Research Information System
Thesis Type: Postgraduate
Institution Of The Thesis: Gazi University, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Turkey
Approval Date: 2024
Thesis Language: Turkish
Student: Nazlıcan GÜNGÖR
Supervisor: Fatma Suna Balcı
Abstract:
Chemicals in chemical processes have certain risk potentials due to their hazardous properties such as flammable, explosive and toxic and their physicochemical properties that may cause accidents. These risks are the failure to control deviations in process parameters in the equipment containing the chemical and the resulting loss of integrity, resulting in the chemical spreading into the environment and causing process accidents such as explosion, fire and toxic dispersion. In order to ensure process safety, it is necessary to detect and control possible deviations with the automation system, and when they cannot be controlled, to prevent/reduce the accident by activating barriers in the appropriate order. However, in the process, a malfunction in one of the automation system components may require human intervention to take over the automation task. This situation, which occurs suddenly, is generally ignored in the Hazop study. In this thesis study, both the human intervention that suddenly comes into play due to the failure of one of the automation system components and the processes carried out with other components of the automation system are defined as ‘hybrid’ and the human factor in this process is evaluated in the developed Hybrid Hazop (H-Hazop) methodology. As a case study, the explosion accident that occurred due to the deviation in the level parameter of the gasoline storage tank in CAPECO petroleum products storage and distribution facility was examined. The error made by the human in manually controlling the operation due to the level transmitter being disabled and other errors that caused the level in the tank to increase gradually were listed. Then, the necessary human interventions were determined in order to prevent the overflow and reduce the effects of the overflow. It was determined that human errors were caused by lack of information, incorrect operational behavior and lack of safety culture awareness and it was determined that they were related to the elements of ‘operational control’, ‘management of change’ and ‘planning for emergencies’ within the scope of the Safety Management System. The positive and negative effects of the human factor were examined with the study and it was seen that human errors made in controlling the operation could be minimized with the application of this methodology.
Key Words : Process safety, human factor, H-Hazop, safety management system, fuel storage facility