As an important consideration in the chemical industry, chemical process safety has received notable attention in China. However, catastrophic chemical accidents still occur. To better understand why accidents continue to occur, this paper presented a diagnostic analysis of 14 major chemical accidents in China from 2012 to 2022 based on VOSviewer software. The authors analysed the correlation between the accident causation and their relationship with the safety management elements. The study observed that inferior process safety culture, intentional violation (rule-breaking) of procedure, inadequate safety training, and illegal operations were the most frequent causes of accidents. These causes highlighted the prominent gaps in PSM in China in the process safety culture, compliance with standards, the conduct of operations, process safety competency, and training & performance assurance. The results based on co-occurrence analysis indicated a strong correlation between these gaps in PSM. Enterprises should pay attention to collaborative management among them. These deficiencies in the enterprise's PSM system showed that the essential defects in China's chemical industry are a poor safety culture, inadequate accident investigation, inadequate training, and a lack of chemical safety personnel. The study recommended that the chemical industry establish superior process safety culture and competency for all personnel, monitor leading and lagging process safety indicators, apply inherent safety, and practice advanced safety management concepts. We hope that the findings can provide China's perspectives and strengths for global chemical safety.@en

The chemical process industry (CPI) in China is developing rapidly with installations becoming more complicated and integrated to meet people's rising demands for chemical-related products. However, the fast-growing CPI has caused catastrophic consequences and bad social influence due to accidents occurred in the last decades, which has threatened its sustainable development. As one of the solutions, the Chinese government is promoting chemical process safety education to train interdisciplinary graduates who understand both chemical process and loss prevention, who are skilled in technology, and how to manage risk. In this paper, we reviewed the development of chemical process safety education in China by researching syllabuses of accredited undergraduate Chemical Engineering and Safety Engineering majors in higher education institutions, discussed the associated shortcomings by analyzing the current discipline construction of the newly established major Chemical Safety Engineering, including education methodologies, resources, faculties, curriculum provision, and professional accreditation. Based on the analysis results, suggestions were provided to encourage institutions to strengthen chemical process safety education, thereby inherently reducing human errors and consequently improving the safety of the entire CPI.@en