Digital HAZOP

The landscape of industrial safety assessments has undergone a significant transition with the advent of digital solutions such as Digital Hazard and Operability Studies (dHAZOP).

In an era defined by rapid technological evolution, dHAZOP emerges as a beacon of innovative risk assessment methodologies, integrating the established principles of conventional HAZOP with the cutting-edge paradigms of digital transformation, functional modelling, and data analytics.

Learn about the comprehensive insights into the core topic of digital HAZOP, exploring its subtopics to offer a complete understanding of its principles, the impact of digital transformation on safety analyses, the intricacies of functional modelling in dHAZOP, and the key benefits of implementing digital approaches in hazard and operability studies.

Introduction to Digital HAZOP

Whether you're an established professional in the field of safety risk analysis or an enthusiast curious about the implications of digital integration in traditional methodologies, it's crucial to understand what Digital HAZOP stands for and its purpose in modern industries.

HAZOP principles

The bedrock of any HAZOP study rests on its core principles. Before we can appreciate the nuances of digital HAZOP, we must first revisit the fundamental aspects of HAZOP methodology, including its systematic approach, the use of guide words, and the multifaceted team efforts required to identify potential risks effectively.

The HAZOP methodology stands as a rigorous and systematic approach designed to identify and evaluate potential hazards and operational issues within process systems. This technique, pivotal in ensuring safety and efficiency, relies on a detailed review of process and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) to scrutinize every conceivable deviation in process parameters. By applying a series of guide words to prompt a thorough analysis, teams can proactively pinpoint weaknesses, thereby mitigating risks before they escalate. Adopting the HAZOP methodology underscores a commitment to operational excellence and safety, marking a proactive step towards safeguarding assets and personnel.

Key values of dHAZOP versus a traditional HAZOP 

•  Complete, repeatable and consistent HAZOPs
• Increased coverage of hazards and adaptability via library approach
• Customisable automation of risk ranking
• Workshop efficiency and timesaving
• Data-driven decision-making with full insight of the plant process complexity
• “Always available” documentation of findings, decisions, and follow-up actions
• Enhanced collaboration
• Documented quality
• Reuse of engineering knowledge and operational expertise

The following benefits are included in the dHAZOP:

• A functional twin of the facility is built in a HAZOP Assistant prior to the dHAZOP workshop. This allows the dHAZOP workshop to be aided by the tool allowing the team to focus on specific areas of concern and reducing the overall time spent in workshops.
• No need to define nodes: all equipment is modelled so no need to simplify or group equipment into nodes to make the study manageable.
• The model includes temperature, pressure, and level/flow structures to qualitatively reason consequences from given causes, including propagation. This effectively means that scenarios are explored automatically by the tool without requiring human inputs during the workshops, without any discrimination and including all the equipment within the model.
• A generic set of rules is applied for causes and consequences. This allows for consistency in the definition of causes and consequences, as well as allow the automation of consequence evaluation and likelihood and severity pre-population. This reduces the burden of documenting every cause and consequence in detail, including immediate effects and ultimate outcomes and the risk ranking, increases consistency and reduces time spent in the workshops.
• Controls are automatically identified and tabulated against each scenario allowing faster evaluation of gaps and critical scenarios which require additional safeguarding.

Comparative Analysis of dHAZOP and Traditional HAZOP

Functional modelling is the core of how digital HAZOP is executed by taking advantage of utilizing its ability to improve the coverage of hazards and ensure repeatability and consistency of the HAZOP’s work process, whilst reducing the time and costs spent in HAZOPs.

The dHAZOP is initated from the process of building digital models that represent plant process and knowledge from operations where these models facilitate more accurate risk assessments in complex industrial environments.

dHAZOPs are of course performed following standard IEC 61882 “Hazard and operability studies (HAZOP studies) - Application guide” [1], with the addition that the design is analysed prior to the dHAZOP workshop using the HAZOP Assistant software tools. The dHAZOP work process approach is also aligned, as much as possible, with the clients HAZOP guidelines.

Case Studies and Practical Applications

Based upon case studies and projects where digital HAZOP has been successfully employed, the below benefits are typically achieved through its application in live industrial settings.

How do we perform digital HAZOPs?

1. Build functional models of the asset to be studied

2. Performs quality check and pre-workshop HAZOP analysis

• The tools will provide documented results on the risks of the scenarios up front, that will speed up the planned workshop sessions.
• The tools identify gaps in controls, high risk scenarios, etc. which must be included in the HAZOP Workshop

3. Facilitates HAZOP workshop with CLIENT

• Workshop follow traditional HAZOP approach
• But use HAZOP assistant tools (pre-findings and add/capture additions and actions discussed)

4. Results available for usage for anyone with access and can be downloaded to e.g Excel.

HAZOP Work process flowchart

The “HAZOP Assistant” provides a toolbox to evaluate:

• Coverage: detectability by sensors, inspections, alarms, SIS, etc.
• Precision: specificity of sensors - identifies need for verification steps and counteractions
• Tree View:shows propagation, supports detectability and counteraction evaluation
• P&ID View: shows instrumentation reacting to any scenario on a P&ID
• HAZOP Analyzer: Identify potential hazards and operability issues, evaluate barriers, identify potential gaps and reduce risks. Document mitigations and recommendations.
• Risk Matrix: Show all scenarios on top of your risk matrix

Future direction of digital HAZOPs

We can expect that the Digital HAZOP is rapidly becoming the evolution of risk assessment—a contemporary answer to ageing methodologies.

It harnesses the power of digital tools to conduct meticulous hazard analysis critically, which is crucial in safeguarding industrial processes. While traditional HAZOPs rely on manual efforts (who and what expertise is available in the room at that time), digital transformation empowers stakeholders to execute evaluations with precision and speed. We should expect to always get the same result of a given guideword “scenario” at selected process-area under evaluation.

Hence, the shift towards digital HAZOP may not merely be a trend, but an essential progression in risk management practices. By opting for a dHAZOP, you're partaking in a data-driven approach that minimizes human error, illuminates overarching risks, and enables real-time collaboration among your experts.

We are committed

Our commitment aligns with the decisive, clear-cut, and expert-driven discourse required to drive the adoption and advancement of dHAZOP.

It's time to rise above the traditional, to welcome progress, and secure your operations with the power of digital innovation.

Come join us in the journey towards a safer world with digital HAZOP. Keep reading! We'll see you at the forefront of process safety management.