Suitability analysis of corrective actions to prevent major chemical process accidents

Abstract

Recent accident analyses show that accident rates in the chemical process industry (CPI) are still increasing. The identified contributing factor to the scenario is poor learning from accidents which allows occurrence and recurrence of major chemical accidents. The paper examines the suitability on the recommended corrective actions to prevent accident by resolving various types of accident contributors (i.e. external factors, design errors, technical errors, human errors and organisational errors). Therefore, 468 major accident reports were retrieved from several accident databases to analyse accident contributors and their corresponding corrective actions. In this research, the suitability analysis is conducted using accident contributor - corrective action logic matrix. The matrix is constructed based on initial capital, operating cost, reliability, and complexity; and the ability to correct root causes, reduce risks in terms of likelihood and/consequence, and afterwards monitoring/maintenance. From the analysis, about 46% of the corrective actions are considered as unsuitable (i.e. less suitable or not suitable). As the contributors are inadequately/wrongly corrected, thus contributing to non-decreasing accident rates of the industry.