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Catastrophic incident prevention and proactive risk management in the new biofuels industry
Author(s) -
Perry Judy A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.10344
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , biofuel , risk management , process (computing) , business , risk assessment , engineering , waste management , computer science , computer security , finance , operating system
This article is directed at assisting bioethanol manufacturers with preventing catastrophic incidents which could impact the entire Biofuels Industry. The biofuels industry has common hazards and potential consequences like other industries, related to the handling of flammables, dust explosion hazards and toxic or corrosive materials handling. This article ensures the reader understands these specific bioethanol manufacturer's process hazards are very real as demonstrated by past incidents and their catastrophic results. Regulatory obligations are discussed, as well as key engineering resources and design practices to ensure adequate safeguards are incorporated into the design of a new bioethanol manufacturing facility. The industry is fairly new, however, the hazards and safeguards to reduce the risk level with the common hazards are not new. Preliminary indications are this industry has yet to establish the proactive risk management efforts that are required to reduce the risks to a tolerable level. This article is to provide the supporting data and direction to the Biofuels Industry to ensure each are headed down a path of preventing a future catastrophe. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2009