Process Safety Management

Developing optimum safety and risk management systems, guidelines and standards, and audit protocols worldwide.

A proactive approach, coupled with properly planned and implemented safety and risk management systems can help you comply with local, state and federal PSM regulations, as well as minimize loss of life, environmental impact, equipment damage, citations and litigation.

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How We Can Help You

ioMosaic pioneered many of the current risk assessment techniques for processes that handle hazardous chemicals.

Our experts support every aspect to ensure that your facility runs safely and efficiently.

Expertise to help you minimize your exposure to fire, injury, property damage, and litigation.

Integrating best practices with cost-effective solutions to address program deficiencies.

Helping manage risk with facility siting studies, assessments and recommendations.

Senior knowledgeable engineers facilitate PHAs or DHAs in nearly all sectors of the process and processing industries.

Decades of experience leading incident investigations for process industry companies.

We prepare expert opinion reports and provide expert testimony for process incident cases.

Experienced engineers who have performed LOPAs on a wide range of facilities and terminals.

Our experts are at the forefront of pipeline Process Safety Management proficiency.

Proven track record of performing QRAs for facilities, pipelines and transportation routes.

Well versed in assisting global companies with their sustainability reporting communications.

Decades of experience mitigating hazards for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

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Featured Case Studies

 

Corporate Guidance On Risk Management

The chemical company of a large integrated energy company was developing a corporate standard for LOPA, which incorporated a risk ranking matrix. The company was interested in obtaining an independent review of the design of the risk matrix, and in benchmarking the underlying risk tolerability criteria with generally accepted industry norms.

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A large Canadian refinery was performing risk assessments to identify personnel, environmental, and operational hazards in order to satisfy legal and business requirements. This work was being done on a planned schedule, with each unit being reviewed annually. The challenge was to use Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) methodologies that provided an effective analysis appropriate to the particular unit to be studied and the potential hazards.
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When a tank car failed at a customer’s plant, a release of toxic gas occurred. Our client, the supplier of the chemical, was the subject of a class action lawsuit.
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A major pulp and paper manufacturing company in Mississippi determined that its process safety management (PSM) program had to do more than merely follow OSHA regulations; they wanted it to also be effective in preventing accidents.

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PSM Frequently Asked Questions

Does your facility need a PSM program? Is your PSM program effectively implemented?

If your facility uses, stores, manufactures, handles, or moves flammable or highly hazardous chemicals on site above the threshold quantity (TQ), OSHA does require PSM implementation. Learn the facts about process safety management.

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Our Team

Georges A. Melhem, Ph.D., FAIChE

President & CEO The founder of ioMosaic and internationally renowned expert in the areas of pressure relief and flare systems design, chemical reaction systems, process safety and risk analysis. Read more...

Neil Prophet

Senior Vice President and Partner He brings over 20 years of experience in pressure relief and flare systems design project management and engineering expertise for chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical companies. Read more...

Katherine Anderson, CCPSC

Senior Principal Consultant Experienced project leader in hazard identification, evaluation, functional safety, process safety and risk management. Read more...

John Barker, Ph.D.

Director The head of our international offices in the U.K. and the Kingdom of Bahrain and an expert in risk management for oil, gas and transportation. Read more...

Pamela M. Nelson, CCPSC

Principal Consultant She leads process safety projects for business units across the U.S., Canada, Thailand, China, and the U.K. Read more...

Marcel Amorós Martí

Director and Partner His expertise consists of a diverse range of industries from chemical and petrochemical to oil and gas and utilities. Read more...

Dianne Coon, CSP

Principal Consultant A CSP Certified Safety Professional with 32 years of experience in process safety and health, and safety and environment (HSE) management. Read more...

Charles Lea, P.E.

Director, Minneapolis Office Lead He directs a number of large technical projects across multiple offices and is also responsible for all project management in our Minneapolis office. Read more...

Featured Resources

Risk Considerations for Safe Process Design

Safe Design has Long Been a Priority in the Process Industries

Today, the process industries need to be certain that their stakeholders have confidence in how they manage the environmental, health, security, and safety implications of industrial activities. Read this white paper for a systematic, risk-based approach to safe design that can help to eliminate hazards that pose high risks from the process and help mitigate.

Read the White Paper

Managing Chemical Reactivity Hazards in Multipurpose Equipment

Runaway reactions leading to catastrophic events continue to occur in multipurpose equipment. Examples of causes that can lead to such catastrophic events include but are not limited to: (a) failure to identify and quantify runaway reactions hazards, (b) undersized pressure relief systems for unintended chemical reactions, (c) improper equipment selection and design, (d) cooling systems that are susceptible to single point failure, (e) process knowledge management, (f) management of organizational change and succession planning, and (g) deficient process safety information. 

Many bench scale chemists developing new processes do not fully understand scaleup. Scaling up from a flask where heat exchange or loss is excellent and sufficient at laboratory scale can lead to near adiabatic conditions in large scale equipment and runaway reactions. A small exotherm at laboratory scale can yield a significant runaway reaction at pilot or plant scale. Because of the focus on process development of intended chemistries, unintended chemistries are often not quantified properly or overlooked. Research and development organizations need to collaborate with production facilities to understand what are the “unintended reactions” that could occur at pilot or plant scale. 

It is not uncommon to have multiple raw materials, for a variety of products, all to be hard piped to the same vessel. Understanding the likelihood and potential for each of those raw materials to interact unintentionally in multipurpose equipment is key for process safety risk identification and management efforts. A simple skipped water charge, may be the worst case scenario resulting in an unintended runaway chemical reaction. 

In addition, organizations are also challenged to properly manage their knowledge for high hazard chemistries. With organizational change happening much more frequently nowadays, it is even more essential that once a hazard is identified, the knowhow is properly managed and available independent of current staffing. Knowledge Management is a huge gap in numerous organizations, especially small and medium size enterprises. 

Although many organizations can be vulnerable to such catastrophic events, they have not taken sufficient and proper steps to identify and truly understand chemical reactivity hazards.

This paper provides guidance that can help you to better understand your organization’s potential vulnerabilities that are related to chemical reactivity hazards.

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Watch the video presentation by Georges A. Melhem, Ph.D., FAIChE, on Process Safety tv®. Want to see more videos? Sign up for FREE or log in to watch all the white paper videos.
Speakers Showcase - Managing Chemical Reactivity Hazards in Multipurpose Equipment


Featured Services

Quantitative Risk Assessment

Proven track record of performing QRAs for refineries, chemical plants, LNG facilities, pipelines and transportation routes. Read more...

Hazard Analysis (PHA/DHA)

Senior knowledgeable engineers facilitate PHAs or DHAs in nearly all sectors of the process and processing industries, either hands-on or remotely. Read more...

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