Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA) as an Effective Tool for Preventing Major Accidents Hazards: A Case Study of Ammonia Storage Tank

Major accidents in process industry still occur until now. Some of the major accidents are the Bhopal Disaster in 1984 and Deepwater Horizon in 2010. The most recent major accident in Malaysia, is at PETRONAS facility in Pengerang, Johor where there was an explosion and fire. Layer of protection analysis or well known as LOPA, is a simplified risk assessment tool used to examine hazards. Research, process development, design, operations, maintenance, alterations, and decommissioning all benefit from LOPA. LOPA involves identifying the target risk levels, determining the existing risk connected to the process, and choosing the best non-instrumented safety systems. The major accident prevention and control strategies in the chemical process sector will be uncovered in this research. The effectiveness of layer of protection analysis (LOPA) in preventing significant accidents in high-risk chemical plants is another objective of the study. The layer of protection analysis (LOPA) will be studied when adequate data for preventative and control actions has been acquired. The starting frequency and failure rate statistics will be obtained. For each layer of LOPA, the efficiency of preventing significant accidents will be determined by calculation.