Process safety is of prime importance in the chemical industry. This requires an effective process safety management system that enables the identification, elimination, reduction and mitigation of risks resulting from operations.
Although the use of key performance indicators that measure and analyse process-safety incidents is common in individual companies, their application across the industry is still restricted as management systems are not yet harmonized throughout the sector. essenscia encourages its members to use leading and lagging process-safety indicators to measure the performance of their process safety management systems (PSMS).
essenscia has also developed a number of voluntary initiatives to improve its members’ process-safety performance by providing training at various levels within its companies’ organisations.
The sector has two dedicated training centres: ACTA and Cefochim. ACTA organises training in automation and process technology for process operators. Cefochim is a training centre for jobs in production, maintenance and research in the chemical and biopharmaceutical industries. In addition, PlastIQ offers tailor-made training courses for the plastics processing industry in Flanders and in 2021 the ViTalent training centre for life sciences industries will start its activities in Niel in the province of Antwerp.
Through the essenscia Process Safety Academy , essenscia invests in integrated training on process safety. The platform runs three initiatives in close collaboration with stakeholders:
Mechanical and structural integrity is an important element in a process safety management system. In light of this, the Advanced Master in Safety Engineering has recently been expanded with a brand new academic course on mechanical and structural integrety for students and industry workers.