What Happens During A Process Safety Risk Assessment?

By identifying process safety hazards early, businesses are able to take the necessary steps to prevent incidents, making sure both employee safety and regulatory compliance.

There are a number of risk assessment tools which can be applied depending on the hazards of your process, the development stage of a new installation or requirements on a legal or insurance basis. 

Hazard identification is the first crucial step in any risk assessment process, ensuring that potential dangers in industrial operations are identified before they result in harm. 

What Is Hazard Identification? 

Hazard identification involves recognising any potential risks that could lead to harm or damage in an industrial process. 

These risks could stem from: 

• Materials and substances

• Equipment

• Process conditions

• Chemical reactions

• Environmental conditions 

• Human error  

In a manufacturing environment, for example, hazards may include the risk of chemical spills, equipment malfunctions, or operator errors that could lead to accidents or injuries.

Effective hazard identification ensures that potential dangers are evaluated before they become a serious issue, allowing companies to take proactive steps to reduce the risks. 

This process is fundamental to safety engineering and forms the groundwork for designing safe, efficient, and compliant operations.

What Are The Steps in a Process Safety Risk Assessment 

All our risk assessments follow a structured format, typically involving several key steps to ensure that all hazards are identified, outcomes of hazardous events determined and mitigations quantified sufficiently. 

The first step in any hazard identification process is to define the scope of the assessment. This includes identifying which processes, operations, or activities will be assessed, and understanding the specific objectives of the assessment. 

The team will determine whether the assessment is focused on a particular piece of equipment, a specific phase in the lifecycle of a process (design, construction, or operation), or a comprehensive review of the entire operation. 

For example, in a chemical processing plant, the scope might include assessing the handling of hazardous materials, while in a manufacturing plant, it could focus on machinery and equipment that could pose risks to workers.

Some processes may use the same equipment to complete multiple stages of the same operation, or may complete the same stage of operation using a range of different substances: the assessment conditions are critical both for an effective assessment, and for knowing what still needs to be assessed in the future.

Once the scope is established, the next step is to gather all relevant information about the processes being assessed. This could involve reviewing process documentation like Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), or equipment manuals to understand the potential hazards associated with the process. 

Safety engineers often lead this phase, working closely with process designers, operators, and maintenance teams to ensure that all relevant data is considered. The goal here is to get a detailed understanding of the process, equipment, materials, and potential hazards.

In some assessments, particularly Hazard Study 1 and HAZID, the degree of detail is limited: designers and operators need to understand hazards to a suitable depth to support a detailed design or back investment from the company in a project. A process safety professional can support understanding the most effective and efficient point of the project to undertake these studies for the maximum benefit to the business. 

The next step in the hazard identification risk assessment is identifying the potential hazards that could occur in the process. Hazards can take many forms including: 

• Chemical Hazards such as exposure to toxic chemicals, flammable gases or corrosive substances, products of chemical reactions, generation of heat and pressure

• Physical Hazards including risk from high pressure systems, extreme temperatures, noise or vibrations

• Mechanical Hazards associated with malfunctions or failures of equipment such as pumps, pipes or reactors. 

• Operational Hazards arising from human error or improper procedures that could lead to unsafe conditions. 

The diverse team of experts typically involved in this step includes safety engineers, operators, and process engineers. With multiple perspectives, the team can better identify hidden or hazards that may be overlooked. They will also use past incident reports, historical data and industry best practices to make sure all hazards are identified. 

What Are The Consequences of Identified Hazards?

A hazard on its own does not necessarily result in harm, and a key element of all risk assessments is to identify how the presence of a potentially unsafe condition can lead to injury to people or damage to the environment and business assets and reputation - such as an over-pressure scenario resulting in a pump or vessel exploding. 

The assessment team will take the identified hazard and extrapolate on what its presence means in this application and where harm can manifest from it. 

Assessing The Risk and Severity 

Once hazards are identified the next step is assessing the likelihood and severity of each potential risk. This step is crucial for determining how likely it is that a hazard should occur and the possible degree consequences might be if it does.  It is important this rating of severity and likelihood are undertaken in an unmitigated case; that is, before any safeguards are taken into account. 

Understanding what can befall your people and the environment before you take preventative measures supports true knowledge of the most hazardous events on your site, and supports a true appreciation of the criticality of the safeguards you assign to prevent the hazardous consequence occurring. 

Identifying Safeguards and Impact of Mitigation 

Now you know what’s really possible with your processes and equipment, you can apply existing mitigations and safeguards to prevent it occurring in the first place, or to reduce the severity of damage caused if it does happen. 

Common safeguards include measurement equipment interlocked with a machinery trip, which stops the process in pre-determined conditions, use of appropriately rated equipment for the environment it will be used in (such as ATEX for flammable or combustible atmospheres), use of bunding, guarding and appropriate construction materials, robust operating procedures and personal protective equipment. 

The risk ranking for severity and likelihood can be undertaken again taking any existing safeguards into account, and showing where there may be gaps where additional measures - or a full re-design - may be needed to bring the remaining risk levels to tolerable. 

How Can 6 Engineering Help? 

Process safety risk assessments are essential for creating a safe working environment.  They allow businesses to proactively manage risks, reduce the likelihood of accidents, and maintain compliance with UK health and safety legislation and standards. 

By following a structured approach and involving a diverse team of experts, 6 Engineering ensures that your system hazards are recognised and addressed effectively, helping your operations stay safe, efficient, and compliant.

Get in touch with 6 Engineering today to discuss how we can support your process safety needs.