Whilst speaking at the Leeds University Commissioning and Start-up short course earlier this month, on the topic of commissioning hazard studies, I was asked how do you determine how many Hazard study 4 or 5’s you conduct, so let us dwell on this topic for today’s input.

Simplistically, Hazard study 4 is the review we undertake to ensure the documentation and design systems are acceptable, the review conducted prior to energy being introduced and Hazard study 5 is the check of the actual plant to ensure it is OK to be put into service, the study usually undertaken prior to hazardous chemicals being imported.

Both studies are of significant detail, hence the amount of studies conducted needs to reflect, let us assume if we had commissioning 100 systems within a project, the expected number of commissioning hazard studies would be around the 10 mark. Obviously the actual number of studies should be carefully considered to ensure it is of the right size, but there is no magic wand one can wave over this matter, it needs careful consideration, if the plant is naturally sub-divided into operational areas, Reaction, Product Storage, Distillation etc. these are good groupings to initially consider.

A very important area of our work and one to consider very carefully in our commissioning planning.

Safe and successful commissioning always…