How Process Safety Information Affects the Quality of a Process Hazard Analysis

This paper is a tutorial that shows the importance of how Process Safety Information affects the quality of a Process Hazard Analysis.  The Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) is the one requirement of the PSM standard that has the facility stop and review a process in its entirety to ensure safe operation.  However, a high quality PHA is dependent on accurate process safety information (PSI) that is consistent with the current equipment state (Inspection History, Changes from original design, operating conditions etc.).  A PSI sub-element, relief system design basis documentation, requires significant amounts of other PSI and if organized with forethought, will greatly improve the quality, effectiveness and, potentially, speed of a PHA.  If the relief systems documentation were performed in a system that stored all of the other relevant PSI and was cross referenced with current inspection records (MI systems), then this subset of PSI would contain much of the critical information needed for a PHA.  The system would have to be designed such that it was accessible to the PHA team and organized to match the PHA workflow.  This paper will present a proposed organization of PSI and then show how with a trained PHA facilitator and organized and accessible PSI/MI data, specific items found in PSM audits of PHAs would have been avoided.