Automated HAZOP revisited

Abstract

Hazard and operability analysis (HAZOP) has developed from a tentative approach to hazard identification for process plants in the early 1970s to an almost universally accepted approach today, and a central technique of safety engineering. Techniques for automated HAZOP analysis were developed in the 1970s, but still have not displaced expensive manual approaches. Reasons for this were investigated and conclusions are drawn. The author's actual experience in applying automated HAZOP techniques over a period of…