2025 Spring Meeting and 21st Global Congress on Process Safety

(32ay) Methods to Identify Hazards in Sustainable Process Systems

Authors

Mitchell Huffman - Presenter, Texas A&M University
Edison A. Sripaul, Texas A&M University
Faisal Khan, Memorial University of Newfoundland
As the global chemical industry expands, prioritizing process safety while advancing sustainability is essential to meet environmental and operational goals. However, there is a need to develop methods to identify hazards to process system sustainability. The drive toward sustainable process systems has become a fundamental priority in the chemical industry as global concerns over resource depletion, climate change, and environmental impact intensify. Achieving sustainability requires more than just environmental consideration—it must seamlessly integrate safety to protect both human life and ecological systems. As industrial operations become more complex, the challenge lies in identifying opportunities where safety and sustainability align and reinforcing this integration throughout process design and management.

Traditional hazard identification techniques have long guaranteed chemical process safety, but further research is needed to adapt these methods to include sustainability considerations. To consider resource efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental effects, a more thorough examination of how these techniques might be developed is necessary.

This study aims to address the following key questions:

  1. What is the sustainability of the process system?
  2. How can safety be integrated into sustainability?
  3. How do we identify hazards along with sustainability?
  4. What are the advantages of such methods and demonstrating examples?
  5. How can traditional hazard identification techniques be adapted to incorporate sustainability as a parameter?
  6. Are there any best practices from current chemical industries demonstrating the integration of safety and sustainability?
  7. What are the advantages of hazard identification methods to ensure safety and sustainability?

This study offers a thorough method for comprehending how safety and sustainability interact, optimizing industrial processes for a more secure and sustainable future using modified risk assessment tools.