Process safety and abnormal situation management

This review paper summarizes process safety aspects of abnormal situations and incidents in industrial facilities. Major accidents and their negative impacts on health, safety and environment have shown the importance of enhancing safety culture, understanding causes of abnormal situations and determine effective management strategies. Flaring is a safety industry practice to control and manage processes during normal and abnormal operations. This paper identifies current efforts made by industry and researchers toward better management of abnormal situation for flare reductions. These efforts came about because of current and impending environmental legislation. The paper finds that future strategies developed for ASM must consider safety as well as environmental and economic implications; and it highlights the challenges and future guidelines for safer abnormal situation management.