We have extensive experience assisting organizations with a variety of process safety management programs to meet both regulatory and risk-based process safety (RBPS) objectives. Our specialists take the prescriptive application of process safety management requirements written into regulations by government agencies or developed within the AICHE CCPS RBPS framework to create PSM programs that your facility can use to identify, manage, and mitigate process safety risks.
Key differentiators
Expert consultants averaging over 20 years in the field.
Lessons learned from hundreds of incident investigations.
Proprietary modeling tools such as SafeSite3G© and FireHAT© to analyze blast, toxic, fire, and mechanical failure consequences as well as emergency response plans and capabilities.
Comprehensive, balanced reports using impartial assessments that provide actionable recommendations.
Ongoing support with a depth of expertise covering a broad range of technical risk subjects.
Our Expertise
BakerRisk professionals leverage their wide range of technical backgrounds and expertise when they perform third party audits or provide a subject matter expert to your audit/assessment team. Our consultants are skilled in auditing against regulations and “Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice” (RAGAGEP). Our auditing services extend beyond U.S. regulatory compliance, permitting us to use our expertise globally.
Compliance Auditing
BakerRisk professionals leverage their wide range of technical backgrounds and expertise when they perform third-party audits or provide subject matter experts to your audit team. Our consultants are skilled in auditing against a range of national and trade standards, as well as local and company-specific standards. In addition, our services extend beyond regulatory compliance, permitting us to use our expertise globally.
Risk-Based Process Safety
We are experts on industry “Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice” (RAGAGEP) and can lead an organization or a given facility through the development of a risk-based process safety (RBPS) program where regulatory compliance is not the sole objective. A facility’s operational risk, or inherent risk, is considered when selecting the RBPS elements to emphasize and include in the program. Regulatory compliance, when required, does not guarantee process safety performance or avoidance of incidents.
Measuring process safety performance goes beyond complying with regulations. Risk-based process safety raises the bar on process safety performance.
AICHE CCPS developed risk-based process safety (RBPS) to provide a holistic framework of elements for the next generation of process safety management. The additional elements included in RBPS help to eliminate the gaps and inconsistencies inherent in a compliance-driven program that are known contributors to PSM failures.
Our risk assessments utilize a pre-screening process to determine the main risk contributors at the facility. The RBPS elements can then be implemented at varying levels of rigor to optimize process safety management performance, efficiency, and effectiveness and to manage risk exposures.
Safety Guidelines
The next generation of process safety management involves a risk-based process safety assessment. Unlike U.S. OSHA PSM, with 14 identified elements, RBPS has established four accident prevention pillars and 21 elements that address both onsite and offsite risk.
The CCPS publication, “Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety” organizes the elements into four accident prevention pillars:
Our Contributions
BakerRisk not only provides risk-based process safety services. Our expert engineers have also written or contributed to CCPS books and materials, many of which are used throughout the industry today.
Our Specialists
Related Resources
HAZOP is an OSHA-recognized Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) methodology that identifies deviations and hazards in complex industrial processes found in high-risk sectors such as Chemical, Petrochemical, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, and more.
In July 1990, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published the proposed standard "Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals." The standard aimed to protect workers in high-hazard industries, such as oil and gas, chemical, and petrochemical, from catastrophic incidents caused by toxic, flammable, or explosive substances.
Meeting or exceeding global energy demands in an environmentally sustainable manner—that is the goal of the biofuels industry. The success of that endeavor relies heavily on a robust safety program that encourages safe production, transport, and use of these fuels.
Join BakerRisk’s Theresa Lewis, Michael Metcalfe-Smith, and Alexandre Cardoso, P. Eng., during which our experts will discuss why process safety management (PSM) is a critical component of safe growth in renewable fuel industries—even when not required—and how to effectively implement key PSM elements to support resilient, sustainable operations.
In 2005, a large vapor cloud explosion (VCE) at the BP Texas City refinery resulted in multiple fatalities in or near portable office trailers within close proximity to process areas.
Join BakerRisk for the fourth webinar in the Egyptian PSM Standards Implementation series. This webinar will provide guidance on how to take the results of an QRA and implement risk-reducing strategies at an economical cost. You will also get a better understanding of how important decisions in the design phase can provide significant protection from […]
Watch the webinar recording on Mechanical Integrity and Failure Analysis experts, Daniel Benac and Michael Nugent.
This webinar will be valuable for anyone involved in, or responsible for the design, operation, maintenance, inspection, testing or assurance of Safety Critical Elements and Safety Critical Systems used in high-hazard, process safety operations.
Learn about key updates to the RPs including siting evaluation process and criteria
What is Process Safety Management and why is it essential in high-hazard industries?
A team from BakerRisk, led by CCPS and in association with Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (ASMC), prepared a new book entitled Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Situations, published in January 2023. Abnormal situations in the process industries occur when conditions deviate from their normal state or operating range, such that basic process control systems are unable to restore normal conditions. The consequences of a failure to provide the right intervention during an abnormal situation could ultimately lead to a major disaster such as a fire, explosion, toxic release, environmental damage and/or loss of life. Often there are opportunities for early identification, allowing corrective action to be taken before the abnormal situation escalates.
Unlike previous API documents, API’s new RP 586 Section 2 provides guidance for the use of optimized inspection techniques for high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA). Most of these are volumetric Ultrasonic Testing (UT) methods and were not previously included in API RP 941. Useful discussions of inspection limitations are included in this paper. With these new methods, Fitness-for-Service (FFS) assessments can now be conducted with much higher confidence. Several commercial models and an overarching FFS module that is being developed for Carbon Steel and Carbon ½ Moly are presented, as well as some of the new guidance in the forthcoming revision of API 941.
On 02 June 2011, an explosion at Pembroke Oil Refinery occurred. The explosion occurred within a tank, which resulted in the roof and base of the tank being sheared. The roof was thrown more than 55m and the liquid contents were ejected from the base, starting a fire to the immediate area south of the vessel. The explosion and subsequent fire resulted in four fatalities and one severe injury. Key factors that led to the incident include various changes over several years and a lack of appreciation or understanding of the hazards and risks associated with these tanks.
Two decades ago, California became the first state to legalize medical use of cannabis. In 2021, medical use of cannabis is legal is 36 US states, and 17 states allow adult (‘recreational’) use
Understand the factors that have contributed to current risk management and process safety considerations and what’s necessary for continued refinements and adoption.
Industrial facilities generally embrace good practices related to maintaining comprehensive Process Safety Information (PSI) and making sure that Management of Change policies include proper documentation updates. However, those practices are not necessarily applied uniformly to fire protection and emergency response assets and systems. This can lead to significant problems when attempting to use fire and emergency assets or when conducting inspections, testing, maintenance, or repairs (ITMR) of these assets. This article will discuss the importance of maintaining engineering documentation for fire protection systems and other emergency response assets by applying the same discipline and attention given to other PSI to ensure those critical safety systems are available when needed and function as intended.
Damage Mechanisms for on refinery operating units have been well documented for over 20 years. The successful application of this methodology is the cornerstone of Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) and other predictive Asset or Mechanical Integrity technology that has provided improvements in equipment reliability. Damage mechanism reviews have been applied to Ammonia Production Plants, Which have less variability in feedstocks and often very similar processing equipment. This paper provides an overview of the potential unique damage mechanisms based on known process parameters, selected the appropriate inspection methods, and communicates relevant factors and possible mitigation options as a resource for ammonia production sites. This methodology has been implemented in numerous facilities worldwide.
BakerRisk is pleased to present three topics for the 2023 AIChE Spring Meeting and 18th GCPS technical program, and exhibit at booth 200.
BakerRisk presented six papers for the 2022 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Spring Meeting and 18th Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS).
Discover how customized, interactive process safety management training from BakerRisk can benefit your organization.
BakerRisk is pleased to join the 2022 Spring Meeting and 18th Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS), hosted by the AIChE and the CCPS.
Read “Proper Handling of Toxic Inhalation Hazard (TIH) Chemicals,” featured in Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP) for risk mitigation.
Dr. Kelly Thomas recently visited the AIChE student chapter at UTSA to share about his 30 years of leading explosion hazard analyses and incident investigations.
Process safety in engineering projects involves leadership, managers, engineers, operating and maintenance personnel, contractors, vendors, suppliers, and support staff.
Since the first Industrial Revolution, technology has evolved to provide us with new products and production methods, improved quality, output, efficiency and many other benefits. However, this came at a cost and much has been learnt from incidents where the unexpected or the unforeseen (and perhaps unforeseeable) has happened. The pace of technological change has increased and we are now entering the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” This paper discusses some examples in which introduction of new technology has led to safety issues and incidents, and offers suggestions on what can be done to minimise the risks of technological developments leading to technological disasters.
BakerRisk is proud to be featured on the cover of the September 2020 edition of the Process Safety Progress (PSP) journal! This issue features four BakerRisk articles providing perspective on best practice for consequence and risk-based facility siting studies as well as how they can be refined and leveraged into risk mitigation programs.
Major incidents around the world spurred recognition and acceptance of the value of Process Safety management systems and regulations. Organizations such as the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association, Center for Chemical Process Safety, and American Petroleum Institute also promoted process safety.
BakerRisk will present eight topics at the AIChE 2020 Spring Meeting and GCPS conference.
This paper focuses on the consideration of an unbiased approach to assessing risk to push the industry towards proactively addressing risk rather than reactively allowing cognitive biases to drive process safety culture and personnel risk management solutions. Scientifically proven to affect the way we process and interpret the world around us, cognitive biases allow us to shortcut the complexities of the world when making decisions. In some cases, biases can be surprisingly accurate, while in other instances they can lead to making poor judgements and decisions based on the limited information available to us. Specifically damaging in the process safety industry are the availability heuristic and the confirmation bias, which together cause us to focus on information that comes to mind quickly, justifies our opinions, and favors our existing beliefs.
The June edition of Process Safety Progress magazine features two articles by Mike Broadribb, Senior Principal Process Safety Consultant with BakerRisk.
The aeronautical industry has developed extensive research in causal factors and methodologies to prevent risks associated with human factors. Pilots work in complex environments that require significant skills and deep knowledge of the way in which the planes and the systems that control them work. However, this may not be sufficient if there are no clear protocols to interact with air traffic controllers and their own crew in crucial moments that could end in a catastrophe.
On February 28, 2018, the 2018 Hazardex Conference in Cheshire, UK featured a BakerRisk presentation titled, “When the lights go out”, authored by Roger Stokes, Principal Process Safety Engineer.
Process safety management systems are generally credited with reducing major accident risk in the process industries. While those systems have been around for many years—the EU introduced the Seveso Directive in 1982, and US OSHA promulgated the PSM regulation ten years later— many companies today are challenged by inadequate and/or stagnant process safety management system performance. Several companies have experienced major incidents, particularly when they are subject to prescriptive regulations such as OSHA PSM.
Process safety practices and management systems have been in place for many years, and have been widely credited for reductions in major accident risk. However, many organisations today are challenged by inadequate management system performance, resource pressures, and stagnant or declining process safety performance.
Process safety management systems are widely credited with reductions in major accident risk for onshore operations. Yet although offshore oil and gas operations also have the potential for catastrophic disaster, process safety management systems offshore are not as mature. Over the past thirty years, the author has been involved in the application of offshore process safety. The paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses observed, some common themes involving process safety management systems, and future approaches for continuous improvement.
Contact: +1 (210) 824-5960
