Liptak on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Got the following short email from our columnist and process control guru, Bela Liptak this morning. If you read our pages regularly, you know that Bela has some pretty definite opinions on the way things ought to be in process manufacturing. Here is the drawing he sent of how the Deepwater Horizon oil rig should have been designed.

Here's his email: "I got a letter asking if process control could have prevented the oil spill. The answer is a definite yes. I would never allow ANY critical shut off valve to be installed without a remote trigger. Same with the dead man switch. The same with mine operation without methane monitored escape alarm, etc, etc."