investigation teams. This course goes more in depth than the incident investigation awareness training that may be included as part of OHSA 10 Hour Training.

This one-day, instructor-led course uses a combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises to teach the skills necessary to effectively function as the leader of an incident investigation committee, and to analyze incidents in a systematic manner that assures improvement of the process that generated the incident. Students will leave the course ready and able to complete and lead incident investigations and improve overall safety.

Prerequisites

None

Outline

ESH Management Theory

Human Behavior

The Incident Analysis Process

Interviewing Techniques

Photography

Incident Statements

Activators, Behaviors, and Consequences

Practice Cases

TC-201: The Safety Lifecycle

Summary

This course is for professionals responsible for implementing process safety in a technical or industrial environment, including those for responsible for specifying and implementing Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). It is also an excellent introduction for anyone seeking a better understanding of the safety lifecycle.

This half-day instructor led course covers the complete Safety Lifecycle. The IEC 61511 standard will be referenced and used as a guide through the analysis, realization, and operation of an SIS. Exercises will include process hazard analysis, SIL determination, SRS definition, and SIF design.

Prerequisites

None

Outline

Introduction to the Safety Lifecycle

Regulations and Standards

Process Safety Information

Hazard Identification

Tolerable Risk

Risk Analysis

Safety Integrity Levels

Safety Instrumented Systems

Safety Requirements Specifications

Implementation

Validation

Pre Startup Safety Review

Operations and Maintenance

Proof Testing and Inspections

Functional Safety Management

Quality Systems and Documentation

TC-204: Process Safety Management

Summary

This is a one to two hour class. It is general awareness training intended for personnel that work in a facility with processes covered by OSHA's Process Safety Management standard: managers, engineers, technicians, mechanics, operators, and others.

The course introduces workers to the OSHA PSM standard and its 14 elements with special emphasis on employer and employee responsibilities under the standard. Each participant receives copies of the presentation material and accompanying notes.

Prerequisites

None

Outline

The Regulations

Background

Contents of the Standard

Covered Processes

Comparison with RMP

Covered Processes

Risk Management Planning

Traps and Pitfalls

Elements of PSM

Employees

Information

Review and Analysis

O & M

Focus on Selected PSM Topics

Process Hazard Analysis

Pre-Startup Safety Reviews

Mechanical Integrity

Management of Change

Help and Information

OSHA

Trade Groups

Consultants

TC-205: PSM Compliance Auditor Training

Summary

This is a half day course. It is intended for personnel that are responsible for ensuring OSHA's Process Safety Management standard is being effectively and fully enforced at their facility.

The course refreshes workers to the OSHA PSM standard and its 14 elements before applying the standard hands-on to practical application scenarios and instructor-lead review of company safety procedures. Each participant receives copies of the presentation material, example scenarios, and accompanying notes. With sufficient time to prepare, the example scenarios will be adapted to incorporate the facilities own PSM-covered process and documentation

Prerequisites

Basic awareness of the OSHA PSM standard (TC-204 or equivalent)

Outline

29 CFR 1910.119 Process Safety Management

Compliance Audits

Documentations

Field Conditions

Mechanical Integrity

Recommendations Tracking

Compliance Audits

Incident Investigations

Process Hazards Analysis

Management of Change

Pre-Startup Safety Reviews


TC-221: Preparing PFDs and P&IDs

Summary

This is a very full one day course for process design engineers responsible for preparing piping and instrument diagrams as part of front-end engineering design packages.

This is not a course on drafting standards. Instead, it is intended for process engineers who must start with a clean sheet of paper and prepare P&IDs, but who do not have a mentor in their organization to guide their efforts. The course includes examples and exercises that are completed individually and in groups.

Prerequisites

Experience or training reading P&IDs (BC-222 or equivalent).

Outline

Flow Diagrams

Introduction to Flow Diagrams

Lead Sheets

Electrical and Instrument Symbols

Process Equipment Symbols

Piping

Drawing Interpretation Exercise

Reviewing, Revising, and Issuing Flow Diagrams

Review PFDs

Electrical and Instrument Review of P&IDs

Reviewing Equipment and Lines on P&IDs

Overall P&ID Reviews

Making Revisions and Management of Change

Issuing Drawings

Cost of Revisions

P&ID Review Exercise

Preparing Process Flow Diagrams

Before Starting

Laying Out PFDs

PFD Streams

Material Balances

Heat Balances

Material and Heat Balance Exercise

Preparing Piping and Instrument Diagrams

Before Starting

Laying Out P&IDs

Piping and Equipment

Electrical and Instrumentation

Operating and Safety Considerations

Equipment Data

P&ID Preparation Exercise

TC-222: Reading P&IDs

Summary

This is a half-day course intended primarily for inexperienced engineers and technicians with little or no experience with process flow diagrams and piping and instrument diagrams. It helps organizations avoid the costs and delays that result from misunderstanding drawings. It exposes students to all of the elements of PFDs and P&IDs and teaches students how to read and interpret these fundamental drawings.

Students receive copies of the presentation.

Prerequisites

N/A

Outline

Introduction to Flow Diagrams--BFDs, PFDs, EFDs

Instrument Symbols

Electrical Equipment

Process Equipment Symbols

Piping

Lead Sheets

Issuing P&IDs

Drawing Interpretation

TC-232: Process Hazards Analysis Facilitator Training

Summary

This course is for process safety personnel who have participated in Process Hazards Analysis and want to learn how to facilitate a PHA.

This one day course is a hands-on, instructor-led course. The course includes a review of several PHA techniques (including HazOp, WhatIf, Checklist), and gives guidance on when each of those techniques may be preferred over others. It then focuses on the PHA technique most widely used in the chemical process industries, the HazOp. The course addresses how to prepare for a PHA, how to identify PHA nodes on a P&ID, how to conduct a PHA (including tips on keeping the team moving and dealing with disruptive team members), and the format for compiling and reporting the results of the PHA. The course concludes with a discussion of how to estimate the time and cost of a HazOp and other PHAs.

Prerequisites

Recommended to have experience participating in at least one PHA

Outline

Introduction

PHA Background

Regulatory Compliance

Techniques for Conducting a PHA

What If

Checklist

HazOp

Other Requirements

Preparing for a PHA

Defining Nodes

Team Selection

Conducting a PHA

Guide Words

Working with a Scribe

Compiling a PHA

Reporting Format

TC-235: Establishing Risk Tolerance Criteria

Summary

Students will gain understanding of what elements make up risk, the amount of risk tolerated in society, and the amount of risk tolerated in organizations and industry (specifically the process industry). Students will also engage in practical exercises to allow them to set risk tolerance criteria that are useful as a design basis.

Prerequisites

N/A

Outline

Hazards vs. Consequences vs. Risk

Likelihood and Consequence Analysis

Quantification of Risk

Risk Benchmarking

ALARP

Prevention vs. mitigation

SIL overview

Optional Topics:

Environmental Risks

Community Risks

Commercial Risks

TC-236: Assessing Risk—Off-site Consequence Analysis

Summary

This course is for process safety personnel who quantify the consequences of safety incidents for the purposes of quantifying risk off the plant site.

The US EPA's guidance documents on off-site consequence analysis (OCA) describe how the consequence component of risk should be determined for both worst cases and alternative cases. While other tools are available, the EPA OCA guidance is widely used, and the basis of comparison for most discussions with the public. This one day course explains the theory behind these EPA-approved techniques, and trains students in their use through a combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises. The course wraps up with an exercise in the use of the EPA software, RMP*Comp, and a review of the requirements for an EPA Risk Management Plan.

Prerequisites

Experience assessing consequence (i.e. Bluefield Course 236)

Outline

Toxic Gas Releases

Liquid Spill and Vaporization

Vapor Cloud Explosions

BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions)

Pool Fires

Jet Fires

RMP*Comp

EPA Risk Management Plans

TC-237: Assessing Risk—Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

Summary

This is a half day course to train process safety personnel to participate in and facilitate LOPA teams for the purposes of estimating the likelihood component of risk.

This LOPA technique is endorsed by the Center for Chemical Process Safety and widely accepted in the process industries. This course prepares students to develop scenarios, evaluate safeguards as potential layers of protection, and use appropriate probabilities to calculate frequency, or likelihood, of safety critical scenarios.

Students receive a copy of the Bluefield Process Safety LOPA tool, and training to calibrate it to their organizations own risk tolerance criteria.

Prerequisites

N/A

Outline

Understanding Layers of Protection Analysis

Introduction

Layers of Protection

Risk

Overview of LOPA

Event Tree Analysis

Elements of LOPA

Limitations of LOPA

Using Layers of Protection Analysis

Initiating Events

Enabling Conditions

IPLs—Rules

IPLs—Types

Calculations

SIL Assignment

Special Topics

Multiple Functions

Operator Response

Plant Operations as Tests

Demand

Bluefield Worksheet

TC-238: Assigning SILs

Summary

This one hour course applies to anyone within the process industry that is involved in establishing or assigning Safety Integrity Levels. Students need not be the engineers or supervisors responsible for verifying SIL effectiveness.

Course material will review the risk and tolerable risk, discuss and evaluate tools to compare risk with risk tolerance criteria, practice calibration of tools to applicable criteria and process variables at the client company, and discuss how to evaluate results from the tools to achieve SIL values

Prerequisites

Competent understanding of components of risk and tolerable risk criteria

Outline

Review of Assessing Risk

Likelihood and Consequence Components

Tolerable Risk Criteria

Reference Data

Tools for Calculating and Comparing Risk

Calibrating Tools to Established Tolerable Risk Criteria

TC-245: Designing Safety Instrument Functions

Summary

This four hour course introduces students to the Safety Instrumented Functions and helps them to understand different considerations and techniques required to effectively design SIFs.

This is a hands-on, instructor-led course that uses a combination of lecture, class discussion, and exercises to teach the material. Students will work individually and in groups to develop and evaluate different functions. Students will receive copies of presentation and supplemental notes.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of safety instrumented systems (BC-201 or equivalent)

Outline

Introduction

Background

Safety Instrumented Functions

General Design Issues

Basic SIF Design

Proof Testing

Response Time

SIF Bypasses

Multiple Devices

Multiple Sensors

Multiple FCE(1oo2)

Grouping

Sharing Devices

Specific Design Issues

Pump and Discharge

Double Block and Bleed

Unit Isolate and Bypass

Valve Position Switches

TC-260: SIL Verification Calculations

Summary

This half day course is open to all process industry professionals who are asked to verify or modify Safety Integrity Levels or who audit Safety Instrumented Systems. Students review math and theory involved in SIL establishment, then learn to use industry software to validate and audit established SILs.

Prerequisites

Experience with Safety Instrumented Systems and knowledge about SILs

Outline

Standards

Modeling SIFs

PFD and PFDAVG Equations

Verification Software


Process safety is not just what we do—it’s who we are.


OSHA’s position on ANSI/ISA 84.00.01-2004

OSHA’s position on ANSI/ISA 84.01-1996

OSHA’s PSM Standard (29 CFR 1910.119)

OSHA’s PSM Standard Compliance Guidelines

EPA’s RMP Rule (40 CRF 68)

Frequently asked questions about RMP

Additional RMP Program Guidance


RMP Guidance for Offsite Consequence Analysis

RMP*Comp

Center for Chemical Process Safety

CCPS Introduction to Inherently Safer Design

CCPS Process Safety Beacon newsletter

Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center

Free read only access to all NFPA Standards



CFSE Governance Board

Safety Users Group

Tolerable Risk article

Cabot Corporation article

St. Louis Post-Dispatch article

Jim Cahill blog



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