Improving Safety at Biorefineries
Many of us have had the opportunity to visit an ethanol or biodiesel plant and have experienced first hand the safety measures a plant has in place to keep its workers, and visitors safe. Yet despite precautions, accidents can still happen. Unfortunately for the biofuels industry, these rare occurrences tend to get major media play while the hundreds of days a plant goes without an accident is never reported.
Accidents can happen anytime, anywhere in any type of refinery – whether it be oil, natural gas, ethanol or biodiesel. So it is always good to keep safety top of mind. Therefore, DomesticFuel.com is going to launch a four-part series on Biorefinery Plant Safety. The series will focus on the areas where plants should be especially aware. Part One will focus on eliminating slips, grips and falls. Part Two will focus on interactions with chemicals. Part Three will focus on equipment, while Part Four will focus on everything else.
To help kick off the series, this week’s ZimmPoll question, sponsored by RHEA + KAISER asks the question, “What do you think the biggest safety issue is at a biorefinery?” While the series will explore safety, it will also feature real-world examples of accidents or measures biofuel plants have taken that have prevented accidents. So we’d like to hear from you. If you are willing to share your experience with DomesticFuel readers, please email your story to DomesticFuelEditor@hotmail.com.
I’ll even throw in a little incentive – one person who contacts me with a story will get a chance to win one of the books I’ve reviewed on this site, your choice.
2 Comments »
Joe Korpi
After talking many of my counterparts in the renewable fuel industry, I would have to say the biggest issue is “complacency”. Very few of the employees at biorefineries in the Midwest have ever worked in Process Safety Management environments. As a result, they either don’t understand the potential hazards of their process, or they don’t believe the hazards will ever affect them. One of the biggest challenges that we safety professionals face is getting our employees to take charge of their own safety. That includes taking charge of their own education! When we try to force training on them, they will never learn. The best way to combat this is to ask them to be guest trainers for the monthly safety topics (The best way to learn is to TEACH). By systematically reinforcing self-education and reminding them to stay in charge of their own safety, we can help them OWN the facility’s safety program. This will destroy complacency and help transform the safety professional from the “Safety Cop” into the “Safety Coach”.
How to Properly Handle Chemicals in a Biorefinery - Domestic Fuel
[...] spent the last few weeks speaking with people in the biorefining industry in an effort to learn more about safety issues and best practices. The result is a series on Biorefinery Plant Safety and part one focuses on chemical safety. [...]
Comments RSS feed — TrackBack URI
Leave a Comment