Looking back at the Phillips 66 explosion in Pasadena, Texas: 30 years later

Kenneth (Ken) P. Bloch is a Process Safety Supervisor working in the Gulf Coast area of Houston, Texas. His experience of more than 30 yr in the petroleum refining industry includes serving in various maintenance, reliability, operations and safety roles in two major full-conversion refineries. He is a certified Process Hazard Analysis leader and TapRooT Root Cause Analysis trainer who specializes in industrial incident investigations. Mr. Bloch speaks regularly at professional conferences on topics that aid in preventing process safety events. He is the author of Rethinking Bhopal, an independent assessment of history’s most tragic industrial disaster, supported by modern references. He earned an Environmental Science degree (with honors) from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas in 1988.

Bruce K. Vaughen (PhD, PE, CCPSC) is the Lead Process Safety Subject Matter Expert at the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a technology alliance at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He has more than 25 yr of process safety experience, including engineering, research, teaching and consulting experiences, and as a visiting assistant professor at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. His roles have included leading global process safety management (PSM) efforts, updating and developing corporate PSM standards, and developing PSM training and workshops. He is coauthor of Process Safety: Key Concepts and Practical Approaches, the principal author of three CCPS guideline books, and has developed training modules for AIChE’s Safety and Chemical Engineering Education committee. He holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as well as an MS degree and a PhD in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Vaughen is a registered professional engineer in the U.S.