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Warren Johnson, senior project manager for consulting, engineering and integration firm aeSolutions, was featured in CONTROL magazine discussing his presentation covering the essential aspects of gas detection system design at the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. [ In the United States, it’s the role of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to set limits on employee exposure to toxic and hazardous substances, but it’s up to industry to ensure that those standards are met, said Warren Johnson, senior project manager for consulting, engineering and integration firm aeSolutions, in a presentation covering the essential aspects of gas detection system design at the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. ‘OSHA doesn’t tell you how to detect gas or how to alarm,” Johnson explained. “It’s up to your engineering group to make it happen.” The presentation and article cover things such as Detector selection & placement,  Architectural aspects to consider, and a bit about the relevant regulations. Read the whole article at www.controlglobal.com Do you have a project you’d like to discuss? Contact Us here

An effective gas detection system protects on-site personnel from toxic and combustible gas releases. Gas detectors that are fit for purpose with the proper technology, measurement level, and location can provide an early detection and warning to personnel to evacuate or take appropriate action in the event of an accidental release. Shortcomings of the Geographic Approach The placement of gas detectors is never a straightforward analysis. A common rule of thumb for hydrocarbon releases (methane and propane) is the 5-meter cloud Geographic Approach; however, this approach is not valid for non-hydrocarbon releases and tends to over-specify the number of gas detectors required. A facility may require a gas detection system for varying chemicals with uncommon properties and parameters. The Geographic Approach does not consider building ventilation, geometry, or obstructions that can significantly impact the dispersion of gas plumes. CFD Scenario Modeling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) scenario modeling is an alternative method to the Geographic Approach that delivers a more accurate number and placement of combustible and toxic gas detectors. Although there is a larger upfront investment, CFD modeling saves costs over the long term by reducing the number of gas detectors required and the expense of their calibration and maintenance. CFD modeling also provides an auditable record of assumptions such as material properties, leak size, leak origin, wind speed, and building ventilation; this can be beneficial in the event of an actual leak incident since the original assumptions can be revisited and revised if the actual leak behavior deviates significantly from the modeled leak dispersion. The CFD modeling results may reveal unexpected behaviors from the vapors of concern compared to what was reasonably predicted. For example, a simple approach might place gas detectors near the roof for gases that are lighter than air. Yet, CFD modeling may demonstrate that ventilation effects pull the gas downward instead, requiring detectors to be placed at lower elevations. In similar fashion, it might be assumed that a remote warehouse building does not require a gas detection system if there are no chemicals of concern within the building; however, a gas leak in another area may disperse farther than expected, resulting in the gas cloud traveling to the unprotected warehouse building. In this case, gas detectors in the warehouse’s ventilation intakes might be advisable. The Takeaway CFD scenario modeling is the best investment for large facilities with specialty gases to ensure gas detectors are appropriately located and perform optimally. It is the most effective tool to have high confidence in protecting personnel from toxic and combustible gas releases, while minimizing the long-term maintenance costs for the gas detection system. Dispersion modeling results may challenge the predictions of simpler, less quantitative methods, and documented modeling assumptions can be referred to and updated throughout the life of the facility.

Those who work in high hazard industries are familiar with the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) standard requirements for Process Hazard Analyses (PHA) for their covered processes. These studies are required to be completed initially, then revalidated, typically on a five-year schedule. Good practice implemented at many companies is to follow a similar scheme for processes containing hazardous materials that are not covered by the standard. During revalidation PHAs, among other things, it is expected that any changes or new learnings (from incidents, for example) for the area under study will be incorporated so that the study represents the state of the process at the time of the PHA. It is also expected during revalidation that resolution of prior recommendations will be verified and any safeguards that have been improved or implemented will be integrated and documented. Collecting, reviewing, and incorporating five years’ worth of changes, learnings, and updates to recommendations and safeguards for the process can be challenging and very distracting to a PHA revalidation team. An alternate method of managing PHA review of changes and learnings to a process is to incorporate them into the PHA as changes are underway or learnings occur. This method is often called an Evergreen PHA or Continuous PHA Revalidation. The Benefits Evergreen PHAs have valuable benefits, including: - It is a big time saver at revalidation time since changes, learnings, and the status of recommendations and safeguards are current - The PHA is always current for internal reference, as well as for auditors or regulatory agencies - The PHA always matches the current P&IDs for the process - The preexisting PHA helps teams who are assessing changes to a process to not go beyond the scope of the change and not to issue “wish list” recommendations that are not truly needed to mitigate risks. MOC PHA teams who have a model in an evergreen PHA are more likely to focus on the task at hand. - The preexisting PHA helps teams who are assessing incidents to rapidly translate incident learnings into the PHA in a way that works to align the incident root & contributing causes and consequences with existing information in the PHA. It is most efficient to accomplish this work while the incident investigation participants have the information fresh on their minds, rather than asking a revalidation PHA team to accomplish it perhaps years later. The Challenges Evergreen PHAs are a concept that sounds appealing on the surface, and they do indeed provide many safety and resource benefits. Many sites successfully manage their evergreen PHA in a way that allows them to obtain the maximum benefit from the practice. But if improperly managed or executed, “not so evergreen” PHAs can suffer from failures such as lack of control of the master file and archived files, lack of a designated “owner” of the file, failure to track file updates, or failure to include a change, learning, or updated action status at the right time. These flaws can all lead to confusion and difficulties in management of the PHA. This in turn can lead to suboptimal use of people’s time and in the worst case, misunderstandings about the process hazards and their safeguards. This has the potential to lead to safety gaps and even process safety incidents. Get Off on the Right Foot Start your evergreen PHAs off right by incorporating good practices and good usage discipline in your PHA program, including: - A single designated storage location and “owner” for the file(s) - A narrative, ideally embedded in the PHA file, clearly describing the changes from the baseline or most recent revalidation PHA with relevant MOC, project, and incident references included - Revision tracking methods, including for the file, the nodes that were revised, new safeguards and recommendations, and even the scenarios that were added or revised - Predetermined conventions for how new or revised scenarios and safeguards should be marked as revisions - A tracking method for the status of recommendations and proposed safeguards - A tracking method for new recommendations developed during changes to the baseline PHA or most recent revalidation - A predetermined method for how to incorporate future changes that may be implemented at different times, for example turnaround projects vs. projects that are expected to be completed while a process is running - Retention of old file versions, in the event that a change is canceled before implementation - Provision of updated documentation from the updated PHA to affected staff - A method to familiarize affected staff with the changes made to the baseline PHA or revalidated PHAs If your software product does not currently support the evergreen PHA concept, help is available to improve your templates and even to manage your files and the incorporation of changes in many cases. Properly managed evergreen PHAs can go a long way toward increasing the value of, and your confidence in, one of your most important process safety program elements. Tackle it soon! by Judith Lesslie, CFSE, CSP Process and personal safety professional with more than 35 years’ experience in HSSE leadership, process safety and instrument engineering, project management, and maintenance in the petrochemicals industry.

Greenville, South Carolina, USA – July 13, 2018 – aeSolutions®, a consulting, engineering and systems integration company that provides industrial process safety, cybersecurity and automation products and services, announced today that they have earned the Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7 Process Safety Specialist certification. “As customers require PCS 7 safety instrumented systems, we can recommend aeSolutions, our certified Process Safety Specialist Solution Partner, knowing that they have the engineering and quality practices to execute the project right the first time using best practices,” says Rich Chmielewski, Siemens USA PCS 7 Solution Partner Program Manager. “aeSolutions was able to demonstrate and pass all of the requirements from our partner program to achieve the status of Siemens Process Safety Specialist. This certification provides confidence to the market that aeSolutions can offer quality and complete safety lifecycle services per the IEC 61511 functional safety standard for the process industries along with strong technical expertise using Siemens process safety technology,” says Charles M. Fialkowski, CFSE, Siemens National Director for Process Safety. Learn more about aeSolutions' partnership with Siemens what we can do together: https://www.aesolutions.com/siemens-solution-partner About aeSolutions In business since 1998, aeSolutions is a consulting, engineering and systems integration company that provides industrial process safety, cybersecurity and automation products and services. They specialize in helping industrial clients achieve their risk management and operational excellence goals through expertise in process safety, industrial cybersecurity, safety instrumented systems, control system design and integration, alarm management, and related operations and integrity management system. About Siemens Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of systems for power generation and transmission as well as medical diagnosis. With approximately 372,000 employees in 190 countries, Siemens reported worldwide revenue of $92.0 billion in fiscal 2017. Siemens in the USA reported revenue of $23.3 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico. ### Media Contact: For more information, contact Christi Morrison of aeSolutions at info@aesolns.com or (864) 404-3014. #pcs7 #Siemens #SIMATIC

aeSolutions Sharpens Focus on its Process Safety and Automation Business Greenville, SC – Aug. 5, 2021 – aeSolutions, a consulting, engineering and systems integration company, today announced the sale of its Industrial Cybersecurity (IC) division, aeCyberSolutions, to Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory. The acquisition will allow aeSolutions to focus on the growth and expansion of its core business of providing process safety consulting and automation engineering services to the industrial markets. “Our decision to sell aeCyberSolutions serves in the best interests of our industrial cybersecurity team and the customers they serve. Deloitte’s brand and access to the market and labor force made it a natural fit for that business and will expand the breadth and depth of those services,” said Ken O’Malley, Founder and President of aeSolutions. “Going forward, aeSolutions will pursue some exciting transformational opportunities for our company with an eye on geographic expansion and growth into new strategic markets.” aeSolutions plans to leverage today’s digitalization technologies for better insights and smarter decision-making to continually improve customer onstream production to compete and win in today’s hyper-fast-changing landscape. Additionally, aeSolutions plans to have a renewed focus on its core consulting and engineering expertise serving the world’s process manufacturers as a valued partner for smarter, more resilient industrial operations and safer communities. aeSolutions was founded in 1998 as an automation company serving the process industry. With strong roots in oil exploration, the company later began focusing on growing its chemicals business. aeSolutions created its aeCyberSolutions division in 2014 with a single employee and experienced significant growth that included attracting a team of top talent. Terms of Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory’s acquisition of aeCyberSolutions were not disclosed. aeSolutions was represented by FOCUS Investment Banking, LLC. The transaction was facilitated by legal firm Krieg Devault with Clayton McKervey serving as the CPA. About aeSolutions In business since 1998, aeSolutions is a consulting, engineering and systems integration company that provides industrial process safety and automation products and services. They specialize in helping industrial clients achieve their risk management and operational excellence goals through expertise in process safety, combustion control and safeguarding, safety instrumented systems, control system design and integration, alarm management, and related operations and integrity management systems. For more information, visit www.aeSolutions.com. Kari Walker for aeSolutions Kari@redironpr.com @KariWalkerPR As used in this document, each of “Deloitte” and “Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory” means Deloitte & Touche LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

by Warren Johnson aeSolutions developed the FGS 1400 MK II fire panel as a pre-engineered, FM approved system capable of meeting all the above requirements. It is a scalable solution utilizing a SIL 3 capable certified safety PLC which can be fault-tolerant to minimize nuisance trips. The system contains the PLC, power supplies, battery set, battery charging panel, HMI, and engineering workstation with cause & effect programming capability. The system supports both local and remote I/O. It supports digital and analog initiating devices (smoke and gas detectors, manual fire alarms, supervisory switches), notification appliances (bells, horns, lights, text displays), fire safety functions (designed to increase the level of life safety or control the spread of harmful effects of a fire), and suppression devices. The system can capture and display a wide range of field device diagnostics (open/short circuits, out of range signals, power failures, manufacturer specific diagnostics), event summaries, and historical trends. A proprietary fire command / supervisory station allows an operator to view and control multiple systems from one location. System configuration is limited to authorized users with password access. The system incorporates many cybersecurity features. Only known devices are allowed communication access, and all communication traffic is logged for analysis as needed. The system can be logically isolated with provisions made for access at a demilitarized zone level for data collection, 3rd party and technician access, and protection against denial of service broadcast storms. Click to learn more about all aeSolutions' panels To learn more about the development and features of the aeSolutions FM approved FGS 1400 MK II fire panel, read the full paper here.

We are thrilled to celebrate aeSolutions' remarkable 25th anniversary, marking a quarter-century of providing exceptional consulting, engineering, and systems integration solutions. Since its founding, aeSolutions has remained true to its original vision of doing great things in a very different way with a very different approach. Founded by Brian Merriman, Mike Scott, and Ken O'Malley, the company opened its first office location in Greenville SC in 1998. With a focus on value-driven engineering, the company set out to solve the complex challenges faced by industrial clients. What follows are just a few key moments in our quarter century of continually guiding our clients to increasingly resilient operations and safer communities. Expansion and Growth aeSolutions' commitment to serving clients nationwide drove the expansion into new locations and ventures. Beginning in 2001 with the opening of a 14,000 square foot fabrication shop, which allowed the company to provide cost-effective and safe solutions for integrated Burner Management Systems (BMS) and Combustion Control Systems (CCS). Two further office locations followed too, first in Anchorage, Alaska (2007), and then Houston, Texas (2010). The company’s service offerings began to expand rapidly as well with the addition of a Process Safety Management division. That team grew to include other new areas of expertise and knowledge in areas such as Alarm Management and Machinery Safety. aeSolutions started designing process safety software after realizing the one thing that would ultimately improve the safety of the process industry was a database-driven safety lifecycle platform created for engineers by engineers. That software would ultimately become the product known as aeShield. aeSolutions co-founder Mike Scott, now heads aeShield and has grown into its own organization. The aeCyberSolutions Industrial Cybersecurity (IC) division was created in 2014. Beginning with a single employee, the IC team experienced significant growth that included attracting a team of top talent and gaining a high profile in the digital security field. In 2021, the sale was announced of the aeCyberSolutons division to Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory. Recognition and Certifications Many members of our team are industry leaders, serving in leadership positions such as on key industry committees. Our principals and employees have actively participated in the development of industry codes and standard practices for engineering and implementation of control and safety-related system solutions. The family of Fire and Gas products– aeSolutions’ FGS 1400 panels, were FM Approved in 2006 signifying ​compliance with FM Approval’s Combustible Gas Standard 6320, Toxic Gas Detection standard 6340, and ANSI/ISA 12.13.01 Performance Requirements for Combustible Gas Detectors standard. The FGS 1400 MK II was designed to the same levels of safety availability and reliability as the systems that aeSolutions designs for Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). aeSolutions’ became the first company in the Americas to earn Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7 Safety Specialist Certification in 2018. aeSolutions is also the first to renew the certification and remains the only company in the Americas to hold this certification, a testament to its continuous pursuit of excellence. Brian Merriman Many changes came to the company when co-founder and then company president, Brian Merriman, passed away in 2014. Under his passionate leadership, Brian grew aeSolutions from a startup with six employees to a national engineering company with 170 employees and offices covering the country. Brian's passion was always to make the process manufacturing industry safer through education and automated process safety lifecycle management. The Client Success Model: Enabling Client Goals Today, company co-founder Ken O’Malley serves as aeSolutions’ President. Recently the company restructured its organization to operate under a Client Success Model. aeSolutions’ Project Development team guides clients to drive project development throughout the entire project lifecycle, from concept to go-live. As the Project Development team’s understanding of each client’s objectives and obstacles grows, the value of aeSolutions’ guidance will grow. “At aeSolutions, we are humbled by our role as a trusted guide for our clients’ success,” said Ken O’Malley. “With our Project Development team, senior leadership is completely committed to the Client Success Model. We are excited to begin formally offering this unique service to our new and existing clients.”

aeSolutions co-founder, Ken O’Malley, and his wife, Chery, are giving back and supporting their passion for engineering along with Auburn Engineering through a scholarship benefitting underrepresented students.

aeSolutions is proud to announce we recently became an Alliance Partner of Schneider Electric in order to bring more value to our clients and more offer comprehensive solutions tailored to your facility. Founded in the mid 1830’s in France, the company has its earliest roots in steel foundries, the machine industry, and later ship building. In the late 1800’s the company expanded into the emerging electricity market. Today Schneider Electric is focused on software, critical power, and smart grid applications. Collaboration is crucial to keep up with the accelerating adoption of digital transformation. aeSolutions’ new alliance partnership with Schneider Electric is in the areas of Control Systems and the Modicon Safety System products. The Modicon M580 platform provides a compelling and cost-competitive SIL 3 SIS logic solver with controller and I/O module availability-redundant architectures. Program Levels: Alliance Industrial System Integrator Locator - Alliance Registered Alliance Industrial System Integrator Program - Alliance Registered

Industry Veteran to Lead Division Dedicated to Providing Top Tier Process Safety and Risk Management Solutions Greenville, SC –January 24, 2023 – aeSolutions, a consulting, engineering, and systems integration company, today announced the appointment of Ken Whittle to the position of senior director for Process Safety. Whittle will lead the company’s Process Safety business in value creation and business growth and will report directly to the company’s president. “Ken comes to us as a past client of aeSolutions with a strong track record of more than 30 years of process safety experience in an operating chemical company,” said Ken O’Malley, president of aeSolutions. “I am very excited for the impact Ken’s experience and passion for process safety will have on our business and in expanding our ability to better serve our clients.” As senior director, Whittle will have top, overall accountability for the performance of the company’s process safety business and will be a member of the company’s senior leadership team. He will work directly with the company’s Plant Protection Systems business leader to guide clients in protecting their employees, their communities, and the environment. Whittle’s 30-plus years of leadership roles in environment, health, safety and sustainability (EHS&S)/operations comprise experience with mechanical integrity, maintenance excellence, mergers and acquisitions, and leadership coaching and mentoring. Additionally, he has held increasingly senior and complex roles at the corporate and business levels, at both large and small upstream and downstream petrochemical facilities. “As a past client, I was already well aware of aeSolutions and its capabilities,” said Whittle. “I am excited to bring my process safety and chemical manufacturing experience to a firm so committed to process safety and critical safety systems.” About aeSolutions In business since 1998, aeSolutions is a consulting, engineering, and systems integration company that provides industrial process safety and automation products and services. They specialize in helping industrial clients achieve their risk management and operational excellence goals through expertise in process safety, combustion control and safeguarding, safety instrumented systems, control system design and integration, alarm management, and related operations and integrity management systems. For more information, visit www.aesolutions.com. Media Contact RedIron PR for aeSolutions Kari Ritacco kari@redironpr.com

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many plant sites minimized on-site staff to essential personnel, and restrictions prevented in-person collaborations for projects. Following CDC recommendations, aeSolutions equipped its team to overcome technological hurdles and pivoted to meet client requirements amidst the circumstances. Through virtual meetings and ongoing learning, we were able to support client projects and maintain a range of deliverables—all while working remotely. One of the best examples of remote meeting success has been conducting virtual Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) studies. Here, aeSolutions and our clients not only overcame travel restrictions and technology challenges and lowered the risk of exposure to COVID-19 but also capitalized on the availability of highly leveraged staff working from home to produce high-quality process safety work products. Our Process Safety Management team was able to rearrange work schedules to coincide with the availability of client teams both in the US and internationally from the safety of their homes. The flexibility of working remotely has fueled innovation that led the team to provide additional services virtually, such as Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT), Compliance Audits, and site walk-downs with the use of modified work plans and a GoPro camera. Remote work has come with inherent challenges. We found participants are less likely to interact and engage in virtual meetings, especially when convenient features like the mute or camera button is just a click away. As our Senior Project Manager, Chris Hickling explained about the struggle facilitators faced with virtual meetings: “(they) do not get as much body language feedback.” If someone doesn’t agree, for instance, facilitators can’t see typical social cues because every member may not be visible on the screen. To counteract this relatively new virtual issue, facilitators made sure to pose questions that generated higher participation rates and engage with team members before the meeting, as they come back from breaks and outside the meeting on parking lot issues. To further ensure quality and maximize productivity, aeSolutions has learned to meticulously plan virtual meetings beforehand, which includes structuring meetings so participants can take breaks and refresh before continuing the session. As Hickling says, “we have to be very structured about the handling of client information and in our preparation for the actual PHA meetings.” We have to ensure access of information to all participants using available technology and establishing backup plans in case of technical difficulties. aeSolutions has found that remote PHAs with multilingual teams are far more effective with teamwork. aeSolutions has a multilingual team of facilitators and engineers on staff to bridge language gaps. The value of this has been even more important with the necessity of remote studies. aeSolutions uses our bilingual staff to lead or translate/scribe the meetings, as well as translate technical documents in-house or through a vetted partner. This collaborative teamwork enables an immediate one-on-one response to technical inquiries and accuracy on documenting the team input during the meetings. While there’s no substitute for traditional face-to-face communication and boots-on-the-ground activities, aeSolutions will continue to offer services through a remote interface when necessary or desired by a client. These alternative remote work plans have offered both a flexible and cost-effective way to keep projects moving forward during the COVID-19 crisis and will continue beyond. To learn more about aeSolutions Process Safety services - whether in-person or virtually—send us a message today or visit our website at www.aesolutions.com.

Navigating the Learning Curve in a Growing Industry Hydrogen is highly explosive, easily undetectable and can self-ignite – a recipe for disaster! Is your hydrogen plant taking the right measures to ensure safety? We leverage our decades of industry experience to make your hydrogen plant safe and efficient. "Within industry, people have been producing hydrogen for 100 years, but there's really been a lot of interest lately in hydrogen for transportation and for energy. What we've seen is a lot of people enter the market that may not have that, that background of operating chemical facilities." "And they're trying to understand, how do you handle it? How do you transport it? Transfer it. How do you contain it? How do you keep it safe and under control? And these companies are going to be on a bit of a learning curve as they try to understand the properties of these molecules and how they behave. And this is something aeSolutions has done for a very long time. With our modeling team, what we're finding is these models are creating some surprising. Results. Gases, particularly indoors, do not behave necessarily in an intuitive way. And where an expert might think is a good location for a detector, the gas may go undetected, it may not collect in sufficient quantities in that location." "If the hydrogen is being generated with electrolyzers, normally those are in enclosed buildings that are ventilated, but you want to be able to detect hydrogen leaks inside those buildings. huh? Hydrogen is highly explosive volatile. It can actually self ignite. So, we put gas detection and flame monitoring inside the electrologist building. The hydrogen flames are also not easily seen with the human eye and outdoors it's almost impossible to see. We put in flame detectors to alert personnel that there is a flame gas detector to alert personnel that you know there are issues, gas leaks. You might want to shut the process down, you know, evacuate people, etc. We can do your process ESV's. We can handle all your fire and gas IO all in one box. You have common spare parts. You don't have external interfaces you have to worry about. It makes it more cost effective."