Assessing the Potential Hazardous Incidents in a Steel Refining Plant in the Caribbean

Abstract

In all processing plants there is a great influence to improve the performance of its overall operation, safety, efficiency and production by the need to reduce the failure of its equipment. Equipment failure; even on very rare occasions, can result in great economic and financial losses. As a result of many uncertainties originating from the design and operation of the equipment at a plant there are some failure risks that cannot be avoided. In this article, the reliability of a steel refining process was predicted. Two failure modes were investigated for each type of equipment from which the reliabilities were used to determine the overall plant reliability. The maximum plant reliability was found to be 98.0%. It was noted that even though a high reliability prediction was found, it is important to employ preventative maintenance on the plant to ensure the consistent operation of the equipment and maintain the reliability.