Intelligent P&IDs, their creation and use in process hazard analysis of refineries and chemical plants

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 86, No. 969, 1993

D. Catena, J.T. Dietz and T.D. Traubert, ChemTech Consultants, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Canadian process industry experts have often observed the strong trend for U.S. industrial safety and environmental laws to creep across the border. These experts will be interested in new United States (OSHA) regulations (29 CFR 1910.119), and anticipated new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that will require over 28 000 U.S. refineries and chemical plants employing more than three million workers, to begin a comprehensive Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) of these complex plants immediately. Impending EPA regulations are expected to expand these efforts and add process Hazard Frequency and process Hazard Consequence reviews for many additional industrial locations. These regulations were created to reduce catastrophic industrial accidents, and emergency releases of hazardous chemicals which endanger employees, the public, and the environment. Accurate, and field verified Piping and Instrument Diagrams (P&IDs) are essential to permit a meaningful Process Hazard Analysis or emission release to be done. Today accurate P&IDs often do not exist. Many companies that have started to update their old P&IDs have found the process to be far more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive than they ever thought. This paper describes a new technique of computer drawn "Intelligent" P&IDs that can make a Process Hazard Analysis less expensive, more accurate, easier to perform, and provides lasting benefits to the plant owner long after the PHA has been completed.

Keywords: Hazard analysis, Computer applications, Piping and instrument diagrams (P&IDs).