Therefore, process safety is essential to deal with major accidents that can occur in the process industry.
A major accident is defined as “an occurrence such as a major emission, fire, or explosion resulting from uncontrolled developments in the course of the operation of any establishment” (Directive 2012/18/EU, SEVESO III).
Examples of major accidents happened in the process industry over the world are: Flixborough in United Kingdom (1974), Seveso in Italy (1976), Bhopal in India (1984), Enschede in the Netherlands (2000), Tou- louse in France (2001) and Buncefield in United Kingdom (2005).