System Theoretic Approaches in the Process Industries

The world of the energy & chemicals industry has been slow to adopt systems theoretic approaches. The focus of this paper is a summary of the present state of the industry in terms of technical design HSE practice – the world of process safety. This will then be followed by some consideration of the barriers to adoption of more rigorous systems theoretic type approaches, and the prospects for introduction of systems theoretical techniques in large capital projects within the above industries.