A Process Safety Management Company

Tag: James Topp

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).

Read more

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.

Blog

What to Know to Succeed at Your First ChemE Job

Looking back on my time before joining the professional workforce, I admittedly did not have a realistic understanding of what an “engineer” truly did day-to-day. While studying chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, I imagined a fair amount of my early professional years would be dominated by working technical issues – completing calculations, running simulations, and designing processes.

One of my biggest surprises upon entering the workforce was that unlike my imaginings, a lot of my time was spent determining which information is correct and pertinent and how to best communicate results and issues with others.

While solving problems (a key skill of being an engineer) is an important ability, I found the mark of a great engineer is the ability to communicate difficult ideas, problems, and solutions in such a way that they can be understood easily.

This does not mean “dumbing it down” or speaking down to your coworkers or colleagues; rather, it means latching onto the most important details that your client, colleague or superior needs and explaining it concisely and accurately.

My time here at Provenance Consulting and working with clients in the industry and countless chemical engineers, young and seasoned alike, has helped me hone in on three things that make the difference between a young engineer who “gets it” and one that is stuck in that college classroom. Take a page from my book – it’ll give you a head start on nailing those first few years of your career.

#1: Engineering is WHAT You Do, but in Industry, PSM is HOW You Do It

A common complaint from young chemical engineers, specifically in regulated facilities, is an annoyance with Management of Change (MOC) and other similar programs that ensure Process Safety Management (PSM) compliance. MOCs are seen as a hassle mainly because young engineers don’t understand the value of them or how the facility’s MOCs are implemented. One benefit of a proper, functioning MOC program is that it makes the facility’s Process Safety Information – the P&IDs, H&MBs, line listings – continually accurate. One of the most surprising things to me when I began working with drawings was a common refrain from numerous operators and engineers across a number of companies and facilities:

“You can’t trust the drawings”

This phrase means that the drawings – which are critically important for new projects and general understanding of a facility – are admitted to not be correct. One of the challenges for a young engineer is figuring out which data sources to use to obtain the “correct” data, since that data may exist in four different places. For example, a maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP) might be in inspection software, relief systems design basis, original vessel calculations, on a P&ID, or any number of internal databases.

If these numbers differ, what is the correct value that should be used? At different facilities, the answer is often different.

A functioning MOC program not only ensures the facility is safe and compliant, but it also ensures that your data is correct across a number of different data sources at the facility. This is just one example of the ripple effect these parts of Process Safety have across the facility.

#2: The “Boring” Stuff Matters to Your Boss’s Boss

Ensuring you record and report correct data not only saves you time as you do subsequent work, it also becomes invaluable to the people who will use your work down the road. Large capital projects can go significantly over-budget based on the amount of time needed to verify or correct data that “should” already be correct.

Engineers who understand and ensure that information is correct are an important asset to their company. Your boss (and his boss) will notice whether he can trust your data or if there is a pattern of verification that always needs to happen.

When you are building your professional reputation, it’s these little things that can make the difference between becoming the engineer that managers can rely on, and the engineer who is inconsistent. Trust me – you want to be the former!

#3: Undocumented Institutional Knowledge is a Major Asset: USE IT

Often, a new engineer feels overwhelmed by the new responsibilities and tasks at a facility. It can feel like you are barely treading water. One of the best sources of information and help in any facility is the know-how that exists among the engineers and operators who have been at the plant for a while: the “institutional knowledge” of the facility.

Visit the field, ask questions and – more importantly – listen to the answers that they provide; most experienced personnel enjoy sharing their knowledge if you take an interest.

Oftentimes the most confusing parts of a plant or process make sense if you take the time to look at them in the field and learn the nuances of the facility. Additionally, speaking with more senior personnel allows you to develop personal relationships with them, which builds trust with your colleagues and allows for a mutual respect and better ability to work through issues as they arise.

Just because someone doesn’t have an engineering degree doesn’t mean you know more than they.

Some of these men (and women) at your facility have worked with the equipment since before you were born. The design specs may say it should work a certain way, but those operators and seasoned personnel are a wealth of practical information. Listening to them could save you significant time (and money). You’ve got to work with the entire team to be successful – you can’t just stick with engineers if you want to advance. Learn to work with everyone and understand the value they bring to the company.

Be Great, not Just Good

Being successful at engineering in the real world includes doing things that seem “boring” or “extra” and it means working with people who have a different skill set and experience than yours. A good engineer recognizes that and does what they have to. A GREAT engineer sees the ripple effect of those “small” tasks, the importance of process safety in all that we do, and that the people in our organizations with experience on the ground can be some of our greatest resources.

About the Author – James Topp

James Topp is a PSM Consultant with Provenance Consulting. A graduate from the University of Texas BS Chemical Engineering Class of 2016, he’s been with Provenance since 2015. His roles have included a Co-op position, intern and full time engineer.

During his tenure with Provenance, James has focused on many areas of Process Safety. Mainly, he has worked in Relief Systems engineering for multiple clients and plants including chemical plants, midstream facilities, and refineries across multiple states; completed a maximum intended inventory for a large midstream facility; facilitated MOC coordination and auditing for refineries; and utilized ProvPSM’s ARTS software for PSI reconciliation – among many other projects.

In his personal life, James enjoys reading, travel, skiing, and telling people how the 2008 Longhorns were robbed of winning the Big XII Championship and competing for a national title, despite the fact that they had the same record as and had beaten the eventual Big XII champion, OU, on a neutral site.