We recently delivered our 200th training course. It has been a fascinating journey. And I would like to take this opportunity to advise you how to ATTEND a meeting with a speaker. You can actually help the speaker do a better job. And they are simple. Tips to make the job of the speaker easier: Be… Read more »
Posts By: John
A Completely Different Perspective on “Mechanical Integrity”
I think we all understand mechanical integrity, and its importance to risk management. A loss of mechanical integrity will result in an incident, and the magnitude of the incident is based on the size and severity of the fluid that is released. On the 24th of December 2016 I had a mechanical integrity incident. I… Read more »
Predicting the Future … Gas Waste Management
The Paris Agreement on greenhouse gas management and reduction is now 1-year old, and it looks like it is causing a potential growth industry … waste gas management. And … to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement, it looks like flaring will not be good enough. More processing will probably be needed. The concepts… Read more »
It might be time for a mental reset
The price of commodities is down. Almost all (if not all) commodities. Way down. One of the more interesting ones is oil, which (when the price bottomed) has had its price drop to the same price as it was in 2002. Commodities are unusual because they do not follow “normal” economic models (like inflation). Past… Read more »
Examples of Pro-Active Safety
After my November blog where I lamented that people did not learn from the mistakes of others, I am pleased to notice some organisations being pro-active in improving safety. This is culturally driven, and shows the organisation is switched on to all forms of safety. They take many forms, and some of them are quite… Read more »
The Road to Global Accreditation
The Road to Global Accreditation The short version (where I skip the details and go right to the end) … The IChemE has globally accredited our Heat Integration course! The long version (where I tell you about the journey) … I have been delivering industrial training since 2007, and it has been a big growth… Read more »
Why do we NOT learn from others?
I recently viewed the video from the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on the fire at Caribbean Petroleum Corporation in Puerto Rico in 2009 (you can see the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41QMaJqxqIo). I was surprised to see many similar issues with the fire at the Buncefield facility in the UK (December 2005). The idea of learning… Read more »
Sensors measuring what we get, not what we want
I recently delivered a training course in SE Asia, and met a young environmental engineer. She told me about her water treatment system that discharged cleaned water to the environment. It soon became clear that one instrument was paramount to her having a good day or her having a bad day – it was the… Read more »
Trying to Walk the Walk
This month I am going to be a little controversial. I will definitely be more opinionated then normal. In February, 2015, there was an outbreak of Hepatitis A in Australia. It was traced to some contaminated frozen fruit. The frozen fruit was processed offshore. It appeared the contamination was caused by procedural errors in washing… Read more »
Do They Need to Know That?
This is a key aspect of delivering training – be it academic or industrial. As a person that tries to deliver knowledge, it is important to know what they do not know (and hopefully I and help fill the shortfall). I recently had an opportunity to deliver a pilot training course (topic irrelevant) but one… Read more »