(65e) Maintaining Consistency in the Determination of Consequence Severity Rankings for Process Hazard Analyses

A Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) is an important tool for identifying and managing the hazards associated with a chemical process.  One of the most critical aspects of the analysis is the risk ranking of scenarios, which is used to determine which events pose a high risk to the facility and may require further mitigation.  The risk ranking of a scenario is built on two factors – severity and likelihood.  The severity of a scenario is a measure of the potential worst-case impact on facility operation, facility personnel, the public, or the environment, while the likelihood is an estimate of the frequency with which an event may occur, given the presence of any safeguards acting to prevent the event.

Severity of a scenario is expressed in qualitative terms.  While a typical approach to assigning consequence severity rankings involves categorizing events by impact (e.g., recordable injury, permanent disability, or fatality), this approach relies on the subjective judgment of the analysis team in determining the exact impact of a specific event.  Experience has shown that, because of the subjective nature of this step, different PHA study teams have had varying opinions on the potential severity level of a given scenario.  It is the aim of this study to provide guidelines to improve consistency of severity rankings both within a single analysis, and across multiple analyses with separate PHA study teams.   It is possible to increase the consistency in consequence severity rankings through application of standardized guidelines.  A method has been developed to aid PHA facilitators based on dispersion modelling of various conditions typically encountered in a PHA.  The underlying data is based on groups of chemicals with similar properties and other conditions (e.g., break size, break location, etc.).