Facility Siting Services
Facility Siting Regulations and Compliance Training
What Will I Learn?
- Understand the regulatory requirements for Facility Siting
- Review the API RP 752, 753 and 756 documents
- Review the methods needed to satisfy the requirements
- Understand what the recommendations mean to your company
Facility Siting Study and Services
ABS Group is a leading provider of Facility Siting and other building risk assessment services with experience performing hundreds of studies for a wide range of explosion, fire and toxic material hazards worldwide.
What Is a Facility Siting Study?
Facility Siting is a requirement for all oil, gas and chemical facilities following the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations. It falls within the Process Hazard Analysis section of the PSM regulation.
ABS Group has actively participated in developing API Recommended Practices with the oil, gas and chemical industry, which form the basis for compliance with EPA and OSHA regulations. Compliance with these recommended practices requires a detailed evaluation of fire, toxic and explosion hazards to promote the safety, integrity and reliability of occupied buildings.
Sites are constantly changing; therefore, facility siting and risk assessments should follow suit. According to OSHA and COMAH, the facility siting study should be updated and revalidated every five years at a minimum.
Alternative Global Regulations
For those in the United Kingdom and Europe, your facility may be following the Control Of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH Regulations 2015), or the Seveso III rather than the OSHA PSM regulations. In this case, you may be looking for studies such as Occupied Building Risk Assessments.
What Is An Occupied Building Risk Assessment?
OBRA is the process of evaluating occupied buildings for process hazards inside the fence line. Under the COMAH Regulations, operators must demonstrate that the risks to employees in office and other workplaces on site are As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). Undertaking an OBRA will assist you in demonstrating that you have managed the risks to ALARP, in addition to developing and prioritizing the risk reduction measures in your building mitigation plan.
OBRA and Complementary Detailed Analysis Studies
Watch Our On-Demand Webinar to Discover More
Gain an understanding of the different Occupied Building Risk Assessment (OBRA) approaches and the benefit of undertaking further detailed analysis to complement your facility siting strategy.
Did You Know?
Our engineers are committee members on the API 752/753/756 boards, as well as involved in the Mary Kay O'Connor PSC Steering Committee and Technical Committee.
We have been actively involved in developing many Facility Siting references, including:
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API Recommended Practice 752 (API RP 752), Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Permanent Buildings
- API Recommended Practice 753 (API RP 753), Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Portable Buildings
- API Recommended Practice 756 (API RP 756), Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Tents
- ASCE publication, Design of Blast Resistant Buildings in Petrochemical Facilities and the Center for Chemical Process Safety
- CCPS publication, Guidelines for Process Plant Buildings for External Explosions and Fires
- CCPS publication, Guidelines for Vapor Cloud Explosion, Pressure Vessel Burst, BLEVE and Flash Fire Hazards
Evaluate Your Explosion, Fire and Toxic Hazards
Hazards Analysis
Evaluating fire, toxic and explosion hazard consequences is required by regulatory agencies to demonstrate worker protection and public exposure. ABS Group quantifies consequences to help our clients clearly understand their risks. Our knowledge and experience with a range of hazard analysis tools allow us to select and apply the most appropriate techniques for each situation.
Hazard Remediation
Once an unacceptable hazard is identified, it must be remediated. Our engineers have extensive plant experience developing practical measures to reduce the magnitude or severity of the hazard and reduce the consequences. This is accomplished through a variety of measures including process changes, relocation of personnel, hardening of facilities and new facility construction. We assist clients in developing a comprehensive remediation plan that includes costs and schedules.
Facility Siting Dashboard
As part of ABS Group's suite of digital solutions, our Facility Siting Dashboard presents results for risks and/or consequences of occupied buildings from hazardous release scenarios in a simple and interactive format.
Facility Siting Services and Capabilities
ABS Group provides a variety of services to support Facility Siting Studies and OBRAs.
Methodologies
API 752/753 allows for either a consequence or risk-based assessment. ABS Group has experience with both approaches and has incorporated them into our proprietary analysis software FACET3D.
Consequence Analysis:
Consequence-based assessments are generally lower cost and faster to perform than Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA). The analysis models Maximum Credible Events (MCEs) that represent the highest expected consequences in terms of dispersion, explosion, and fire hazards. The consequences to occupied building personnel are calculated for each scenario and compared to criteria such as acceptable building damage or evacuation thermal exposure. Buildings that exceed the criteria are recommended for remediation. In some cases, a high consequence scenario can control the outcome of the study. If the scenario is deemed unlikely, the consequence study can be transitioned to a full QRA to evaluate the risk.
Quantitative Risk Assessments:
A risk-based approach to facility siting considers the frequency of scenarios and can provide the greatest understanding of on-site risks, enabling the most cost-effective resolution of facility siting issues. QRAs are a more costly and time-consuming approach, but they provide more information on which scenarios are driving the outcomes and can reduce the impact of high consequence, low-frequency scenarios on the final results compared to a consequence study. Companies will need to establish quantitative risk criteria (lethality/yr) for acceptable individual and aggregate risk levels for personnel in occupied buildings.
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Flammable and Toxic Dispersion Modeling
ABS Group performs dispersion modeling using both simplified (PHAST) and CFD (FLACS) methods. Dispersion modeling is used to visualize the flammable cloud extents for flash fire consequences or vapor cloud explosion consequences should the cloud reach congested regions.
Our Capabilities
- Scenario Development
- Dispersion Modeling and Extent of Hazardous Clouds
- Gaussian and Computational Fluid Dynamics Models
- Personnel Vulnerability During Evacuation
- Toxic cloud cross wind evacuation and shelter in place building infiltration over time
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Explosion Modeling
Explosion modeling includes Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCE), Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosions (BLEVEs), pressure vessel ruptures and other energetic events. ABS Group has deep experience modeling explosions, performing explosion testing and investigating explosion accidents. The blast loads from explosion modeling determine the building's structural and non-structural (windows and doors) response and the occupant vulnerability.
Our Capabilities:
- Empirical Blast Models
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
- Blast Contours and Loads on Buildings
- API Recommended Practice 752 (API RP 752), Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Permanent Buildings
- API RP 753 Portable Building Siting Map
- API RP 756 Management of Hazards Associated with Location of Process Plant Tents
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Fire and Gas Modeling
Fire hazards to personnel depend on occupants either evacuating or sheltering in place for flammable releases. For evacuation, the availability of exits and the vulnerability of occupants while evacuating are compared to criteria. For shelter in place, the building construction and fire resistance is compared to the exposure thermal flux or flame impingement.
Our Capabilities:
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Flash Fires, Jet Fires and Pool Fires
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Radiation Contours
- Effects on Buildings
- Personnel Vulnerability During Evacuation
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Building Assessment and Design
ABS Group analyzes building responses, including survey and analysis of wall and roof components using methods from Single Degree Of Freedom (SDOF) to Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Our design experience around new and retrofitted buildings for blast resistance includes a range of projects and construction types that meet specific client needs, including operator protection, equipment protection and minimization of building downtime.
Our Capabilities
- Screening Tools
- Single-Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) Analysis and Pressure Impulse Diagrams
- Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
- Building Damage and Occupant Vulnerability
- Building Blast Design
- Emergency Shelter Evaluation and Design
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Building Upgrades
Upgrade of existing buildings requires knowledge of which components need strengthening and how those components relate to the rest of the building. Often strengthening a component may require changes to connections or other structural elements due to the changing load path. ABS Group engineers have performed many structural retrofit projects all the way to completion and have identified multiple options to increase a buildings resistance to blast in the most cost-efficient way while minimizing construction impacts.
Our Capabilities:
- Direct Component Strengthening
- Building Encapsulation
- Conceptual and Final Designs
- Construction Drawings
- Cost Estimating
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Related Services
Shock Tube Testing
Our Shock Tube Testing Facility located in San Antonio, TX, is used to test the blast capacity of structural designs in a controlled environment, mimic vapor cloud explosions and pressure vessel burst blast waves.
Physical Security Risk Management
Our Physical Security Risk Management services support organizations to protect their facilities against man-made hazards. Our services include Anti-Terrorism and Force Protection, Security Threat and Vulnerability Assessments, Protective Design and Security By Design.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Are there options other than a Facility Siting Study?
Facility siting is a required part of the PSM process under the PHA element. There are different acceptable approaches to performing a facility siting study, including consequence-based, risk-based and spacing table approaches as described in API 752.
Are there options other than a Facility Siting Study?
What is the difference between a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) and a Facility Siting Study?
A QRA is an acceptable methodology for use in a facility siting study. The other common methodology is the consequence approach. A QRA evaluates the consequences and frequency of hazards to occupied buildings with the goal of calculating the risk to building occupants. QRA requires a company risk criterion for evaluating results. In contrast, a consequence approach does not directly consider the frequency of the releases but rather includes maximum credible events (MCEs) in the study and evaluates buildings based on criteria such as acceptable blast damage or thermal exposure.
What is the difference between a Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) and a Facility Siting Study?
How do I know if I need a Facility Siting Study?
Facility siting should be performed at sites that have PSM-covered processes which could impact nearby occupied buildings. Facility siting should generally be updated on a five-year cycle. Finally, when newly occupied buildings are proposed, building modifications are performed or significant process changes occur, the Management of Change (MOC) process should indicate that facility siting is necessary to evaluate the changing consequence/risk to occupied buildings.
How do I know if I need a Facility Siting Study?
How long do I have to make recommended changes after a Facility Siting Study?
After a Facility Siting Study, there are usually recommendations that can be implemented quickly and others that require significant capital planning. OSHA has recognized that major building modifications may take significant time to implement. Owners can reduce risk to occupants during that time by implementing more accessible recommendations such as securing non-structural hazards, mitigating glass hazards, providing escape PPE as necessary, moving non-essential personnel to safer locations and documenting action plans and evacuation procedures. These actions will demonstrate a proactive approach to OSHA during a future audit.
How long do I have to make recommended changes after a Facility Siting Study?
After I complete my Facility Siting Study what is next?
API RP 752 provides guiding principles to support with mitigating risks from unacceptable consequences/risks identified in the facility siting study. This includes: (1) eliminating occupancy or hazard, (2) reducing occupancy or severity of hazard, (3) increasing distance between the occupants and the hazard, (4) increasing the resistance of the building or (5) administratively managing occupancy.
If there are adverse findings in the facility siting study the requirement is to then develop a mitigation plan. A complete mitigation plan includes a detailed list of measures for each occupied building with unacceptable consequences/risks that align with the hierarchy of controls described above. The plan should be viewed as an evergreen document with updates/changes made as risks are better understood and/or resolved.
In addition to the mitigation plan, it is also important to include MOC processes to manage the introduction of new/additional risks beyond what is stated in the study. This includes updating the study when there is a change that may impact the results (new building, relocated building, moving personnel, change in process conditions, etc). Activities in support of executing the mitigation plan and managing changes shall be compiled and integrated into a revalidation facility siting study – typically every five years.
After I complete my Facility Siting Study what is next?
What additional services are available related to Facility Siting?
In addition to facility siting, our experts provide services for laser scanning, non-destructive structural inspections (GPR scanning), building infiltration studies and other civil and structural engineering services
What additional services are available related to Facility Siting?