Despite significant safety advancements in the pellet industry, the potential remains for pellet plants to experience major unwanted events (MUEs) such as explosions fires and fatal accidents, that can’t be prevented by traditional approaches to safety.
WPAC and BCFSC have partnered to pursue a process known as Critical Control Management (CCM) which is already widely used in mining, chemical, and oil and gas industries around the world, but it’s new to the wood pellet industry.
With CCM, companies will understand their equipment better; workers will be able to operate and maintain that equipment safely; the equipment will be more reliable; and plant managers will know what activities are most important.
The CCM committee, comprised of representatives from WPAC, BCFSC and Dalhousie University, have developed an implementation schedule with the goal of completing bow ties and critical controls to WorkSafeBC by late 2021 for each of WPAC’s member plants. BCFSC is providing on-site and online support to all 15 operations in 2021. See the schedule here.
WorkSafeBC is funding a Dalhousie University Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science research project that will build on this work and transfer this knowledge to employees and employers throughout the wood pellet industry across Canada and internationally. Read the latest update here
Resources
Factsheet (PDF)
Videos
(for Workshop Participants)
(for Workshop Participants)
(for Managers and Employees)