Evaluation of available indices for inherently safer design options

Inherent safety is a proactive approach for loss prevention during process plant design. It has been proven that, considering the lifetime costs of a process and its operation, an inherent safety approach can lead to a cost‐optimal option. Application of inherent safety at the early stages of process design yields the best results with respect to process selection, conceptual design, and engineering design. However, in spite of being an attractive and cost‐effective approach to loss prevention, it is not widely used. Reasons have been suggested for this lack of widespread use, but the lack of systematic tools to apply inherent safety principles is perhaps the most important one.