A Process Safety Management Company

Tag: AIChE

News

PSM Experts Present at 2021 AIChE Global Congress on Process Safety

Provenance Consulting is excited to announce that four of our PSM experts will present alongside dozens of other industry professionals at the AIChE Global Congress on Process Safety. According to AIChE, “the Global Congress on Process Safety covers the critical needs of process safety practitioners more broadly and deeply than any other conference.”

This year will mark the 10th year since Provenance started participating in this conference, and we are glad to be back. While still a virtual event, Provenance experts will be available in our exhibitor booth and during the networking hours to discuss pressure relief system design, safeguards and risk assessments, and more. View the conference technical grid (PDF).

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Blog

Things We Loved in 2019: ProvPSM Team Out & About

The Provenance team is not only dedicated to providing exceptional client services, we also strive to share our expertise. This past year, our team has participated in educational programming, industry conferences and presentations, and achieved some impressive professional milestones. Check out a brief list of what Provenance team members have participated in.


Industry Presentations/Events

In my experience, many industry professionals avoid asking “dumb” technical questions openly for reasons of fear or pride. What engineers need are answers to the technical pressure relief systems questions they just can’t find a way to ask. This presentation shared questions submitted from dozens of anonymous engineers when asked, “What do you want to know about pressure relief systems but were too afraid to ask?” It then answers them using the latest RAGAGEP and industry direction.

This presentation discussed the gray area between PSM and DOT jurisdiction, including coverage of Terminal operations (e.g. drying), break-out tanks, railcars/trucks, and cavern applicability. The nuances of PSM applicability, including interconnectivity and colocation, hydrocarbon used as a fuel, atmospheric tanks, and safety systems will be presented. Furthermore, this paper will provide a history of jurisdictional boundary and PSM applicability cases/interpretations and will present examples of determining PSM jurisdiction and applicability.

“It is likely that your problem is with the process and not so much maintenance wash procedures. I recommend looking into the stream components, particularly chloride concentrations. You may have a very-well-known damage mechanism, called ammonium chloride corrosion, at work in your main fractionator tower…” [read more]

“When it comes to distillation towers, you always want to be certain that you put the right pressure relief device (PRD) in the right spot. Due to the complexities of distillation towers, many relief cases can exceed the normal relief rates you see from your typical vessel overpressure scenarios. In events such as these, it’s always good to get an experienced evaluator or a second opinion of the evaluation of your column PRDs…” [read more]



Professional Achievements

To become licensed, engineers must complete a four-year college degree, work under a Professional Engineer for at least four years, pass two intensive competency exams and earn a license from their state’s licensure board. Then, to retain their licenses, PEs must continually maintain and improve their skills throughout their careers.

  • Lauren Hendrickson – Lauren has been promoted to Project Lead. She has worked for Provenance since 2014 and has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas.
  • Edward Guillen – Edward has been promoted to Project Lead. He started working with Provenance in 2014 and has worked across numerous projects within the Mechanical Integrity Line of Service.

In addition, in 2019 Edward Guillen completed his API 653 Inspector certification, making him a rare triple-certified inspector (API 510, 570, 653).



Educational & Community Programming

  • UT Girl Day (University of Texas at Austin)

    • Our team of The University of Texas Chemical Engineering alumni loved helping over 800 students make their own Galaxy in a Bottle at #UTGirlDay 2019! Such an awesome event put on by the UT Women in Engineering Program at Austin. Check out the demonstration video to see our activity and more photos.
  • UT ChemE 102 – Presentation on Process Safety Opportunities

    • Our team gave an overview of process safety for first-year students.
  • UT ASME & AIChE Student Chapter Meetings and Tailgate

    • We hosted our annual tailgate with UT’s student chapters of ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and AIChE – American Institute of Chemical Engineers on October 19th for the UT-Kansas game in Austin. Student members joined us for some awesome BBQ, beverages, and a few friendly games of washers!
  • Heat-Up Hutchinson County Cook-Off

View Recent Process Safety Webinars

Learn best practices from our team of knowledgeable experts

We provide on demand process safety webinars covering all PSM topics including PHAs,
mechanical integrity, relief systems and more.

News

2019 AIChE Spring Meeting – New Orleans, LA

Join Provenance Consulting at the 2019 AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety in New Orleans, LA, March 31 – April 4.

Stop by Booth #505 to meet the Provenance Team and learn about our revolutionary PHA data management software to be revealed at the conference!

 

Also come meet Justin Phillips, P.E., our Relief Systems Line of Service Manager. You can catch his presentation on Monday, April 1, 2019: 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM as part of the Pressure Relief Design I session. His topic, “Relief Systems Anonymous: Answers to Questions You Don’t Want to Ask”, is sure to be one you don’t want to miss.Read more

Blog

Can You Hear Me Yet? Communication and Process Safety

I send the email with a link to a document and the cursory note, “Please review and get back to me.” Then I wait. Meanwhile, in my own inbox, I’ve got a dozen requests for action, reviews, and responses. There are many ways to communicate, but this is certainly one of the most common in the business realm. Regardless of the method, we’ve all had the experience of trying to communicate to others met with varying degrees of success. The desire to communicate is fundamental to being human. The ability to clearly communicate is fundamental to good Process Safety Management.

At Provenance, we’ve distilled OSHA’s 14 PSM Elements into the Five PSM Mindsets™: Identify the Hazards, Communicate the Hazards, Protect against the Hazards, Re-Evaluate the Hazards, and Transparency about the hazards. While all of the mindsets are important, communicating may be one of the more challenging since it moves beyond the realm of technical details and into that of human nature.

The word “communicate” comes from the Latin word that means “to share.” Businessdictionary.com defines it as a “two-way process” that is more than just exchanging information, leading to “creating and sharing meaning.” An exchange of information might involve me informing you of an issue (e.g. the diesel header is too small) and you informing me of an idea (e.g. we need bigger piping). Deeper communication may happen when we come together and discuss the obstacles (pipe sizes, salt filters, pump limitations) and the opportunities (abandoned larger pipes and vessels, filter technology improvements) and create a solution.

In our world of technology, it is easy to use the written word and pictures to send issues and ideas back and forth to each other. In some ways we have become accustomed to communicating as if in a tennis match: your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn. I’ve sent you information. Now I sit back and wait for you to do something with it. It’s not my problem until I hear back from you. This is especially true with the information and technology access overloaded world we live in and is often a necessity. But if I think back to almost any project I’ve ever been involved with, the biggest and best “aha” moments of creativity happened when I was in the room with the person or at least on the phone, collaborating, bouncing ideas off each other and making something better than one person could alone. We experience more effective communication when it is approached like a volleyball match – someone serve-receives it to the setter who sets it up for the final spike from the outside hitter – each building on the other until a master play is achieved.

Bringing it back to Process Safety in a facility, we do our most effective communicating when we discuss the hazards, sharing concerns, obstacles, and opportunities, often in person. When each employee brings their perspectives and experiences to the table, the group can create something new that will keep the employees and the community safer than before.

In our upcoming July 25th AIChE webinar, “Your organization is talking, is anybody listening? How to communicate hazards and talk like a team,” we’ll go into more detail on the practicalities of communicating with various groups, setting up channels for consistent and effective discussions, and building meaning as a team from the copious flood of data and information being shared each day.

By Sarah McDuffee, Training & Development Coordinator

Want to Learn More?

Live AIChE Academy Webinar

Your Organization Is Talking, Is Anybody Listening?

How to Communicate Hazards and Talk Like a Team

 July 25th, 2018

 2:00-3:00 pm EST

 Cost: FREE

Presenter

Scott Kindy

Scott Kindy is a Senior Process Safety Management (PSM) Consultant and Account Director at Provenance Consulting. He has ten (10) years of experience in PSM related project execution in the petrochemical industry. His expertise includes executing and managing projects related to various elements of PSM including Management of Change (MOC), Mechanical Integrity (MI), Process Safety Information (PSI), Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), and compliance audits.