2023 Sep-Oct RETA Breeze

COMPLIANCE WHAT TO EXPECT POST AMMONIA RELEASE Scott Sweet & Jack McCarthy

ENGINEERING WAR STORIES - TALES OF AN AMMONIA REFRIGERATION ENGINEER Henry Bonar Henry Bonar is a Refrigeration Legend. He comes from a refrigeration family. He is considered an Ammonia Refrigeration expert. Several former RETA presidents consider the Bonar’s as mentors. This is your opportunity to add Henry to your mentor list. His wealth of experience should make this presentation memorable. “Over the years I’ve had experiences some more meaningful than others and some that only occur maybe once in a lifetime that I’d like to share. Learning from others is a most painless way to improve your engineering skills. Ammonia has been a key refrigerant particularly in the perishable food industry for more than 100 years and probably will remain an active refrigerant in many applications. One pops up in my mind is the cooling system for the space shuttle computer system utilizes ammonia. Learning to use it and its idiosyncrasies and respect it are key to its successful use in time.” Lack of preparation, planning, and experience are critical components that must be evaluated and overcome as part of any emergency pre-planning scenarios. Coupled with this aspect but typically less prepared for is business continuity. This planning, which is tied to the interruption of the business due to an event, encompasses facility preplanning, business continuity, and planning to ensure that a business will survive an ammo nia event. Bookmark this one. This is one you won’t want to miss. Some of our greatest fears around compliance involve what happens when we have a release. Scott and Jack will be presenting their whitepa per “What to Expect Post Ammonia Release” at this year’s conference. Here is a sneak peek. Any unplanned emergency, and potentially catastrophic anhydrous ammonia release can have devastating effects on both the personal safety of employees, the public, the environment, and certainly the continuity of any associated business. Our experience and involvement with a myriad of release types (including ammonia fatalities), interaction with Federal, State, and Local regulatory agencies, as well as client legal counsel, have provided a number of “lessons learned” that will be shared with the audience. It is the author’s intent to prepare the audience for the after action event timelines through discussion and real-world examples to assist and prepare the audience for the unexpected.

LIFE CYCLE OF A RECOMMENDATION

Kevin Cardoza Deficiency recommendations can be the bane of our compliance programs. Kevin’s upcoming conference presentation will walk us through the pitfalls of recom mendations. Alleviating our fears (hopefully) and giving us some tools to deal with these pesky things. Have you ever had difficulty in both developing, assessing, and closing out recommendations resulting from a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)? It may be difficult to not only develop a recommendation in hopes to improve upon the safety and efficiency of the refrigeration system, but it can also prove challenging in understanding the following steps to ensure that a recommendation is properly implemented and documented. Recommendations may also require additional steps in order to meet the require ments for recommendation closure from a regulatory viewpoint. The technical paper Life Cycle of a Recommendation for the 2023 RETA Conference aims to provide its audience with assistance in development and implementation of recommendations. The aim is to improve upon the regulatory standings which play a role in recommendation closure and provide insight from experienced individuals in the field who assist in the documentation of recommen dation closure. The regulatory standings may lead into one another or require that another regulatory aspect be addressed as part of the recommendation closure. By developing and expanding upon the intricate relationship between regulatory requirements and experiences, the aim is to demonstrate the “life cycle” of a recommendation. Finally, the technical paper aims to reflect on how proper implementation or how a “shortened” life cycle of a recommendation may affect those associated with refrigeration systems. A deeper understanding of recom mendations will allow for greater management, safety culture, and efficiency of PHAs for the refrigeration system.” If you’re losing sleep over your recommendation backlog, plant to attend this session.

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