Assessing the Risk of Hazards with Multidimensional Consequences for Industrial Processes

Abstract

Risk assessment plays an important role in process safety. The result of the assessment is used to determine risk priorities and then develop preventions to reduce risks. A hazard may have multidimensional consequences, including loss of health and safety, asset loss, and environmental damage. Traditionally, these multidimensional consequences are often measured disjointedly. A comprehensive risk assessment would be conducted by many professionals from multiple areas. Each of these professionals uses different indicators to evaluate risks. The poor integration among risk indicators further confuses managers in the risk resilience and prevention development. In addition, this lacks a solid method for assessing the risk of hazards that with multidimensional consequences. The aim of the work is to develop a risk-measuring instrument using a newly proposed approach, the Risk Assessment for Hazards with Multidimensional Consequences (RAMC), which is developed based on the theory of quality of life (QOL), a theory from health management. RAMC uses the ‘diminished quality of life in organization safety’ (DQLOS) as a risk indicator to represent the level of risk exposure. The main results of the work show that the method of RAMC and the indicator ‘DQLOS’ are able to support practitioners to assess the risk of a hazard with multidimensional consequences and could be used to deliver reasonable risk control priorities. A case study associated with the coal-to-methanol gasification process is discussed for RAMC’s application and validation. The case study result also indicates that the DQLOS has the potential to assist the industry to design safe process systems and develop ongoing improvements in safety.