TORAP - a new tool for conducting rapid risk assessments in petroleum refineries and petrochemical industries

The use of a new computer-automated tool TORAP (TOol for Rapid risk Assessm ent in Petroleum refinery and Petrochemical industries) is demonstrated thr ough a rapid and quantitative risk assessment of a typical petroleum refine ry. The package has been applied for an appraisal of the risks of accidents (fires, explosions and toxic release) posed by different units of the refi nery, and to identify steps to prevent/manage accidents. The studies reveal that TORAP enables a user to quickly focus on the accidents Likely to occu r, and enables forecasting the nature and impacts of such accidents. This i nformation is directly utilizable in identifying 'soft' spots and in taking appropriate remedial measures to prevent or control accidents. The special attributes of TORAP are: (a) wide range of applications - achieved by inco rporating models capable of handling all types of industrial fires and expl osions, (b) sophistication - brought about by including state-of-the-art mo dels developed by these authors and others, (c) user-friendliness - achieve d by incorporating on-line help, graphics, carefully formatted output, and, above all, an automatic module, with which even a lay user can conduct a r isk assessment. The entire package, especially its automatic module, is sup ported by an extensive knowledge-base built into the software. (C) 1999 Pub lished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.