Customer Reviews

Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design (Chemical Engineering)

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Trevor Kletz's book is a summary of a lifetime of lectures on the subject of process safety. It is a fascinating collection of observations and ideas distilled from his many books on the subject. I always prefer material that has gone through the fire, which has served as presentation material for courses and training. He has a clear message, which is defined succinctly in the appendix of the book: "An atlas of safety thinking." Here, he defines the four guiding principles explained throughout the book: 1) intensification; 2) substitution; 3) attenuation; 4) and, simplification. For example, attenuation can be explained by saying if you can't eliminate the risk, maybe you can reduce it by changing the physical conditions: e.g. lower the temperature or pressure.

There are numerous examples in this small book. I found the paragraphs on nitroglycerine amusing. He described how operators worked with huge batches of material on one-legged stools to keep their attention keen. You'll have to read the book yourself on how they improved the process. Today, making nitroglycerine is probably the safest process in the munitions industry because inertia equates with mortality.

Trevor (I've emailed him a couple of times) comments frequently about inertia to change. He asks clearly why the oil industry and others continue to use large distillation columns without considering Higee distillation. Higee columns are much smaller making inventories of flammable chemicals small as well. Trevor's comments are well-supported; they remind me of an earlier innovator in business philosophy, another man I deeply admire: W. Edward Demming. Some of you may know him as the founder of modern quality science. He quickly realized that applying statistics to production lines did little to enhancing quality. Teaching the engineers did little to improve products. They were well aware of problems. Changing the mindset of managers is necessary. And, so it is in chemical engineering. We must look to new ideas if we are to reduce costs, shrink our carbon footprint, and cut environmental damage. Our major competitors, Europe and the Chinese are already thinking this way, don't you think it is time for us? Trevor reports that the Chinese are working on their version of Hi-Gee. Shouldn't we be working on ours?

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I think some explanations are needed on its title. According to the preface, the book was first published under the name of

* Cheaper, Safer Plants or Wealth and Safety at Work(1985)

and extended to the new title

* Plant Design for Safety - A User-Friendly Approach(1991)

and 70% expanded to the latest title

* Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design(1998).

The Aamzon's title may not be updated, but I got the latest one. It's slim(about 200 pages) and very readable.