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Offshore Oil&Gas facilities are attractive targets of intentional malicious attacks (security attacks) that may trigger cascading events (e.g., the release and dispersion of hazardous material and/or energy, fires, explosions) with consequences on people, environment, and assets. The severity of these consequences is potentially similar to those arising from major accident scenarios originated by conventional safety-related causes. Current practice in managing the risk of security attacks mostly relies on qualitative or semi-quantitative procedures developed over the years in the offshore Oil&Gas industry. In the present study, a systematic quantitative procedure is developed, based on a Bayesian Network (BN) approach, for calculating the probability of success of physical security attacks, taking into account both preventive and mitigative security intervention strategies. The procedure addresses the specific framework of the offshore Oil&Gas industry. A case study concerning an offshore fixed Oil&Gas platform allowed us to demonstrate the quality of the results that can be achieved and their potential towards the improvement of the security of the installations considered.

The call for integrated management of safety and security (IMSS) derives from intensification of digitalisation development and the increased reliance on information communication technologies (ICT) in high-risk industries, such as the chemical and process industry. This development means tightened interconnectedness between industrial automation and control and information technology systems. As a result, the risk landscape is changed towards a stronger interconnectedness of safety, physical and (cyber)security risks, which may lead to major accidents. The objective of this paper is to examine the motivations for IMSS, the current state of IMSS, the cybersecurity-induced risks, including the actualisation of interconnected risks and some sociotechnical tools for IMSS in Seveso plants. They are plants where certain quantities of dangerous substances are present, which are subject to the requirements of the Seveso III Directive (2012/18/EU). The data considered is open source and related to cyber and physical security-induced accidents; interviews with the representatives of Seveso sites and regulators; and literature. The method is qualitative content analysis. The results show that, despite the ongoing development in IMSS at the Seveso sites, IMSS is still in its infancy. Indeed, cybersecurity is often handled in a separate IT department, and the communication with process-safety experts is often inadequate. Furthermore, safety and security risk identification and assessment are essentially undertaken separately. To achieve a real IMSS, we argue that the co-existence of technical and organisational, including structural, functional and cultural development is a fundamental aspect. The combination of such complementary aspects represents the main novelty of this study.

Oil spills during offshore operations are likely to cause severe contamination of the sea. The identification of the environmental effects of accidental releases from offshore oil and gas facilities plays a crucial role in the prevention and mitigation of marine pollution. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are largely recognized as an effective tool to address and communicate multifaceted issues related to accidental events in the framework of risk management. In the context of Oil Spill Risk Assessment (OSRA) studies, this study proposes a set of KPIs addressing the potential environmental contamination caused by on-surface oil spills from offshore oil and gas installations. A layered approach was defined, based on three different levels of KPIs having an increasing complexity and providing an increasing amount of information. The environmental KPIs defined allow a preliminary quantitative assessment of the environmental contamination due to the oil spill scenarios defined in the ENVironmental hazards IDentification (ENVID) studies carried out for oil and gas installations, providing a preliminary ranking of the expected environmental effects of the spills and supporting their prioritization in order to select those which should undergo a more accurate Environmental Risk Assessment study (ERA).

The digital transition in the process industry is characterized by a high level of automation and an increasing connection with external networks, which makes facilities vulnerable to cybers-threats. A cyber-attack, beside economic and reputational damages, can potentially trigger major events (e.g. releases of hazardous materials, fires, explosions) with severe consequences on workers, population, and the environment. In the present study, the cybersecurity-related incidents that occurred in the process industry and in similar industrial sectors (chemical, petrochemical, energy production, water/wastewater treatment) were investigated. The aim of the study is to frame a clear picture of the cyber-attacks on the automated control systems of process facilities and to issue lessons learnt from past incidents. The study is based on the development and analysis of a database of 82 cybersecurity-related incidents gathered from various sources. Time trend, geographical distribution, distribution among the industrial sectors, impacts of the incidents, and nature of the cyber-attacks (attacker, intentional/accidental type, system infected) were investigated. The analysis of a sub-set of more detailed incidents allowed the identification of the general steps of a cyber-attack on automated control systems of a process facility, the main hacking techniques used by the attackers and the more common cybersecurity countermeasures applicable to the prevention of a cyber-attack.

Intentional acts consisting in remote (cyber) or physical manipulations of the BPCS (Basic Process Control System) and the SIS (Safety Instrumented System) of a process plant may result in severe consequences for the affected industrial facilities. Interruption of productivity, with or without asset damages, generally results in huge economic losses and, at times, in damages to reputation, people and the environment. Despite the existence of several international standards aimed at the assessment and management of cybersecurity of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) systems of a facility, only few contributions are present in the literature addressing the concrete connection between malicious manipulations of the BPCS and SIS systems and the impacts on the physical process system that can be initiated. In this panorama, the present work fills this gap by developing a systematic qualitative methodology supporting the identification of possible security events affecting the operability and/or system integrity of a process plant, of the malicious manipulations by which they may be initiated, and of the existing safeguards in place. The results can be used within the standard procedure for cyber risk management of the IT-OT system (e.g. ISA/IEC 62443), to support the identification of protection requirements and countermeasures. The methodology is complementary to current safety and security assessments and is intended for application to front-end design phase as well as to the security review of operating plants. The methodology was applied to a case study (an offshore Oil&Gas compression plant) to demonstrate the potential of the methodology and the results obtained.

Alternative configurations for the acid gas removal section in the flue gas treatment line of a waste-to-energy plant are evaluated from a LCA perspective. A multi-stage technique allows significant cost savings without generating additional environmental burdens. The role of process modelling as a meaningful aid to LCA of such process technologies is briefly discussed.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is becoming a viable, “green” alternative to marine fuel oil for ship propulsion. The present study investigates the expected impact on sustainability of innovative ship fuel systems based on the use of LNG. For the sake of comparison, conventional technologies for ship fuel systems, based on marine fuel oil, were considered in the analysis. A specific methodology was adopted to support the sustainability assessment, based on the evaluation of key performance indicators addressing three fundamental domains: environmental impact, economic feasibility and inherent safety of the fuel system. The results obtained allow determining a sustainability fingerprint of the alternative fuel systems considered and a performance ranking. The LNG-based fuel system technologies show a better sustainability performance than the conventional marine fuel technologies. The relevant environmental benefits associated with LNG fuel systems point out the critical role of environmental impact reduction in driving the design of innovative fuel systems for marine applications.

The security of critical infrastructures is of paramount importance nowadays due to the growing complexity of components and applications. This paper collects the contributions to the industry dissemination session within the 14th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security (CRITIS 2019). As such, it provides an overview of recent practical experience reports in the field of critical infrastructure protection (CIP), involving major industry players. The set of cases reported in this paper includes the usage of serious gaming for training infrastructure operators, integrated safety and security management in the chemical/process industry, risks related to the cyber-economy for energy suppliers, smart troubleshooting in the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as intrusion detection in power distribution Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA). The session has been organized to stimulate an open scientific discussion about industry challenges, open issues and future opportunities in CIP research.

The practicality of adopting Life Cycle Assessment to support decision-making can be limited by the resource-intensive nature of data collection and Life Cycle Inventory modelling. The number of chemical products increases continuously, and long-term analyses show that overall growth of chemicals production and demand as well as faster growth in emerging regions is a behaviour that is expected to continue in the future. Regrettably, chemical inventories are typically among the most challenging to model because of the lack of available data and the large number of material and energy flows. This explains why it is so important for the Life Cycle Assessment community to have effective methods to implement life cycle inventories of chemicals available. This chapter deals with the issues of Life Cycle Inventory analysis for chemical processes and the related lack of data concerning inventories of basic and fine chemicals substances. The overall aim of the chapter is to illustrate the different possibilities/approaches that the scientific Life Cycle Assessment community has developed in order to overcome such a lack of data concerning the inventories of a specific (basic and/or fine) chemical substance both for input and output flows. Their main advantages and drawbacks are identified and discussed briefly.

The use of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) as a solid reactant for the removal of acid pollutants in industrial flue gas streams is a simple and effective process solution. Nonetheless, despite its technological maturity, the industrial application of NaHCO3-based flue gas treatment is still highly empirical. A better knowledge of the heterogeneous reaction process could allow process optimization, resulting in a reduction both in the consumption of reactants and in the generation of solid waste products. In the present study, the reactivity of NaHCO3 toward HCl and SO2 was investigated in the temperature range between 120 and 300 °C. The key role of thermal activation in determining the reactivity of the sorbent was confirmed. The choice of the optimal temperature for acid gas sorption results from a trade-off: higher temperatures increase the reaction kinetics, but induce the sintering of the activated sodium carbonate. The occurrence of sintering is particularly detrimental for high removal efficiency toward SO2, possibly due to the role of the sodium sulfite layer originated by SO2 sorption. As a consequence, the optimal operating temperature resulted as 150 °C for SO2 and 210 °C for HCl. The choice of operating temperature in industrial dry sorbent injection units for acid gas abatement is discussed in view of the present findings.

In Europe, the thermal treatment in dedicated waste-to-energy facilities is a widespread method to avoid landfilling and achieve energy recovery from unrecyclable waste fractions. The flip side of the process is the emission of waste-related airborne contaminants, like acid gases (mainly, HCl and SO2). Currently, control of acid gas emissions is regulated by the Industrial Emissions Directive (Directive 2010/75/EU) and dry acid gas removal systems, based on the injection of solid sorbents like calcium hydroxide or sodium bicarbonate, are particularly valued for coupling compliance to emission limit values with cost-effectiveness and ease of operation. However, the modern holistic approach to environmental protection goes beyond regulatory compliance and calls for due consideration of indirect environmental burdens other than the bare stack emissions at plant. Despite boasting the same acid gas removal efficiency, two flue gas cleaning technologies might give rise to different environmental impacts related to the supply of reactants and the management of process residues. The evaluation of life cycle impacts has to support traditional economic decision-making in order to define the soundness of a flue gas cleaning technology in terms of overall sustainability. In the present study, single-stage and multi-stage process alternatives for dry acid gas removal were put in comparison, following a methodology which included the quantification of the indirect environmental burdens, arisen along the supply and disposal chain of reactants and residues, and the evaluation of the economic performance in terms of operating and capital costs. The analysis allowed to identify the sustainability profile of alternatives for different operating conditions (waste composition, required acid gas removal efficiency). A properly operated multi-stage treatment system resulted more cost-effective without introducing indirect environmental impacts. A sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results even in presence of broad uncertainties in the input data.

As offshore oil & gas activities are currently evolving towards more productive yet complex situations, the availability of efficient safety metrics has become essential in the early stages of offshore oil & gas projects to underline potential major accidents hazards and clearly communicate safety criticalities. Inherent safety has demonstrated to be a widespread concept in offshore risk management strategies, but there are few preliminary studies in the existing literature about systemic indexing to orient the conceptual and basic design stages of the project lifecycle. In the present work, a methodology for the selection of inherently safer solutions was developed as a support tool for decision-making in early design activities of offshore oil & gas installations. The expected inherent safety performance of alternative design options is assessed by means of a comprehensive set of key performance indicators (KPIs) based on the simulation of consequences of offshore accident scenarios and credit factors of the possible loss of containment events from offshore equipment. The proposed KPIs aim to capture the hazard level of single units and to address selectively multiple targets of the potential threats than personnel and process equipment on the installation, such as marine organisms on the sea environment. Moreover, overall aggregated KPIs were introduced as a sound synthetic measure of the inherent safety performance of the offshore system. The method was applied to the assessment of alternative designs of an offshore production facility, particularly characterized by environmental and safety concerns. The results from the case study evidenced the capability of the proposed method in ranking the potential and credible critical units of each alternative configuration and identifying the relative magnitude of targets contributions to the global safety profile of the installation.

Removal of acid pollutants (HCl and SO2) is an important stage in waste incineration flue gas cleaning. Several technological options for acid gas neutralisation are currently available in order to comply with the increasingly stringent emission limit values and the choice of the best solution for a specific plant should be based on the economic and environmental considerations implied in the concept of Best Available Technique. The present study analyses and compares state-of-the-art dry, semi-dry and wet process configurations for acid gas removal in waste-to-energy plants. The performance of five representative process schemes was analysed: the streams associated with acid gas emission control were quantified via mass and energy balances and a life cycle perspective was applied in order to evaluate the inputs and outputs of the supply and disposal chains. The analysis pinpoints the key issues in terms of environmental and economic performance of the presented alternatives. Benefits and limits of the alternative technologies are discussed in view of different waste composition. The energy penalty associated with flue gas reheat appears to be the main environmental drawback of wet methods, while the main contribution to the environmental footprint of dry methods is given by the production of solid reactants. Multi-stage treatment systems systematically show lower environmental impacts than the single stage counterparts, but their cost-effectiveness is limited by the disposal cost for the generated solid residues. The provided insights can contribute to a more effective implementation of the strategies of circular economy and cleaner production in the operation of a waste-to-energy plant.

Offshore oil & gas operations are one of the most hazardous upstream activities since limited space and compact geometry contribute to increase the risk of major accidents. Currently many offshore projects are evolving towards the exploitation of more challenging hydrocarbon fields. The use of the inherent safety philosophy in early stages of the offshore installation design can save lifetime costs and pursue high safety standards. Moreover, an index-based design approach is a comprehensive way to communicate the hazard level of a process route. In this study, a method based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was introduced to assess the inherent safety performance of alternative offshore designs through the modelling of credible accidents consequences for different targets. The main goal is to provide an efficient support tool for safety-oriented choices during the preliminary design steps. A case study regarding an offshore platform processing associated gas with hydrogen sulphide was presented.

Plastic materials have wide commercial applicability. However, they are made from non-renewable resources and are characterised by resistance to degradation. Poly-hydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) provides one example of a polymer biodegradable, biocompatible and produced from renewable raw materials. With respect to other bioplastics the share of PHAs in the market is very limited because of their commercial costs. To develop more cost effective processes for PHAs production, a multilevel approach is usually undertaken combining innovative, cheaper and more effective cultivation with safe and cheap extraction and purification methodologies. This study assesses the potential environmental impacts related to a production processes based on the novel protocol to extract PHAs comparing them to the impacts of extraction process based on the use of halogenated hydrocarbons.

The present study investigated the influence of pressure on the thermal effects associated with the pyrolysis of biomass macrocomponents: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The heat demand of the pyrolysis process was measured by differential scanning calorimetry at pressures ranging from 0.1 to 4 MPa, using a specifically developed experimental configuration. An increase of the operating pressure affected both the heat demand and the final char yield. A summative model to describe the overall heat demand of the pyrolysis process was tested, and the results were compared to those obtained for an actual biomass sample and a mixture of cellulose, xylan, and lignin (synthetic biomass). Both samples showed important differences in the thermal demand with respect to that obtained from the summative model, possibly because of interactions among volatiles generated in the pyrolysis process and differences in the amounts of ash and extractives present in the samples.

Emission control from waste-to-energy plants asks for flue gas cleaning technologies for the removal of acid gases (mostly, HCl and SO 2 ). Single stage dry injection of sodium bicarbonate is currently one of the most widely used among the best available techniques identified by the Industrial Emissions Directive in Europe, but several new waste-to-energy plants are implementing two-stage systems, coupling the injection of bicarbonate with a preliminary injection of calcium hydroxide. The present study aims at a comparative analysis of the environmental and economic viability of alternative dry treatment technologies. A life cycle perspective is adopted, encompassing production, transportation and disposal of the main reactants and products of the treatments. The optimal operating conditions for the two-stage system are identified and compared with single stage benchmark options. The two-stage treatment emerged as a flexible solution, which can couple cost-effectiveness and environmental compatibility. This performance was confirmed also under reasonable variations of factors such as waste composition, emission limit values and uncertainties in the input data.

Fires following road or railway accidents may escalate and cause catastrophic loss of containment and extremely severe final scenarios when hazardous material tankers are engulfed in flames. A heat-resistant coating is usually adopted to protect such tankers. However, defects may form on the coating due to wear, erosion, or accidental failures, thereby affecting the effectiveness of the thermal protection. In the present study, a methodology was developed to assess the performance of thermal protection coatings in the presence of defects. A thermal model based on finite element modeling (FEM) was developed to reproduce the behavior of tankers coated with defective insulation when exposed to fires. Experimental data were used to validate the model, which allowed to determine the temperature profile of tank shell with respect to time under different fire conditions. Specific key performance indicators (KPIs), calculated on the basis of the results of FEM simulations, were defined. The KPIs allow the identification of threshold conditions in which fireproofing performance is degraded and jeopardizes the structural integrity of the protected vessel when involved in fire. An approach based on the KPIs was developed to support the implementation of on-condition inspection-based maintenance strategies of thermal coatings.

Poly-hydroxyalkanoates are an example of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers, produced from renewable raw materials. With respect to other bioplastics the market share of poly-hydroxyalkanoates is still limited because of their commercial costs. To develop more cost-effective processes, a multilevel approach is usually undertaken combining innovative, cheaper and more effective microbial cultivation with safe and cheap extraction and purification methodologies. This study assesses the potential life cycle environmental impacts related to a novel protocol poly-hydroxyalkanoates extraction based on dimethyl carbonate in comparison to the use of halogenated hydrocarbons (in particular 1,2 dicholoroethane). Four scenarios are analysed for the dimethyl carbonate protocol considering: extraction from microbial slurry or from dried biomass, and recovery by solvent evaporation or polymer precipitation. The life cycle assessment demonstrates that the environmental performances of dimethyl carbonate-based protocols are far better than those of the most comparative process using the halogenated hydrocarbons. The scenario that foresees the extraction of dried biomass and recovers solvent by evaporation appears to be the most promising in terms of environmental sustainability performance.

The paper discusses the release and air dispersion modelling for the specific potential accident scenario case of a vertical impinging jet of propane (below the sun shade/rain roof) out of an over-filled car tanker. The main purpose was to assess the related uncertainties in impact distances downwind to the Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) and half the LFL (LFL/2) propane concentrations in the ambient air, due to the proximity of the site border (issue of the control over the ignition sources). The conventional Unified Dispersion Modelling (UDM) results were re-modelled using a dynamic process simulation (to simulate the pressure safety release valve) and dispersion modelling using a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model simulation. The CFD model enabled explicit consideration of the 3D objects and impinging jet. The comparison of the impact distances down to LFL and LFL/2 concentrations among UDM and CFD models revealed that the CFD model suggests the distances are about 2-3 times shorter, but the fire hazard (propane-air mixture) is present for approximately twice the time after cessation of the propane release. This means that conventional UDM derived results using the integrated models are to some extent conservative, while on the other hand, the duration of the fire hazard is underestimated. The results are important for risk analysts in terms of the consideration of the use of the UDM models out of the validated contexts (e.g., vertical impinging, obstacles), as well as for site managers in considering whether the ignition prevention measures (separation distances) are sufficient.

Fire exposure of tanks used for the storage and transportation of liquefied gases under pressure may cause complex heat- and mass-transfer phenomena that may contribute to compromise the integrity of the vessels in accident scenarios. Heat transfer through vessel lading results in the heat-up of the internal fluid and the increase of vessel internal pressure. However, local temperature gradients in the liquid phase cause liquid stratification phenomena that result in a more rapid vaporization and pressure build-up in the liquid phase. These fundamental phenomena were analyzed by a computational fluid dynamic model. The model was specifically focused on the early steps of vessel heat-up, when liquid stratification plays a relevant role in determining the vessel internal pressure. A two-dimensional transient simulation was set up using ANSYS FLUENT in order to predict the evolution of the liquid and vapor phases during the tank heat up. The model was validated against large scale experimental data available for liquefied petroleum gas vessels exposed to hydrocarbon fires, and was applied to case studies derived from recent accidental events in order to assess the expected time of pressure build-up in different fire scenarios. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 4292–4305, 2014

Since the late 80s the application of quantitative risk assessment to the issue of land-use planning with respect to major accident hazards emerged as a topic to be addressed within the safety assessment of chemical and process plants. However, in the case of industrial clusters or complex industrial areas specific methodologies are needed to deal with high-impact low-probability (HILP) events. In the present study, innovative methodologies developed for the quantitative assessment of risk due to domino and NaTech scenarios are presented. In recent years a set of models for the calculation of equipment damage probability were developed. A specific effort was dedicated to the improvement of models for the calculation of equipment damage probability in these accident scenarios. In the present study, the application of these models to case-studies was analyzed. The results of the improved models obtained for NaTech quantitative assessment were compared to previous results in the literature. A specific innovative approach was developed to multi-level quantitative assessment of domino scenarios, and its potential was analyzed. The results were examined also evidencing the role and the progress with respect to the pioneering work started on these topics by Franco Foraboschi.

Pyrolysis may be a first step in biomass to biofuels conversion processes. The present study investigated the influence of pressure on the thermal effects associated to biomass pyrolysis. Four energy crops were selected for experimental characterization: corn stalks, poplar, switchgrass Alamo and switchgrass Trailblazer. The heat demand of the pyrolysis process was measured by differential scanning calorimetry at pressures ranging from 0.1 to 4 MPa, using a specifically developed experimental configuration. An increase of the operating pressure resulted in a lower heat demand and in an increase in the final char yield. The results obtained suggest the presence of a competitive mechanism between the endothermic reactions of the primary decomposition process, leading to the formation of volatiles, and the exothermic vapor–solid interactions, leading to secondary char formation.

Hazard identification is an important part of risk management, because no action can be made to avoid, or mitigate in a timely way, the risk derived from unidentified hazards. The hazard identification process also has a large potential for human error, with little or no feedback pertaining to those errors. Theoretical and practical limitations affecting results of the hazard identification process suggest a need for an improvement of current techniques. For this reason, a specific method, named dynamic procedure for atypical scenarios identification, was conceived to provide comprehensive hazard identification of industrial systems, joined to a process of continuous improvement of the results of the assessment. It is a method for the continuous systematization of information from early risk signals and provides support for the assessment of potential accident scenarios in compliance with the five main hazard identification principles.

The optimal supply chain configuration for biomass production on a given territory is identified by a two-tier approach, which considers both the environmental and the economic points of view. The first tier performs a quick evaluation of the supply chain, based on simplified assumptions and on average values of the parameters characterizing the geographical territory. The second tier allows for the inclusion of spatially explicit parameters of the territory and realizes a more detailed optimization of the supply chain using a multi-objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming framework. A demonstrative case study is presented for the bio-fuel supply to a centralized electric power plant. The considered supply chain is based on miscanthus, cultivated in marginal terrains and converted to pyro-oil in a number of delocalized plants for long distance shipment. The results obtained from the two tiers of the model provide quantitative information, to support quick and effective decision making on the optimal configuration of the supply chain in terms of plant size, location, transport logistics and cultivation.