Pre-startup safety review and Safety report

Dealing with a project involving a new plant/site or extensive modifications of an existing one, Engineering firms (or the customers behind them) are faced with strict laws requirements to grant the mandatory permits:

• OSHA 29.CFR.1910.119 (point i) asks for a Pre-startup safety review
• EC Directives (art. 10) asks for a Safety report
• UK Control Of Major Accident Hazards – COMAH part 3 regulation 7 asks for a Safety report

The EC and COMAH regulations state that you cannot start the construction phase without the permits issued by the government authorities and based on the safety reviews submitted.

Also in the countries where a specific permit is not required, Safety reports are essential to identify critical areas and possible improvements of the design before committing the construction. Introducing modifications to an already built or committed plant is far more expensive than reviewing the design in a previous phase.

Eidos usually suggests to prepare/review the safety report at these deadlines:

• Basic design
• FEED
• Detailed Engineering
• Start-up (“as built”)

If the amount of details available at the Basic design stage is not enough or suggests to differ the safety report, a HazId analysis can be developed instead.

The three or four stages are not suggested to ask to the customer three or four time more money, but to be involved in the whole lifelong of the design phase and so being able to constantly assist the customer. The regular presence of Eidos consultants alongside the designer engineers allows to marry safety and process.

For those who are still wondering about four times more money, that’s simply not true: being involved continuously let Eidos consultants to just periodically revise the previous safety report and the global effort will be less than doing twice the safety review from the scratch.

The safety report will also investigate the following aspects:

• Domino effects: Eidos developed a complete set of methods to evaluate domino effects due to heat radiation, explosion bursts and missiles production by blasts
• Building and control room vulnerability
• “Outside the fence”land-use compatibility
• Exposure risks for personnel
• Plant layout based risks
• SIL evaluation
• Plant risks in case of unavailability of ancillary systems (Electrical Power, Fuel Gas, Steam, Nitrogen, Cooling Water, Instrument Air, Control signals, etc.)

All these studies may suggest improvements or spot critical points to be addressed in a later stage.

Eidos develops Safety reviews since 1987 using the following “classic approach”: