************** Meeting *************
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***** SFPE Houston *****
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April 24th, 2025
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Lunch (fajitas) and a technical program
Guest Speakers:
Karen R. Vilas
FORTRESS Protective Buildings, LLC
Presentation:
“Goldilocks and the Three Fuels”
Location:
Banquet Room
Saltgrass Steak House
1803 Shepherd Dr, Houston, TX 77007
Summary of Presentation
In today’s rapidly evolving energy industry, three fuels are garnering a lot of attention: hydrogen, ammonia, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears is based on the “dialectical three”: the idea that the first is wrong in one way, the second in another or opposite way, and the third (the middle) must be just right. The dialect of three tells us that the middle path is the right path, but how does this apply to hydrogen, ammonia, and LNG? The discussion... compares these three fuels from the perspective of risks to onsite personnel and critical assets and challenges existing notions. The discussion will center around an assumption that rather than taking a “Goldilocks” approach and picking the best of three fuels, industry will maintain an “all of the above” approach. From a safety perspective, industry should be focusing on ensuring that we are designing, constructing, and operating facilities to reduce risk to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) regardless of the fuel being produced. One way to achieve this, which will be covered in this presentation, is to ensure each new production facility includes multi-hazard resistant protective buildings to protect personnel and critical assets.
Speaker Bio:
Recognized globally as a leader in process safety, Karen’s career has focused on Facility Siting Studies and Quantitative Risk Analyses for oil & gas and petrochemical facilities. Beginning in 2019, Karen helped to establish the Low Carbon Energy service offerings within BakerRisk, leading the Hydrogen and Hydrogen Carriers initiatives within the organization. Karen has been an active member of AIChE’s Center for Hydrogen Safety including working with the Organizing Committee in 2022.
In August 2022, Karen became President of FORTRESS Protective Buildings, a wholly owned subsidiary of BakerRisk. As a new market offering, FORTRESS provides multi-hazard resistant buildings (MRBs) for facilities handling hazardous materials. Since joining FORTRESS, Karen has leveraged her background and collaborated with clients to provide risk mitigation and risk management solutions by focusing on providing high quality, highly protective buildings to the US Gulf Coast market.
