Missed Us at the 22nd GCPS? Our Presentations Are Now Available
The 2026 AIChE Spring Meeting and 22nd Global Congress on Process Safety in Houston was an energizing week for our team and for the broader process safety community. Thank you to everyone who attended our sessions, stopped by our booth, or took the time to connect with our team throughout the conference.
Download the Presentations
For those who weren’t able to attend, or who want to revisit what was covered, we’re pleased to make all of our GCPS presentations available for download below.
Unrecognized Hazards in Ammonia Refrigeration Relief Scenarios
Colin Armstrong, Principal Engineer & Group Leader, Quantitative Risk Services
Ammonia refrigeration systems are common across food production, cold storage, and many other industries outside of traditional chemical processing — yet the guidance for safely siting atmospheric pressure relief discharges in these systems remains limited. Using the 2024 Cuisine Solutions incident as a case study and pairing it with dispersion modeling, this presentation examines how relief valve discharges can pose unexpected hazards to personnel and what factors must be considered to ensure safe discharge siting.
Confined Explosion Hazards in Enclosed Process Buildings: A Recognized Risk with Limited Guidance
Colin Armstrong, Principal Engineer & Group Leader, Quantitative Risk Services
Based on analysis of all CSB-investigated confined explosion incidents from 1998 to 2025, this presentation establishes the scope of confined explosion risk — at least 20 fatalities, 123 injuries, and billions of dollars in damages in the U.S. alone — and proposes a framework for standardizing the assessment of confined explosions in PHAs and QRAs. If your hazard analyses don’t explicitly address enclosed buildings handling flammable materials, this presentation is essential reading.
Lessons Learned: Implementing Effective Process Safety Management Programs in Chemical Startups
Felicia Miller, Principal Engineer (co-authored with Christina Wyatt, Ascend Elements)
Chemical startups in sectors like green chemistry, low-carbon hydrogen, energy storage, and sustainable materials are operating at the frontier of innovation — and often building their process safety programs from the ground up. This presentation identifies seven key PSM implementation challenges unique to the startup environment and offers practical, hard-won lessons learned for practitioners supporting these organizations.
Have Facilitation Skills – Will Travel
David Heller, Senior Principal Engineer
What makes a great PHA facilitator — and can those skills transfer across industries? Drawing on experience leading hazard analyses across kelp harvesting, underwater welding, munitions destruction, and more, David explores the technical depth and interpersonal capabilities that allow a skilled facilitator to be effective anywhere.
Beyond a PHA: Using QRA and FTA to Evaluate Complex Hazards
Rich MacNguyen, Senior Engineer, Quantitative Risk Services (co-authored with Colin Armstrong)
PHAs and HAZOPs are foundational tools — but they have limits. This presentation provides a practical decision framework for knowing when complex hazards require escalation to QRA or FTA, and demonstrates the value of those methods through three real-world case studies: an ignition scenario analysis at a hazardous manufacturing facility, a flare system overload assessment, and a confined explosion analysis in a hydrogenation reactor.
KISS-Ing Process Safety Incidents Goodbye: Practical Solutions for Common Problems (Poster)
Felicia Miller, Principal Engineer
Not on website, but available upon request.
Ten common process safety vulnerabilities, ten straightforward solutions. Grounded in the KISS principle and drawn from real audit and field experience, this poster is a practical resource for safety professionals and front-line operations personnel looking to make meaningful improvements without major capital investment.
Questions? Let’s Talk.
If you’d like to discuss any of these topics further, explore how they apply to your facility, or learn more about AcuTech’s services, we’d love to hear from you.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2027 AIChE Spring Meeting & 23rd Global Congress on Process Safety.