Safety Weighted Hazard Index (SWeHI) A New, User-friendly Tool for Swift Yet Comprehensive Hazard Identification and Safety Evaluation in Chemical Process Industries

• Published in: Process safety and environmental protection 2001-03, Vol.79 (B2), p.65-80
• Main Authors: Khan, F I, Husain, T, Abbasi, S A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: safety regulations; Safety Weighted Hazard Index
• ISSN: 0957-5820
• DOI: 10.1205/09575820151095157

Indices are extensively used for ranking various units of a chemical process industry on the basis of the hazards they pose of accidental fires, explosions and/or toxic release. This type of ranking enables the professionals to identify the more hazardous units from the less hazardous ones so that greater attention can be paid to the former. The available indices--including the well-known Dow and Mond indices, and the author's HIRA (hazard identification and ranking analysis, Khan and Abbasi, super(1))--rank chemical process units mainly in terms of the hazardous substances and operating conditions associated with the concerned units. Dow and Mond indices do consider some factors (`off setting index values' in the case of the Mond Index and `credits factor' in the case of the Dow index) to account for the safety measures existing or planned in the unit, but much greater rigour, accuracy, and precision are needed in quantifying the impact of safety measures on the values of the hazard indices. In this context, an attempt has been made to develop a new index, named here the Safety Weighted Hazard Index (SWeHI). The details are presented in this paper.