Facilitation, along with scribing and reporting, of hazard and operability (HAZOP) studies is one of E.S.M.’s key specialities. We have seven trained HAZOP facilitators in our team. Between us, we have facilitated many HAZOPs and CHAZOPs across many industry sectors. Whether mining, minerals processing, food and beverage, water and wastewater treatment, glass manufacturing or power generation, distribution and transmission, our team has worked across it all and more. Below are a few examples of the HAZOPs that we have delivered recently:
Sea Water Treatment HAZOP: The project was an upgrade to an existing facility, and the scope of the design included sea water filtration, pumping, wastewater filtration and filter backwash and sumps. The purpose of the facility was for aquaculture research. The HAZOP found that the design had addressed the major hazards and operability concerns, but a few improvement opportunities were identified in the workshop including additional instrumentation on and around the storage tanks. E.S.M. conducted the study in person with design, maintenance and operational personnel and completed it in one half-day session.
Emergency Diesel Generator HAZOP: The subject of this study was the building standby emergency diesel generator system for a significant renewable energy infrastructure project. The standby generator system was designed to support essential operations during grid outages, including providing backup power to hydraulic pumps to operate reservoir tunnel gates, maintain safety systems and prevent costly downtime or damage to equipment during unplanned power outages. E.S.M. facilitated a HAZOP study to identify hazards and operability issues associated with the standby diesel generator system. The study looked at how the system would respond to deviations and system disturbances outside of its design intent. The system was broken down into five nodes plus an overview node, and E.S.M. completed the study in two online workshop sessions. Several critical actions were identified through the systematic workshop process.
Oxygen Generation Plant HAZOP: An oxygen generation packaged plant had to be integrated into an existing minerals processing plant. The integration design was approximately 70% complete when E.S.M. was engaged to HAZOP the design. The scope of the HAZOP was the utilities and the services connecting the oxygen production packed plant unit to the rest of the plant. A key finding was the packaged unit itself needed to go through the HAZOP process and that this was the responsibility of the engineers designing that package.
Oxyfuel Furnace HAZOP: E.S.M. was engaged by a glass manufacturer to conduct a HAZOP on the upgrade of their gas-fired furnace. The workshop was conducted over four days on site with attendees joining in person. The furnace was to be installed in a brownfield manufacturing facility using existing utilities, building structures and the old furnace shell. The new oxyfuel furnace was designed to melt raw materials and/or glass cullet on a 24/7 basis whilst reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants. The HAZOP study was used to identify hazards associated with the oxyfuel furnace and the associated control and protection systems. The HAZOP generated a number of actions for the furnace supplier and the facility owner to follow up that improved the design and the maintainability and operability of the final installation.
HAZOP for Major Addition to Minerals Processing Plant: A major mining and minerals processing site were adding an Ion Exchange Resin Column, with supporting plant, to their electrolyte refining stream. The new system involved acid unloading, wash and storage, electrolyte and eluate feed, heat exchangers, transfer pumps, and sludge and waste systems. E.S.M. facilitated eight days of HAZOP review across the detailed design phase, and also facilitated the CHAZOP study. To do so, E.S.M. managed multiple stakeholders including the owner’s team, engineering service provider, commissioning team, project delivery team, site operations and maintenance, multiple vendors and a specialist process consultant. The HAZOP and CHAZOP process was an important part of the project fulfilling the owner’s WHS duties to consult with those affected regarding workplace hazards.
As well as the above examples, E.S.M. have conducted the following HAZOP and CHAZOP studies:
- Multiple transformer, substation, and other equipment HAZOP studies for a Transmission Network Service Provider
- Wide Area Protection System HAZOP for a Transmission Network Service Provider
- Packing machine HAZOP and CHAZOP
- Fire Suppression System HAZOP
- HAZOP following some commissioning incidents to rectify the existing design
- HAZOP for slurry thickening process
- HAZOP of upgrades to the materials handling at a food processing operation
- Tank Replacement HAZOP
- Winery Waste Water Treatment Project HAZOP
- Concept design HAZOP for a proposed new mine and mineral processing and packaging plant
- Aqueous Ammonia plant HAZOP
- HAZID, HAZOP and CHAZOP for a SCADA software system upgrade
- Automated diesel burner HAZOP for the electrical system for a bitumen plant
- Gas Blending Station CHAZOP for a large-scale baseload power generator
- Tailings Dam Control Philosophy CHAZOP
- Concentrate Leach Filtration Upgrade CHAZOP
- Gas-fuelled power station CHAZOP
- CHAZOP for a controls upgrade to hypochlorite production plant
- Beverage production facility solar PV installation HAZOP, CHAZOP and Safety in Design workshops
- HAZOP and CHAZOP for solar PV installations with battery energy storage system (BESS) and associated electrical infrastructure
- CHAZOP for a Tailings Storage Facility upgrade
