Inherent Safety Implementation Throughout the Process Design Lifecycle

The applicability of inherent safety throughout the different steps of the engineering design and management lifecycle is discussed in the present paper. The concept of a design space as a representation of different stages and levels of the safety design process is introduced. This provides a framework for a systematic, step-by-step safety analysis of the process design and also to recognize the opportunity to implement inherently safer design. Further, the selection and design of add-on safety strategies and implementation of risk control measures through engineered (active or passive) or procedural approaches using inherent safety principles is described. A procedural methodology is suggested to support the application of the described approach, resulting in a tool suitable for inherent safety implementation throughout the process design lifecycle. Application of the proposed approach is demonstrated through use of an industrial example.