Hazard Identification

Hazard identification is fundamental to risk management. This chapter helps the readers to participate in hazard identification studies, and create a potential process safety incident scenario. Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis encompasses the entire spectrum of hazard identification and risk analyses, from simple and qualitative to detailed and quantitative. The chapter introduces a variety of hazard analysis techniques that can be used during various stages of the design and during the operation of a facility. These include Preliminary Hazard Identification (HAZID) Analysis, checklist analysis, What-If Analysis, Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP), Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis, and event tree analysis. HAZID focuses in a general way on the hazardous materials and major process areas of a plant. A HAZOP typically focuses on hazards and major operability issues. The FMEA method originated in the U.S. Military where it was used to assess potential equipment failures and reliability issues.