HAZOP

The study can be carried out at any stage during the design, the life of a project although the most detailed study is carried out when the Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) has been finalized. It is most important that the study team is chosen to provide the knowledge and experience appropriate to the project to be studied. The team needs to be small enough to be efficient while containing sufficient skills and experience necessary to cover the area of study comprehensively.

The team focuses on specific points of the design (called "study nodes"), one at a time. At each of these study nodes, deviations in the process parameters are examined using the guide words. The guide words are used to ensure that the design is explored in every conceivable way. Thus, the team must identify a fairly large number of deviations, each of which must then be considered so that their potential causes and consequences can be identified. The team composition for the HAZOP study of the process system may typically consist of the following members:

• HAZOP Chairman along with Team (main role is to ensure that procedures are followed properly).
• Licensor.
• Process Engineer.
• Instrument Engineer.
• Operation Engineer.
• Maintenance Engineer.
• Safety Engineer.
Each member must have enough technical knowledge and authority to make decisions.