Recent Posts and Articles
HAZOP Training course
June 07, 2011 – Abhisam Software has informed that their much awaited training course on HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study) is now released and can be downloaded from the Abhisam Software website. As all of us are aware, HAZOP is the most widely accepted and popular risk assessment technique all over the world. Many governmental and regulatory authorities swear by HAZOP and though it is not mandated by law in most countries, it is de-facto an accepted technique that is universally used. This makes learning HAZOP a very important goal for anybody wishing to carry out risk assessments related to the process industries, managing the operations of such industries or involved in projects and design activities including engineering in these industries, including Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Power, Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage and so on.
Surprisingly however, for years there were hardly any good resources on HAZOP-one had to refer to either abtruse literature floating around, or to refer to books that were written ages ago, if you could find them at all! Plus the pain of reading through and then trying to make sense of it in the workplace!
But now there is a much easier option. Simply download the new HAZOP e-learning course from Abhisam Software and you can learn it easily. Full of interactive animations and simulations, it is a wonderful course that makes learning HAZOP a cinch. Also if you take their online test, you also get a Certificate of Achievement.
Since the HAZOP technique is a popular risk assessment technique, it is important to learn for everybody who is involved in risk assessment, safety, risk management and similar areas.
A full trial version is available. Find out more about the HAZOP e-learning course here.
You can watch the full video for HAZOP here
Cracking the Stuxnet PLC worm that threatens industrial control systems
April 07, 2011 – All of us have heard about Stuxnet, the terrible cyber worm that is supposed to be targeting only Siemens PLCs used in plants all over the world.If you’ve not heard of it, here’s an excellent report.
Here is a video from a TED talk, given by Ralph Langner, a German Industrial Security expert about how they found out about the working of Stuxnet. ( For those of you who do not know TED, it stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and is the world’s foremost organizer of conferences, where different experts in different fields talk about extremely interesting things to a general audience. TED has now made freely available the recordings of these conferences on the internet at http://www.ted.com).
So here’s what Ralph says about Stuxnet, the first known “mass market” industrial worm, but paradoxically targeted towards ONLY ONE consumer.
What are the implications of Stuxnet? It means that industrial sabotage, even disastrous industrial accidents are possible to be “generated” by such industrial worms. It means that even Distributed Control Systems or Emergency Shutdown systems, Safety Instrumented Systems and the like can be compromised and fooled into not preventing disasters. If say a foreign power, or even a rival business group were to target an important or critical industrial plant then all they need to do is to create a Stuxnet like worm that infiltrates the control system and causes enormous destruction, without leaving any footprint at all! The scariest part is that the control system or SIS need not be connected to the internet at all! A simple USB stick connected to an engineering station will do as well. Are we geared towards preventing such attacks? Do we, as industrial safety professionals, even think of it as a credible and present danger? Is it a recognized hazard? No, not at all. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.
New CSB Video Titled “Fire in the Valley” documents the Bayer Cropscience accidental explosion at Institute, W.Va. site
Washington, DC, March 21, 2011 – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today released a new safety video depicting events leading to the August 28, 2008, catastrophic explosion and fire at the Bayer CropScience facility in Institute, WV, that fatally injured two workers.
The video is entitled “Fire in the Valley,” a reference to the Kanawha River valley where numerous chemical facilities are located, including the Bayer plant that manufactures insecticides, near Charleston, West Virginia.
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The video features a detailed computer animation showing how a series of errors and deficiencies during a lengthy startup process resulted in a runaway chemical reaction inside a residue treater pressure vessel. The CSB’s investigation found that operators were not adequately trained, new computer process equipment had not been fully checked out, and a critical safety interlock was bypassed to begin a chemical reaction.
Investigations Supervisor John Vorderbrueggen, P.E. discusses the CSB’s findings, “We found serious deficiencies in the company’s process safety management program. This resulted in a series of critical omissions during the startup that led to a runaway reaction and violent explosion.”
These events contributed to the over pressurization of the residue treater which ultimately exploded and careened into the methomyl pesticide manufacturing unit, leaving a huge fireball in its wake. Pieces of the vessel struck a steel-mesh covering surrounding a large tank of methyl isocyanate, a highly toxic chemical of concern to residents of the valley since 1984 when an accidental release of MIC in Bhopal, India, killed thousands.
In the video, CSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso says, “The communities surrounding Bayer CropScience have been concerned for decades about the MIC stored there. Its presence added even more gravity to the series of safety lapses the CSB investigation found to have preceded the tragedy. And when the accident occurred, the company refused to give out critical information to responders and the public.”
Ultimately, 40,000 area residents were requested to shelter-in-place the night of the accident. The video features comments by county and state officials on the initial refusal of Bayer to provide information to Metro 911 emergency response operators as well as resident’s concerns about chemical plant safety in the area. “Fire in the Valley” also details the key CSB safety recommendation that Kanawha Valley county authorities emulate the regulatory regime of Contra Costa County, California. There, chemical process safety experts regularly inspect the multitude of facilities throughout the county in a program that is paid for by a proportional levy on the plants. The program’s director, Randy Sawyer, comments in the CSB video on the success of the program.
Chairperson Moure-Eraso concludes the video saying, “Good communications between chemical plants, responders, and community leaders can help assure the safety of workers and residents during an emergency. But preventing accidents requires companies to have effective process safety management programs. The fact that accidents continue to occur shows the need for improved inspections and oversight whether at the federal or local levels.”
