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Case Study: Functional Safety Lifecycle Gaps Closed at Greenfield Fertilizer Facility
April 21, 2021
exida helps a chemical producer close gaps in functional safety design and implementation before hazards are introduced to the process.
The Iowa Fertilizer Company (IFCo) facility in Weaver, IA is a world-scale greenfield fertilizer plant with a capacity of up to 3 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizers. Contracted by a global producer of fertilizers and industrial chemicals, a project management team and multiple engineering design firms were to deliver a turnkey facility. Prior to start-up the operations team conducted a thorough review of the project design documentation and contacted exida for assistance in addressing potential gaps with the HAZOP and LOPA records. The gaps raised concern about the adequacy of the Safety Instrumented System (SIS) including the potential for previously unidentified risk, insufficiently mitigated risk, and incomplete implementation of the functional safety lifecycle. The owner’s intent was for the facility to be ANSI/ISA 84 (IEC 61511) compliant. As the project documentation was reviewed, it became apparent that contractors had a very different expectation on how to achieve compliance. A key lesson learned is the importance of beginning with a Functional Safety Management Plan to guide all contractors and technology providers on the owner’s expectations for implementation of the Functional Safety Management Lifecycle.