History of AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety

On December 3, 1984, water contamination of a tank of methyl isocyanate in Bhopal, India initiated a series of events that led to a catastrophic toxic release, killing more than 3,000 residents and injuring over 100,000. Immediately after, leaders from the chemical industry asked AIChE to lead a collaborative effort to eliminate catastrophic process incidents by advancing state-of-the-art technology and management practices, serving as the premier resource for information on process safety, supporting process safety in engineering, and promoting process safety as a key industry value. In the spring of 1985, CCPS was founded. Since that time, CCPS has incorporated experience-based learning from major and minor accidents and near-misses into a world-class collection of guideline documents, resource books, and online content. This paper will reflect on the history of CCPS, highlight some recent accomplishments, and present a glimpse at the future of process safety.