Process Safety Management

Process Safety Management/Risk Management Plan (PSM/RMP) Program Development & Implementation

Navigating the process of PSM/RMP Program Development and Implementation can be overwhelming. aeSolutions can assist with developing and implementing all elements required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), PSM Standard, 29 CFR 1910.119, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), RMP Rule, Part 40 CFR 68. aeSolutions has the knowledge and experience to assist with all levels of PSM/RMP development and implementation, from high level gap and applicability assessments to complete PSM/RMP site program development, including drafting procedures and creating mechanical integrity programs. Our team has assisted many clients from global corporations to single unmanned sites with PSM/RMP program development and implementation. We have experienced staff with industry experience who work closely with clients to customize programs to meet all their regulatory and internal expectations.

Compliance Auditing (PSM, RMP, and Risk Based Process Safety (RBPS))

Many companies have been required by PSM and/or RMP to audit their process safety performance for the last decade. aeSolutions understands that our clients are looking for more than a yes/no evaluation of the regulatory requirements. When properly executed, auditing provides you with the data needed to make informed decisions toward continuous improvement. We provide a cross functional team of auditors that understand the interrelationships of the process safety and risk management elements to perform this essential part of the process safety lifecycle. Our auditing team consists of chemical, mechanical, and electrical engineers with industry experience in design, maintenance and operations. Many of our auditors are also part of our risk assessment team as facilitators. Averaging 15 years of experience in process safety implementation and compliance, aeSolutions provides an integrated team of professionals experienced in all aspects of the process safety lifecycle.

ISA 61511 Gap Assessment

At aeSolutions, the combination of our Process Safety and Safety Instrumented Systems Engineering and Automation delivery capabilities enables us to perform a very thorough and pragmatic ISA84/IEC 61511 Gap Assessment. Our assessment team will evaluate your existing practices against the ISA-84.00.01-2004 (IEC 61511-Mod) standard and applicable elements from the OSHA's PSM Standard, 29 CFR 1910.119. These standards are recognized and generally accepted good engineering practice (RAGAGEP) for the design and maintenance of safety instrumented systems. Our assessment team is experienced in the development and implementation of functional safety management systems and proficient in the technical execution of the engineering work products. Our lead gap assessors are professional engineers and/or certified functional safety experts that are detailed in their evaluations of procedures, documentation and practices in place. They are valued for their ability to work with our clients to identify gaps or areas for continuous improvement and provide sustainable recommendations for gap closure.

Management of Change (MOC) Program Development & Implementation

Changes often occur in facilities that produce, use, handle and store hazardous materials. Managing these changes to ensure that failures are not introduced are essential to ensuring the safety of the employees and functional systems of a facility. aeSolutions can provide leadership in developing and improving your MOC system. It is essential that leadership supports the MOC process and provides the necessary stewardship to ensure proper system integrity and ongoing regulatory compliance.

Independent Protection Layer (IPL) Validation

When applying protection layers to a LOPA scenario, it is important to validate these layers against the six requirements for all IPLs; specific, independent, dependable, auditable, secure, and field verified. By performing and documenting how IPLs perform for each of these criteria, requirement gaps can be identified and closed. IPL validation will also bolster the auditability of the IPLs by providing information to confirm that an IPL is performing at the level required by the LOPA applied credit. aeSolutions can provide you with a standard validation form, training and field support, or work with you to customize the validation effort to be more specific to your corporate IPL requirements.

Alarm Management

aeSolutions can supply expertise for all stages of alarm management including lifecycle consulting for philosophy development, gap assessment of current alarm philosophy, alarm management and rationalization training, and facilitation of alarm rationalizations. Learn More

Mechanical Integrity Program Development & Implementation

Safety critical equipment is essential to ongoing safe operations. This equipment provides the means for controlling process safety risks associated with hazards from major incidents. By identifying the key components and developing an effective Mechanical Integrity management program, major equipment failures can be averted. aeSolutions personnel are experienced in developing the necessary mechanical integrity strategies for improving the Process Safety Lifecycle of a facility. Our personnel specialize in identifying existing gaps in facilities’ various layers of protection against the impacts from major hazards and providing best in class solutions for closing the identified gaps in a facilities’ Safety Critical Equipment Mechanical Integrity Program.

Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)

PHA studies are the core of process safety and risk management programs. They help companies identify hazard scenarios that could lead to a release of highly hazardous chemicals that can cause negative impact on people, the environment, and property. PHA is required by OSHA's PSM (29 CFR 1910.119) and EPA's RMP (40 CFR 68) regulations in the US and process safety and risk management regulations around the world. Companies that handle or process highly hazardous chemicals have a responsibility to protect employees, the public and the environment from exposure to accidental releases. aeSolutions specializes in various PHA methodologies, such as Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP), Control Hazard and Operability Studies (CHAZOP), Hazard Identification (HAZID), What-If, Checklist, Bowtie, and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to meet regulatory and client requirements. Our experienced, trained facilitators specialize in the process safety lifecycle to fully integrate assessment, design, and operation of the facility. aeSolutions has conducted PHAs for a wide variety of industries, including Oil and Gas, Refinery, Petrochemical, Specialty Chemical, Automotive, Fertilizer, Paint, Pharmaceuticals, Plastics, and Pulp and Paper Products.

Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA)

LOPA is a semi-quantitative method of evaluating process safety risk to a facility. The LOPA methodology considers higher consequence scenarios identified in the Process Hazard Analysis to ensure proper safeguards, or Independent Protection Layers (IPLs), are in place to reduce risk to a tolerable level. aeSolutions will lead your LOPA team through this evaluation and provide final deliverables including LOPA study worksheets, IPL list, and Safety Integrity Level (SIL) target assignments.

Independent Protection Layer (IPL) and Safety Integrity Level (SIL) Selection

In certain cases, an additional and separate study beyond a LOPA is required to further define and refine selected IPLs. This may be the case when PHA/ LOPA are performed together, not providing adequate time for IPL discussion. If a process or Unit has never undergone a LOPA, then the IPL Select and Define activity may be required. In any case, aeSolutions will facilitate the IPL Select Team meeting and provide deliverables including IPL list and SIL target assignments. IPL Select and Define requires a unique skill set encompassing PHA facilitation experience coupled with IPL and SIS knowledge. aeSolutions has the experts to handle this task.

Facility Siting Analysis

A Facility Siting Analysis is intended to evaluate the potential hazards and consequences of uncontrolled releases of flammable and toxic substances; to assess their potential for injuring the occupants of fixed and temporary structures on or offsite; to identify existing safeguards; and to determine measures to reduce the risk posed by these potential events. aeSolutions has trained facilitators to execute the hazard recognition and risk reduction process and experienced modelers that apply the appropriate methodology in line with API 752/753 and industry best management practices for Facility Siting. We provide results that allow your site leadership team to allocate resources more effectively to minimize facility siting risks.

Dispersion & Consequence Modeling

Consequence modeling is used to predict the toxic, flammable, or explosive impacts from the release of chemicals and their dispersion to the environment. aeSolutions has expertise in performing consequence modeling for a variety of industries and uses this base of knowledge to provide guidance on how to select release scenarios and determine appropriate endpoints. Our project execution includes data collection, modeling, interpretation of the model output, and presentation of meaningful results in a format our clients can use to better understand their identified risks.

Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA)

A QRA is a specialized approach to assess high consequence LOPA scenarios with large risk gaps to close. Further "pencil-sharpening" in the QRA will verify the severity of the scenario through consequence modeling, as well as the frequency of the scenario through fault tree modelling. Often conservative assumptions made in LOPA are revealed in QRA, which makes the solution to gap closure more practical. QRA will handle conditional dependence among IPL(s) and the initiating cause(s). aeSolutions utilizes commercially available software tools, along with in-house expertise, to facilitate QRAs.

Human Factors & Human Error Analysis

For a Quantitative Risk Assessment involving a significant human error component as an input, a Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) may be needed to bring the analysis of the input in-line with the level of rigor required for a QRA. HRA will provide qualitative insight to the human factors issues related to the error, and also provide a more accurate quantitative assessment than is found in standard LOPA tables for human performance credits. The ability to model conditional dependence among operator tasks, as well as model potential human recovery factors from errors, makes the HRA a valuable tool. For a typical HRA, a standard operating procedure (SOP) is broken down into discrete tasks. Interviews with Operations are conducted, known as a "talk-through," as well as a plant "walk-through" which covers the equipment of concern from the SOP. PSFs (Performance Shaping Factors) related to each task are discovered. Dependencies among tasks are estimated. Each of these will influence the HEP (Human Error Probability) for each task. Each task is to be modelled as a success or failure. An HRA Event Tree is constructed, each identified task being a branch in the tree, and then solved; the output of which is typically an input to a QRA. aeSolutions has the Human Factors Reliability Experts to handle this task.

Electrical Area Classification

Facilities often have process or equipment changes which result in inaccurate drawings or the drawings may have been lost since the process was first built. aeSolutions provides electrical area classification studies for process facilities after equipment installation to document the following:

• Equipment identification
• Equipment location
• Electrical area classification drawings
• Site General Arrangements (G&As) compliant to API 500 and NEC article 500
• Equipment drawings

Combustible Dust Assessment

In facilities that generate or handle combustible dusts, an effective management program is essential. A combustible dust risk assessment is utilized to identify scenarios with unacceptable consequences and to develop corrective action plans to reduce the likelihood of unacceptable consequences. Improved controls for limiting the likelihood of combustible dust include but is not limited to the following:

• Appropriate effective housekeeping
• Proper application and use of PPE
• Installation of proper electrically classified equipment
• Properly designed engineering controls for explosion venting on dust collection equipment
• Critical relief devices properly maintained
• Adequate maintenance
• Adequate Hot Work permitting
• Means to dissipate static electricity such as bonding and grounding
• Employee training and awareness of risks associated with combustible dust

aeShield Software

aeShield® automatically maintains the complex relationships among the risk reduction performance, design verification calculations, inspection and test plans for integrity management, and actual plant historical data. aeShield® provides real time alerts and reporting on the process safety health of a single safety loop, a full process area or across an entire multi-site enterprise.

aeSolutions is a licensed reseller of aeShield® Safety Lifecycle Management software suite, a comprehensive platform for automating the safety lifecycle in compliance with ISA84.00.01/IEC 61511 and the related requirements of OSHA 1910.119.

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