Chemical Safety during Process Plant Shutdowns: A Team Effort and a Managerial Challenge

Shutdown / outage periods are needed at process plants in order to clean process equipment and perform necessary maintenance. Simultaneously, various tests and checks are carried out. Often also construction and installation work takes place during a shutdown. Moreover, most process chemicals will remain at the plant during shutdowns while sometimes hundreds of workers from external companies are present at the site. This leads to the research question: Is chemical safety during shutdowns managed in an optimal way in process plants? A Finnish study involving six Finnish companies seems to indicatethat the way the safety of contractors is ensured by the operating companies themselves is not very systematic. Reaching a high level of chemical safety during a shutdown at a process plant is a managerial challenge and requires a team effort during the entire shutdown planning process.