Implementation of ARAMIS methodology in the risk assessment of chemical tankers: The case of loading operation

Accident Risk Assessment Methodology for Industry (ARAMIS) has been developed and successfully applied to prevent accidents in the chemical and process industries within the scope of the Seveso-II directive. Chemical tankers aren't subject to obligations of this directive but coincide with it both in terms of chemical products and operational procedures. We aimed to contribute to the search for a proactive approach to risk analysis in chemical-tanker operations by applying ARAMIS for the first time. ARAMIS consists of “Methodology for the Identification of Major Accident Hazards” (MIMAH) and “Methodology for the Identification of Reference Accident Scenarios” (MIRAS). In the MIMAH; we assessed equipment types with Event Tree Analysis (ETA), identified critical events with Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), evaluated hazardous equipment with Vade-Mecum, identified hazards with Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP), and Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA), and we analyzed these hazards with Bow-Tie. In the MIRAS, we calculated the risk factor with the Probability of Failure on Demand calculation for each event using “Offshore REliability DAta” (OREDA), TESEO, BEVI-Guidelines, and assessed the risk with ALARP. The findings showed that ARAMIS can be used in chemical-tanker operations, and risk threshold values were low because of human errors, and basic control systems.