The EPSC Highlights 2024 are:
4th European Conference on Plant & Process Safety - Barcelona
With over 300 participants the Barcelona event provided a great platform for sharing practical knowledge and networking. Many new Spanish process safety specialists were able to learn about EPSC. Presentations and photos are available at the congress website.
The European Practice of Process Safety Management Booklet
The European Practice for Process Safety Management obtained a face! The many good practices as typically applied in Europe have been summarized in an easy to read booklet that can be used to train new people in the field as well as to benchmark the actual practices. These European practices differ from other regions and have demonstrated good results.
EPSC Award 2024
Each year EPSC honours an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of chemical engineering safety. The award aims to put a spotlight on outstanding scientific and technical work that has an impact and is applied in our member companies. The 2024 Award was handed over to Christine Fannes by EPSC Board Chair Eline Beulens during the 4th European Conference on Plant & Process Safety in Barcelona.
EPSC Technical Meetings
The spring Technical Meeting in Frankfurt at DECHEMA and the fall Technical Meeting in Antwerp with ExxonMobil were two yearly EPSC highlights. The well attended meetings gave great discussions and network opportunities. Presentations are available at the EPSC website (members only area).
Big Data, Digitalization and AI Congress
In addition to Big Data and Digitalisation, AI was also included in the 9th Global Conference on Process Safety and Big Data, which EPSC and CCPS jointly organise every year. It was well attended and once again a scientific and financial success.
EPSC Learning Videos
EPSC developed professional technical safety videos containing presentations on relevant topics. In total about 7 hours of good looking presentations have been produced using a professional company. Some of the training videos are already available on the EPSC website for training purposes.The rest will follow early next year.
International Process Safety Week
In a joint effort, 5 associations organised the International Process Safety Week. Over 12000 people worldwide registered their interest in the event. AIChE, CCPS, Fabig, Mary Kay Oconnor and EPSC created this first edition of IPSW after two years of joint preparation.
Webinars 2024
EPSC Promoted Webinars continued to be a great forum for sharing and discussing on process safety topics. This year we had interesting presentations from Solution Providers: Sofis, Distran, TÜV SÜD, Empirisys and Lifeclean.
EPSC Learning Sheets
The EPSC Learning Sheets are now available in 24 languages and have been well received by many users. Another 10 interesting learning cases have been made available in 2024. The booklet of the first 50 EPSC learning cases is also available on the EPSC website. It includes a nice index and is available as a browsable version as well as a PDF download.
Leadership and Culture
An EPSC team, including a consultant, has been formed to increase knowledge on the relevant topic of process safety leadership and culture. A benchmark study on the topic is also being prepared using a questionnaire. This will allow members to reflect on certain aspects and identify strengths and weaknesses in relation to pearls.
Progression in active Working Groups
- PHA Efficiency: The 5 work streams finalised the main work on HAZOP efficiency, practical readiness checklist, typicals and useful KPIs.
- Process Safety in Pharma and Food developed their own Process Safety Fundamentals which were published and translated.
- Early Leak Detection: New techniques are becoming available, e.g. using ultrasound or IR for rapid detection of gas leaks. The Working Group discusses the new options in webinars.
- Chemical Hazard Analysis (CHA): Reactive hazards need to be well understood before starting the HAZOP. The Working Group has established a 5-stage process where best practices are discussed and defined for each step.
- Barrier Health Management: A new Working Group is proposed to work on how to validate that critical barriers are in good shape. The charter is being defined and members are still welcome to indicate their interest in participating.
- CHEF/RAST: The yearly 10 webinar session training was again provided on the Chemical Hazard Engineering Fundamentals (CHEF). The RAST tool to quickly estimate the size of the consequence remains available.
- Energy Transition: The energy transition will introduce new hazards from chemicals such as hydrogen, ammonia, carbon dioxide, biogas, as well as from batteries and plastic recycling. The practical aspects of how to deal with these new hazards will continue to be discussed in this working group.
- Fluor Free Foams: In support of the European request to ban "for-ever" chemicals from the environment, this EPSC Working Group discusses the practical aspects of switching to fluor free foams for fire-fighting. Practical aspects of defining alternatives, cleaning equipment and disposal of fluor foams were discussed.
EPSC Benchmark Study
EPSC completed for the 7th year a benchmark study on process safety statistics, that now also include statistics on root causes and the relevant Process Safety Fundamentals.
Membership Changes
The following full members started their cooperation with EPSC: Repsol, Syensqo and Westlake (Tata Steel and Solvay did not continue their membership).
Relations
EPSC continued to strengthen relation with relevant associations on Chemical Hazards: CEFIC Plant & Process Safety (Jean Godts), FABIG (Guillaume Vannier), Seveso Expert Group (Stefan Leiner), VCI (Thilo Hoechst), DECHEMA (Andreas Förster and Maike Andresen), EFCE and Loss Prevention (Bruno Fabiano), Essenscia (Geert Boogaerts), GESIP (Celine Leroy), Chemical Industry Association (Phil Scott), Phosgene working group (Stefan Drees), Eurochlor (Ton Manders), Energy Institute (Mark Scanlon), OECD (Marie-Ange Baucher), Federchimica (Giuseppe Astarita), CCPS (Shakeel Kadri and Willi Meier), AIChE (Trish Kern), Last Fire (Nial Ramsden), Center of Safety Excellence (Juergen Schmitt), AEQT Tarragona (Maria Mas), FEIQUE Spanish Chemical Engineers (Laura Merino), Catalunya Engineers (Jeronimo Farnos-Marsal).