Safety barriers in the chemical process industries

Safety barriers in the chemical process industries: A state-of-the-art review on their classification, assessment, and management

Yuan, S. (TU Delft Safety and Security Science)
Yang, M. (TU Delft Safety and Security Science)
Reniers, G.L.L.M.E. (TU Delft Safety and Security Science; Universiteit Antwerpen; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Chen, C. (TU Delft Safety and Security Science)
Wu, Jiansong (China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing))

2022

Barriers are used in various forms to assure the safety of chemical plants. A deep understanding of the literature related to safety barriers is essential to tackle the challenges in improving their design and management. This paper first provides an overview of the history of the development of the safety barrier concept. Subsequently, this paper elaborates a systematic review of the definition, classification, evaluation, performance assessment, and management of safety barriers in the chemical process industries. Based on the literature review, this study proposes a practical classification of safety barriers benefiting the identification of performance indicators and the collection of indicator-related data for safety barriers. The safety barrier functions are extended and illustrated by involving the resilience concept. Performance assessment criteria are proposed corresponding to the adaptability and recoverability of the safety barriers. Finally, the management of safety barriers is discussed. The roadmap for future studies to develop integrated management of safety and security barriers to ensure the resilience of chemical plants is suggested.

Barrier management
Barrier performance assessment
Process industry
Resilience
Safety barrier

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:394792c1-9edb-422d-a96b-3b695c01d33f

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105647

0925-7535

Safety Science, 148

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 S. Yuan, M. Yang, G.L.L.M.E. Reniers, C. Chen, Jiansong Wu