An increasing number of assets across most process industry sectors are now operating beyond their original anticipated design life, potentially in an operational and regulatory environment for which they were not originally designed. In the difficult economic environment that we face, this trend is set to continue. Operation of assets under these circumstances presents additional risks; due to the effects of ageing and the possible existence of deterioration mechanisms that were not foreseen at the time the process was designed. This creates a strong incentive for a periodic, thorough review of process hazards.A number of techniques are in use including repeat-HAZOP (hazard and operability study), HAZOP revalidation, repeat HAZID (hazard identification) and Process Hazards Review (PHR). Regardless of the technique employed, these studies invariably produce large numbers of recommendations. Such recommendations can require modification of the process, further technical study or changes to procedures, maintenance routines or inspection regimes. Study teams disperse after the exercise leaving a large work load on an already-burdened site team. There may be site or corporate deadlines to meet for action completion or regulatory pressure to implement improvements in a timely way because, until implementation has been completed, the benefits of the study will not be realised.This paper will address the different challenges of dealing with hazard study recommendations, which include the interpretation of requirements, the need for multi-functional resources to address them, the collation of an ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) justification and selection of appropriate process modifications, as well as the tracking of progress and costs. Examples will be used to highlight the dimensions of the task for typical plants across a range of process industry sectors and to discuss ways in which the challenges can be overcome successfully. A top-down, structured approach will be presented that can enable an organisation to address recommendations in an efficient and timely way, while also improving the effectiveness of the studies themselves.
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