AM-15-06 The Top Ten Reasons for Fixed Equipment Mechanical Integrity Failures in the Hydrocarbon Process Industries

Description:

Based on my 46+ years of experience working with fixed equipment mechanical integrity (FEMI) issues in the refining and chemical processing industry, this paper summarizes what I believe are the top ten reasons why pressure vessels and piping systems continue to fail, thus causing significant process safety events e.g. explosions, fires, toxic releases, environmental damage, etc. This top ten list does not include the physical cause of the failure like, corrosion, cracking, embrittlement or the other 65+ damage mechanisms and failure modes that afflict fixed equipment in the petroleum and petrochemical industry, as those damage mechanisms and failure modes are just the final result of several other layers of protection that fail first. Rather, this top-ten list is mostly about human system failures associated with inadequate or poorly implemented management systems for FEMI. Being aware of these human system failures and mitigating the reasons for them can substantially reduce process safety events caused by fixed equipment failures. I caution you not to “blow this off” because you haven’t had any big fires, explosions or process safety events lately. They don’t happen very often; but when they do happen, they are often big events which not only threaten lives, but may threaten the sustainability of your on-going business. Remember, there were 17 years between the devastating NASA Challenger and Columbia accidents for an organization that prided itself on technological accomplishments and safety.