Ensuring Safety through Continuous Improvement

Respected safety experts tour operations at Imperial Sugar’s Port Wentworth sugar refinery.  (L-R) Joe Jaeger, principal at The Dennis Group; David Heller, Director of Consultancy and Training, Chilworth Global; Ron Allen, Imperial’s Senior Director of Environmental Safety, Health and Quality; Dick Prugh, Sr. Process Safety Specialist, Chilworth Global; and, Steve Luzik, Sr. Process Safety Specialist, Chilworth Global.

By definition, safety is a never-ending commitment. It’s a mindset that is reflected in the actions of every worker, as well as by leaders who invest in ongoing programs to make safety an integral part of operations. Such is the case at Imperial Sugar Company’s newly rebuilt sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia.

“Safety was designed into the rebuild from the beginning,” said Ron Allen, Imperial’s senior director of environmental safety, health and quality. “The plant startup was a major undertaking for us, and we tried to make sure there was no stone unturned. But our safety initiatives didn’t end there. We’re constantly engaging outside assistance to ensure we haven’t overlooked anything.”

As part of its ongoing efforts to head off process safety hazards, the plant at Port Wentworth has opened its doors to third party experts who inspect and critique every aspect of its operations.

Most recently, international safety experts from Chilworth Global visited the Port Wentworth plant. Chilworth provides process safety services to most of the world’s largest chemical, pharmaceutical, food stuffs, agrochemical, and oil/petrochemical companies.

Some of the things Chilworth checked at Port Wentworth included:

• Explosion vents and whether or not they were adequately sized.
• Alarm systems to make sure they were properly designed and operating.
• Conveyance systems to assess any dust hazards.
• Suppression and chemical isolation systems to ensure responsiveness against explosions.

The visit was a follow-on to an in-depth process hazard analysis conducted months ago based on the plant’s plans and specifications. That initial review was led by Fluor consultants. Many others participated, including Chilworth process safety specialists, engineers from the Dennis Group, equipment suppliers (e.g., Fike – the company that produced much of the explosion suppression and isolation equipment used in the rebuild), and Imperial’s own safety people, engineers, operators, and maintenance technicians.

“We partnered with Chilworth as a technical check-and-balance to our safety systems,” said  Kevin Jeffries, a safety engineer at Imperial Sugar. “We’re doing the upfront work, but want to make sure our initial assumptions are validated by respected authorities in the field.”

According to Allen, people who have toured the plant since it was rebuilt have called Port Wentworth the benchmark for combustible dust management in America.

Imperial is actively sharing its combustible dust management experiences and insights with other interested parties. Last fall, Imperial hosted the the sugar industry’s first-ever combustible dust safety symposium. And on April 22, the company will host a day-long conference on combustible dust safety for customers at its Port Wentworth refinery.

The company also is taking its safety story on the road. Allen will make a presentation at a combustible dust safety workshop for the American Industrial Hygiene Association. Another similar presentation will be made to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in the Fall. Some of Imperial’s insights on the topic were featured recently in the Association’s NFPA Journal.

[Feature story about Imperial Sugar's Ron Allen in NFPA Journal.]

While Imperial’s Port Wentworth plant is one of the safest and most modern refineries around, both Jeffries and Allen admit there’s always room for improvement.

“You can never be too safe,” said Allen. “We will continue to conduct audits and evaluations on a periodic basis, using a number of vendors to keep our objectivity fresh.”