Monitoring and analysis of hazards using HAZOP-based plant safety model

When a new industrial system is designed, lots of information about it is collected in various documents. The use of modern CAD technology makes it possible to create an object-oriented description of the system with its physical structure and characteristics. Safety and reliability analyses are carried out during the design using various methods, typically HAZOP. Later, when the system has been constructed and taken into use, new information is created when malfunctions are diagnosed and controlled. The information sources mentioned here contain such information that could prove very useful to the operating personnel at a plant with the aid of an appropriate information system.

A Nordic project to develop an information system to support process risk management is described. The safety analysis module is a HAZOP documentation tool which stores the information in a structured database. The idea of the disturbance analysis module is to make those safety analysis results which are relevant in the monitored situation availabel to operating personnel and to provide a tool for the recording of operating experiences. The discharge monitoring module aims to extend the number of the top-level process operation goals to include the minimizing of environmental discharges and pollution by using intelligent process models.