Hazardex Live 2024 Review
14 May 2024
The leading process safety and high hazard industry event, Hazardex Live, returned to the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate on 28-29 February 2024 for what was one our most successful events to date. The renowned event comprised two days of topical discussions & learning in the Conference, the industry's latest products & services on display in the Exhibition, and the Hazardex Awards 2024 ceremony which took place during a well-attended Gala Dinner.
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Widely recognised as the most important global event specific to hazardous area operations across all major industries, Hazardex Live 2024 – sponsored by C&P Engineering Services, TÜV Rheinland, and DNV – brought together the process safety community to review current and forthcoming legislation and helped attendees stay up-to-date with best practice and the latest research in those areas key to managing process safety effectively.
The Hazardex team would like to thank all Sponsors, Delegates, Exhibitors, Speakers, and Attendees for making it such a success – we are already looking forward to welcoming many of you back for Hazardex in the Regions 2024 (see page 23 of this issue) and Hazardex Live 2025.
The first Hazardex Conference & Exhibition was held in 2002 and each year we seek to bring together the most authoritative and prominent members of the process safety and hazardous area operations community to reflect, review, and discuss all the key issues affecting the industry – and this year was no different.
In Stream 1 of the Conference, Delegates heard from expert speakers including the Health & Safety Executive, IECEx, Fuels Industry UK, Petronas, Office for Nuclear Regulation, Cogent Skills, Chemical Business Association, Energy Institute, and many more. Stream 2 of the conference, Sponsored by DNV, focused on different aspects of the energy transition. In this stream, DNV presented its newly published ‘DNV Energy Transition Outlook’ for 2024 and attendees were also able to hear from organisations operating on the frontline of the transition, including National Gas, Supercritical, Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers, CompEx, and N-Gen Energy Solutions.
Another important element of Hazardex Live 2024 was the free-to-attend exhibition where leading hazardous area sector companies displayed their latest products and services to visitors. Each event provides exceptional opportunities for networking, with attendees from government agencies, regulators, certification bodies & training providers, consultants and product manufacturers meeting up with senior engineers and safety managers from the high hazard and process industry owner/operators.
The first night of the two-day event played host to an informal drinks reception before a Gala Dinner and the prestigious Hazardex Awards. The awards programme has long been a benchmark for those supplying products, services and systems within hazardous areas. Further details about the awards, including the winners and highly commended companies, can be found by clicking here.
Conference Stream 1
As always, the conference was split into two streams, both with a high-quality speaker line-up comprising leading high hazard industry figures, regulators, academics, engineers and consultants who shared their experiences and vast knowledge. Ron Bell OBE chaired Stream 1 on the first day, while Paul Hague, Head of Scheme Development at CompEx Certification took over on Day 2. The conference opened with a presentation from Peter Webb, Director of Beyond Risk Ltd who spoke on behalf of the Energy Institute. Peter discussed safe plant reinstatement following intrusive work, providing an overview of the risks which exist in reinstatement and the good practices which can be applied to manage them.
This was followed by Caroline Winstanley, Deputy Professional Lead for Internal Hazards at the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), who provided an overview of the recent topical peer review (TPR) which covers fire protection in nuclear installations and the recommendations that follow. Dewi Evans, Senior Hazardous Area Project Manager at C&P Engineering Services then presented on Hazardous Areas and the challenges and tribulations of ensuring equipment is maintained to the required standards, verifying the competencies of employees for designated tasks, and preserving a safe working environment.
Following the morning break, the focus turned to chemicals with Paul Heierman-Rix, Head of Compliance at Brenntag, discussing risk and how a person can assess how much risk a company is willing to take and whether it is managed. Up next, Rusdee Azeem, Senior Electrical Engineer & Chee Ying-Chan, Business Project Manager at Petronas introduced a new and innovative risk-based inspection approach for explosion-proof equipment. Concluding the morning session, Chris Agius, International Executive Secretary of IECEx, provided an update on activities at the organisation and the latest work being conducted.
After the lunch break, attention turned to competence and skills. The session began with George Bradley, Senior Safety Consultant at TÜV Rheinland, discussing safety culture and present some case study examples of how employees can identify unsafe working practices. Heather Carroll, People & Skills Lead at Chemical Business Association, then looked at the issues relating to building sustainable future generations of talent in the chemical supply chain. Alan Montgomery, Technical Development Manager at CompEx Certification, concluded the session by introducing a newly established non-electrical inspection schedule for inspectors that is in its final stages of development.
The final session of Day 1 opened with Michael Ossai, Lead Functional Safety Engineer & Michael O'Neill, Technical Safety Engineer at Wood plc., presenting on explosion prevention considerations in project lifecycles. This was followed by presentations from James Birch, Senior Consultant at BakerRisk who presented guidelines for managing abnormal situations and Sean Makin, Applications Specialist at Newson Gale, who spoke about mitigating against the risk of an electrostatic discharge.
Day 2 of the Conference began with some equally informative presentations and discussions. Firstly, Chris Buttrick, Principal Specialist Inspector from the Health & Safety Executive, provided an update from the regulator on a number of issues affecting Major Hazard industries and Operators of Essential Services across the Chemical and Energy sectors. Simon Wood, Environment, Health and Safety Specialist at Fuels Industry UK (formerly UKPIA), then discussed lessons on long-term regulatory compliance before Neil Smith, Cogent Skills presented on process safety competence and the COMAH strategic forum.
The varied and informative presentations continued after a short break with Peter Davidson, Executive Director of the Tank Storage Association (TSA) speaking about the challenges and opportunities facing storage terminal logistics as industry looks to deliver Net Zero. Harvey T. Dearden, Director of SISSuite Ltd., then discussed a new model for safety alarm operator response time requirements and Karina Almeida, Principal Consultant / UK Energy Transition Lead at Gexcon, presented on inherently safe design for hydrogen applications. Closing Stream 1, Dr. Matt Celnik, Digital Innovation Team Lead at DNV, discussed the insights and opportunities of AI.
Conference Stream 2
On the first day of the event, the free-to-attend Stream 2 began with a packed room hearing from Bwalya Kafwembe, Head of Department, Risk Advisor at DNV, who presented the company’s recently published UK Energy Transition Outlook for 2024. This was followed Adam Chisholm, COMAH Business Development Manager at the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), who discussed the application of existing regulations to the onshore energy transition. Next up, Oliver Lancaster, Chief Executive Officer of the Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) offered perspectives on the energy transition and the importance of understanding the complexity of current energy systems to enable society to reach net zero.
Dan Allason, Principal Consultant at DNV, discussed hazards related to new energy and the need to fill knowledge gaps before Bob Banks, Hazardous Area Technical Authority at Dron & Dickson, spoke about initial inspections of packaged equipment. Titilola Oliyide, Senior Process Safety Engineer at Supercritical presented on safety and risk management of scaling next generation electrolyser technology, while James Jenkins, Region Segment Manager, Onshore Oil & Gas at DNV, spoke about the introduction of unproven technology and how technology qualification can enable implementation of innovative or unproven technologies.
Jasjeet Singh, Team Leader, Risk Management Consulting at DNV, gave a presentation about fire risk management in the electrification of transport and Mark Danter, Technical & Client Delivery Director at N-Gen Energy Solutions discussed the HAR 1 Bradford Low Carbon Hydrogen Refuelling Project. This was followed by David Tomkin, Principal Consultant at DNV, who looked at competency for the energy transition and Trainor’s Sales Manager Rolf Kinck speaking about the transferability of skills following the energy transition.
Tony Stonehewer, Principal Consultant at Pipeline Integrity Engineers discussed the role of technical standards for hydrogen and blends, before Gary Toes, Consultant at DNV, presented on hazard management in a developing hydrogen industry. The final session saw Lloyd Mitchell, FutureGrid Deblending Manager at National Gas speak about FutureGrid and repurposing the UK’s gas transmission system before Huw Bement, Managing Director of CompEx Certification discussed competency and skills for the energy transition in context.
Exhibition
As always, another vital aspect of Hazardex Live was the free-to-attend Exhibition which once again allowed the assembled audience to meet with leading hazardous area sector companies that were displaying the latest products and services. Exhibitors comprised cable manufacturers, trade associations, regional membership bodies, certification bodies, training providers, lighting manufacturers, communications specialists, inspection and asset management experts, enclosure specialists, risk management companies, plus many more hazardous area focused businesses and organisations.
Hazardex Live 2025
Plans are already well underway for Hazardex Live 2025 which is set to take place once again in Harrogate, UK on 26-27 February 2025. If you are interested in participating as a Sponsor, Exhibitor, Speaker, or in any other way, then please contact the Hazardex team via hazardex@imlgroup.co.uk or +44 (0) 1732 778544. Get involved!
For the latest news on all Hazardex events, keep an eye on www.hazardex-event.co.uk
Hazardex Live 2024 Exhibitors & Speakers
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