This session at Hazardex Live 2025 will see Roger Stokes, Principal Engineer at BakerRisk, provide guidelines for preparing equipment for maintenance and return to service

A team from BakerRisk has written a new book on behalf of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) entitled “Guidelines for Preparing Equipment for Maintenance and Return to Service” which is due to be published in about Q1 2025. Throughout the drafting process the content has been peer reviewed by subject matter experts in the safety of operating facilities that handle major hazards. The book focuses on the key hazards and risks that are associated with these activities, the involvement and interactions among multiple teams, and recommended practices and pitfalls that can be encountered. It is imperative that the teams and individuals understand the risks and complexities of decontamination of the plant, testing, and return to service, so that they can plan, assess, and implement protective measures that are commensurate with the risk. Mothballing and permanent decommissioning are also discussed. The presentation will provide an overview of some of the key issues that can cause problems, supported by case studies.

About the author:

Roger Stokes graduated from UMIST (Manchester, UK) as a Chemical Engineer and spent 10 years at ICI in various technical roles, leading to a position in plant management. He then spent 23 years in the insurance industry investigating incidents on chemical and petrochemical plants, joining BakerRisk in 2015. He works out of the UK office as part of the Process Safety Group, and focuses on incident investigations, insurance risk engineering, PSM and PHA. He has provided training on incident investigation and on process safety to undergraduates and at process safety conferences.