BS EN 61882:2016

What is BS EN 61882 - Hazard and operability studies about?  

BS EN 61882 is an international standard that focuses application guidance on hazard and operability studies. BS EN 61882 provides a guide for HAZOP studies of systems using guide words. It gives guidance on the application of the technique and the HAZOP study procedure, including definition, preparation, examination sessions and resulting documentation and follows up. 

Who is BS EN 61882 - Hazard and operability studies for? 

BS EN 61882 on application guidance on hazard and operability studies is useful for: 

• HAZOP facilitator 
• Chemical and the petroleum industry  
• Chemical engineers 
• Assembly point of heavy equipment and machinery  

Why should you use BS EN 61882 - Hazard and operability studies?  

The purpose of the BS EN 61882 is to investigate how the system or plant deviate from the design intent and create risk for personnel and equipment and operability problems. HAZOP studies have been used with great success within the chemical and the petroleum industry to obtain safer, more efficient, and more reliable plants.  

BS EN 61882 describes the principles for and approach to guide word-driven risk identification. Historically this approach to risk identification has been called a hazard and operability study or HAZOP study for short. BS EN 61882 informs a structured and systematic technique for examining a defined system, with the objectives of:   

• Identifying risks associated with the operation and maintenance of the system. The hazards or other risk sources involved can include both those essentially relevant only to the immediate area of the system and those with a much wider sphere of influence, for example, some environmental hazards 
• identifying potential operability problems with the system and in particular identifying causes of operational disturbances and production deviations likely to lead to non-conforming products 

An important benefit of BS EN 61882 is that the resulting knowledge, obtained by identifying risks and operability problems in a structured and systematic manner, is of great assistance in determining appropriate remedial measures. BS EN 61882 identifies deviations from the system design intent utilizing a set of guide words. The technique aims to stimulate the imagination of participants in a systematic way to identify risks and operability problems. BS EN 61882 has been developed to provide guidance across many industries and types of systems. 

What’s changed since the last update?  

BS EN 61882:2016 supersedes BS IEC 61882:2001. BS EN 61882:2016 includes some technical changes concerning BS IEC 61882:2001. These include: 

• Clarification of terminology as well as alignment with terms and definitions within ISO 31000:2009 and ISO Guide 73:2009 
• Addition of an improved case study of a procedural HAZOP