Convergence of safety and security within process plants

Abstract

Process plants safety is currently an integral part of process industries. This fact is evidenced by a number of important directives, standards, and regulations, such as the Seveso III Directive, Process Safety Management Standard or Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. By implementing them, personnel safety, process safety, functional safety, etc. are constantly ensured. However, on the other hand, it is necessary to point out that process plants can be a significant source of risk not only from a process point of view, but also as a result of intentional or unintentional external damage. In this context, it is also necessary to pay attention to process plants security. Currently, only a few directives related to the critical infrastructure protection or cyber security pay attention to this area. Based on these facts, the aim of the article is to present possibilities, tools and benefits of the convergence of process plants safety with the physical protection system and organizational resilience. As part of the physical protection system, convergence mechanical barriers, alarm systems, security forces and regime measures can be used for this purpose at the operational level. In contrast, organizational resilience processes can be used to strengthen process plants safety at the management level. In both cases, these security measures can be used in all three-time phases of the accident, i.e. before the accident, during the accident, and after the accident.