Risk-based evaluation and human factors review for petrochemical unit startup options

摘要

Nearly twenty-five percent of the largest process industry financial lossesoccur during startup.Human factors clearly play a significant role in the startup process where many human actions and interactions take place.Risk based evaluations and human factors reviews have been conducted for startup of upgraded petrochemical process units in large complexes.These units previously had been started up and operated from local control rooms with analog displays and pneumatic controls.As part of facility wide automation projects,the controls were to be upgraded and the units controlled with distributed control systems.Ultimately,these petrochemical units may be started up and controlled from remote central control rooms to address facility siting concerns.An additional question remains if a remote central control room or utilizing a familiar,"local",team-based startup with future "hot cut-over" to the central control room? A methodology was developed to specifically identify startup option differences which are then quantified in terms of the potential for and magnitude of financial loss.