Process Safety in the Twenty-first Century

Prosa21 addresses critical knowledge gaps in process safety and energy-related safety and security.

• Knowledge of process safety is relevant for a broad range of systems in industry and society where loss of containment of hazardous material, fires, and explosions represent a hazard for people, property, and the environment.
• Process safety is an interdisciplinary subject, and a comprehensive syllabus would cover a wide range of topics, from basic physical and chemical phenomena to complex and increasingly automated industrial systems, designed and operated by humans.
• Process safety is also an applied subject that evolves with the development of society, and many of the principles for achieving safe operation in the process industry apply equally well to coal mines, nuclear facilities, and emerging technologies for production, storage, transport, and use of energy carriers such as hydrogen, ammonia, and batteries.
• The global nature of the process industry implies a need for standardising the process safety curriculum. At the same time, the process industry in a country or region reflects the natural resources and the level of technological development.
• The time allocated to process safety in the overall syllabus can vary significantly between universities and study programs, and the competence and experience of the academic staff may influence teaching practices and priorities.
• Knowledge and competence on process safety are crucial for safe implementation of sustainable energy and process technologies in industry and society worldwide.

Results from a survey that explored global trends, practices, and priorities related to process safety were presented at the ISHPMIE (Skjold, 2024).

Prosa21 is inspired by a series of national strategies, including:

• Energi21 – Norway's strategy for research and development of new energy technologies in the 21^st century.

• Prosess21 – Norway's strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the process industry in the 21^st century.

• Transport21 – Norway's strategy for research, development, and innovation in the transport sector in the 21^st century.

• Maritim21 – Norway's strategy for research, development, and innovation for the maritime industry in the 21^st century.

• OG21 – Norway's strategy for developing oil and gas technologies in the 21^st century.

Whereas these strategies are national, the challenges addressed are global, and the crucial importance of safety and security for sustaibable implementation of energy technologies is not reflected in the respective documents.

The Prosa21 initiative is also inspired by other strategy documents for process safety, such as:

• MKOPSC (2011). "Process Safety Research Agenda for the 21^st Century" (2011), Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center.
• ICS/MKOPSC (2013). "Process Safety for the 21^st Century and Beyond". IChemE Safety Centre & Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center.

The research activities in a prospective research centre and research projects will be developed in cooperation with user partners from industry and other stakeholders. Relevant research activities include:

• Multiscale modelling of explosion phenomena in conjunction with carefully planned experiments at different spatial scales.
• Implications of emerging technologies and societal development for process safety and energy-related safety and security.
• Uncertainty in risk assessments and implications for decition processes.

Skjold, T. (2024). Teaching process safety in the twenty-first century. Proceedings Fifteenth International Symposium on Hazards, Prevention and Mitigation of Industrial Explosions (ISHPMIE 2024), Naples, Italy, 10-14 June 2024: 45-67. DOI: https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.12515710