Screening Level Risk Assessment: A Cost Effective Tool to Risk and Hazard Identification for the Chemical Handling Systems of a Pulp and Paper Mill..., 1998 Environmental Conference Proceedings

The pulp and paper industry handles substantial volumes of chemicals which present inherent hazards to the environment, the safety of mill employees and the general public. The identification of potential hazardous incidents and subsequent action plans to eliminate, prevent or mitigate these potential incidents is an essential component of any mill’s process safety management (PSM) plan. A number of techniques are currently in use for identifying potential hazardous event scenarios (eg. Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOPs), What-If and Checklists). However, these techniques either suffer from being too cursory and superficial or being too detailed and time-consuming for mills to implement consistently and effectively.

In conjunction with MacMillan Bloedel (MB) Paper’s Alberni Specialties Division in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada, Conor Pacific has developed a protocol to identify hazards and assess risk in a significantly more cost-effective manner compared to detailed HAZOP studies, Fault Tree Analyses and other quantitative risk assessment tools.

This screening level risk assessment focuses on specific process scenarios which could significantly impact the environment and employee and/or public safety. The technique involves structured brainstorming within a small team environment but requires much less time to complete by concentrating on the most significant hazard and operability issues.

This paper discusses how two (2) teams of four (4) persons were able to review the chemical handling systems of the entire Port Alberni mill in less than a week. The project results included a qualitative risk ranking of the hazards identified for the various chemical handling systems and a prioritized list of recommended actions to be considered to reduce the facility risk profile. The mill is in the process of implementing recommendations and doing more detailed process hazards analyses for those potential accident scenarios and those process and chemical handling subsystems which were identified to have higher risk.