History of the Loss Prevention Symposia Forty Years 1967 - 2006

摘要

In the early 1960s, a number of sizable explosions and fires occurred in the oil and petrochemical industries. A light hydrocarbons plant in Louisiana, suffered a vapor cloud explosion. This phenomenon, while it had occurred before, was largely unrecognized in industry. At about the same time, the process industries were moving toward the "jumbo" plants. Formerly, ammonia was produced in multiple plants of 100 to 300 t/d capacity with multiple parallel lines of reciprocating compressors. However, in the early 1960s ammonia plants of 750, 1000 and 1500 t/d capacities with centrifugal machines were rolling off the designers boards. Large, single train olefins plants, with capacities of 1.5 billion pounds per year, were also being designed and erected. As a response to these trends, a number of people from industry and insurance put together a symposium to explore ways to improve loss prevention in the process industries. This symposium contained six sessions and was held at the AIChE National meeting in Houston in 1967. Attendance was excellent and a committee was formed to prepare annual symposia on the topic. These symposia are still held at AIChE National meetings with the 40th Loss Prevention Symposium being held this year. This paper will discuss some of the highlights of these symposia and some of the people that have made them so successful over the years.