Safety-Lifecycle of Modular Process Plants - Information Model and Workflow

Abstract

With modularization of modern process plants, an acceleration in design and engineering is achieved. This development also affects the safety assessment and changes the workflow. Compared to conventional process plants this is expressed especially in regards to store and exchange safety related information between manufacturer and owner/operator. Current risk-assessment techniques fall short to support the advantages of modular process design and production due to the lack of flexibility, as well as missing methods for transformation and transportation of information. To compensate this, current models of safety analysis methods, especially HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) studies, are analyzed and extended. Focus of the analysis is the reuse and integration of previous knowledge similar to the method of the modularization. This research presents a workflow to close the gaps of current risk analysis to meet the changing requirements of modularization. This is done by creating an interface for connecting different HAZOP studies. The specifications are represented in an information model. The concepts of the workflow have been shown on exemplary HAZOP studies.