Is HAZOP mandated by law? Where can I learn about it?

Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP for short) is a highly popular Risk Assessment method that is the de-facto primary way of studying the amount of risk in any process industry operation. By process industry we mean Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Mining and similar sectors. In this method, we break down the process units into smaller sections called nodes and every such node is studied in depth with respect to what can go wrong and if it does then what? These are known as deviations.
The short video below gives an idea of the process.

All this is known, but the question that is asked by many is whether there is any legal basis for carrying HAZOP? Well, the answer is Yes and No. If you are looking for some Bill passed in Congress or some Act of Parliament in some country that says you must do a HAZOP, then no. There is to the best of my knowledge, no such law. BUT many of the legal acts in various countries and other rules and regulations have some references. For example in the US, following OSHA guidelines is mandatory by law and their 14 elements of Process Safety Management (PSM) do include Risk Assessment of the process, where HAZOP is specifically mentioned.

So while there is no direct law that says that you must do it, there are many indirect legal references that say that you must do it. Finally, all that matters is that if ever there is an accident AND the matter goes to court, the judge will be mighty annoyed if he/she discovers that you were not carrying out Risk Assessments such as HAZOP, especially when everyone else is doing it and it is given in OSHA guidelines and the fact that it costs much much less, than the cost of the plant (or the cost of the accident, which will be anyway more than the cost of the plant).

So now take your pick , whether to do it or not.

Human Factors in HAZOP & other risk assessment techniques

How important are human factors when carrying out risk assessment studies such as HAZOP, LOPA and other techniques? Very much important it turns out, although until now most practitioners did not include this factor in their risk assessment studies. But of course we know that accidents can and do happen due to human error. Is there a policy guideline for this in place? Yes, it turns out that there is, in fact it was released a long time ago.
The UK Health and Safety Executive reportedly is mulling to include a "human" factor in risk assessment of major hazard facilities (COMAH). They have released a policy roadmap that details this here.
For example if the Risk assessmnet of a major hazard facility shows that it is essential to carry out some maintenance tasks regularly to reduce the risks, then a human factors analysis should be done to find out if
a) whether the task itself could be skipped?
b) whether any alarms can be raised if this is skipped due to error, negligence or simply laziness?
c) whether an incompetent performance of this task could result in an accident?
Very valid questions and a long way to go to analyze all the myriad things that humans can and many times actually do wrong!
So in your next HAZOP review one of the deviations should be "operator did not perform the task at all OR he did not perform the task correctly". This condition has not been included in any HAZOP formats or software to the best of our knowledge but should be and will, in the near future.
If you would like to know more about this aspect, you can check out the Abhisam course here.

HAZOP-Hazard and Operability Study

Sep 19, 2013- HAZOP is an acronym for the popular Hazard and Operability Study. However the focus of most HAZOP studies seems to be more on the "Hazard" part rather than the "Operability" part. Did you notice it? The operability refers to how easy or how difficult would it be to operate the plant in its current form. For example, it is easy to say (and record) that in case of an upset the plant operator will close the Hand Valve HV101. However where is it located? Is it easy to close it? Is it accessible? What if it requires an effort just to reach it? Would the handle get jammed? These operability questions are very relevant in HAZOP studies and must be addressed. In recent years, almost nothing is discussed in HAZOP studies about the plant's operability. On hopes that in the coming years the operability factors will also play an important role. After all, a plant that is easy to operate and run should cause less stress amongst operating staff and thereby cause lesser dangerous incidents or accidents, is it not? One good move in recent years has been though that "human factors" are seen to be as important as the plant design factors and these would be given weightage in the new HAZOP studies. For an in-depth course on the Hazard and Operability technique, you can refer to the Abhisam training course on HAZOP.

HAZOP Video-Training Course

Here's a great video about HAZOP training that is on Youtube. See it below for yourself. The video basically tells you about HAZOP and how you can learn it in the comfort of your own home or office. Attending classroom trainings can be a pain these days, as you will have to spare time as well as a great deal of money AND be away from work to attend it. At the end of the day you may forget everything!

So here's an alternate way to learn all about the HAZOP process and also get certified in HAZOP! Note that it is not just a HAZOP ppt, it is a complete course.

HAZOP Study

HAZOP Study- What is HAZOP?
(Note: To learn about HAZOP Study in detail and to get certified as a competent person, please download or enroll online in the Abhisam HAZOP training course)



HAZOP is an acronym which is short for Hazard and Operability study and it was first introduced many years ago by ICI, a multinational chemicals company, based out of the UK. ICI no longer exists today as ICI (various parts have been taken over by companies such as Huntsman and AkzoNobel), but the HAZOP study technique that they pioneered, continues to grow in importance.
HAZOP is a risk assessment technique, used mainly in the chemical  and process industries such as oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, heavy chemicals, pharmaceutical and power generation as well as industries such as mining too. HAZOP is one technique out of a group of risk assessment techniques that form part of PHA (Process Hazard Analysis) . Other techniques in PHA are FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), LOPA (Layer of Protection Analysis), HAZID (Hazard Identification), What-If analysis and of course checklists. HAZOP is more subjective rather than quantitative.

The HAZOP technique is  designed to identify the intentions and deviations of a particular operation, called a node. For example, a node may be a section of a plant that pumps liquid from a storage tank to a reactor some distance away. Then in this node, the original intention is identified (transporting liquid from the storage tank to the reactor) and then all possible deviations are analyzed in detail. Some of these deviations may result in accidents (for example if there is a reverse flow of liquid from the reactor to the tank). This process (the HAZOP process) is known as a HAZOP Study.

You may now appreciate that a HAZOP study should be done only by skilled personnel. If an unskilled or untrained person carries out a HAZOP (using the best software or no software), the chances of doing a bad HAZOP increase manifold. Doing a bad HAZOP is worse than doing no HAZOP at all because a bad HAZOP lulls people into a false sense of security, that their HAZOP study is complete (and the recommendations are implemented and the plant is safe and everybody lived happily ever after) when actually the opposite is true.

HAZOP Process

HAZOP Process-what does it mean? The word HAZOP is an acronym for HAZard and Operability Study, which is a Risk Assessment technique used extensively in the process industries (such as Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Power, Pharma and others). The HAZOP Process is a structured method that is a part of a PHA (Process Hazard Analysis), in which one examines a small part of a plant or facility (called as a Node) using a set of Guide Words that seek to examine all the permutations and combinations possible in a particular plant operation. For example, if one is analyzing the flow of a liquid from say a day tank (lets call it Tank A) to another tank (say Tank B) then there are several things that can go wrong with this simple process, such as Low Flow, Reverse Flow, No Flow and so on. These guide words (Low, Reverse, No) are combined with a parameter (such as Flow) to generate possibilities of what could go wrong in the operation.
Then each combination gives us an opportunity to think what can happen. For example if the normal operation of the process is to transfer liquid from Tank A to Tank B, then Reverse Flow will be from Tank B to Tank A. Will this cause any problems? We then list all these problems under the heading of "consequences" and for each consequence we can think of a protective method by which this consequence can be avoided. Thus if we determine that reverse flow will have dangerous consequences, then we can prevent it by having a Non Return Valve in the line that connects Tank A to Tank B.
Thus each such condition will be evaluated for consequences and protective measures designed. If we do this diligently for the entire plant, we will have a much safer operation!
If you wish to know more about this HAZOP Process, you can download an excellent e-learning course here.