Process safety has made substantial progress in the past 40 years in improving the safety of our chemical plants, refineries and other applications. However, as our plants have grown larger and more complex, bottom-line thinking has caused us to operate closer to our safety limits to get the last drop out with as few personnel as possible (and sometimes fewer). All this, plus changing demographics and industry experience levels, has put a strain on achieving a safe operating environment for our plants.
Let us look at process safety in the past and present with some speculation about the future.
To learn more about safety, read “Progress in Process Safety” from Control.