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I was recently on LinkedIn and came across a survey that a training leader in the ammonia industry posted. It was a survey that asked what you feel is the most important area when it comes to Process Safety Management in your industry. Four options covered detailed parts of the program that ranged from culture to the procedures for conducting management of change and how you keep your PSI library up to date. I paused for a minute before taking the survey because the one answe

The Reality of the Grind Since childhood, I’ve had to work. My dad would take me to jobs where I had no choice but to be used as an extra hand. Fast forward to adulthood: if I want to provide for my family, I need to work. But let’s be honest about the modern workplace. Most people are thinking about the same things: Is it time to go home? Is it Friday yet? Not many people want to be away from home punching a clock, driving from location to location, or staring at a computer

If you've spent any time in the industrial refrigeration industry, you've probably seen training certificates from contractors, manufacturers, and independent training organizations. They're valuable; they demonstrate you've completed a course, and they often provide excellent education. But it's important to understand one thing: A course completion certificate is not the same as a RETA certification. Training Certificates Have Value Organizations like GCAP, IRTC, and NWTI h

There's a quiet crisis happening behind the scenes of every cold storage warehouse, food processing plant, and ice arena in America, and most people have no idea it exists. The ammonia refrigeration industry is facing a significant workforce shortage, and the clock is ticking. The average age of a certified ammonia refrigeration technician in the United States is creeping toward 55. Retirements are outpacing new entries into the field. And the systems these professionals main

If your facility has a covered process under OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard (29 CFR 1910.119), you already know the checklist: Process Hazard Analysis, Mechanical Integrity programs, Management of Change, Operating Procedures, Incident Investigation. The elements are well documented and widely understood. But here’s the question that separates facilities with strong safety cultures from those one incident away from disaster: Is PSM something your team does, or some

I spent 90 minutes at a RETA meeting last week that was almost entirely dedicated to one thing: spray nozzles on evaporative condensers. Cleaning them. Inspecting them. Understanding what happens when you don't. It sounds like a narrow topic. But the longer the conversation went, the more it opened up performance degradation, energy costs, refrigerant pressure creep, and underneath all of it, safety. One small neglected component, compounding quietly over time. That's what a

When you're managing ammonia refrigeration systems, you face a constant challenge: maintaining rigorous safety standards while keeping operations running smoothly and cost-effectively. It's a balancing act that can make or break your facility's performance and your peace of mind. After some time of overseeing ammonia refrigeration inspection projects, I've learned that safety and efficiency aren't opposing forces. When approached strategically, they actually reinforce each ot

Why PSM programs have to manage real operational risk, not just legal exposure. Documentation, procedures, training records, inspection logs, audit findings, and corrective action records all have a place in a well-run PSM program. When something goes wrong, those records can become important very quickly. But legal defensibility is not the same thing as operational safety. Consider a common example in ammonia refrigeration: an SOP that technically exists, has been reviewed,

A practical framework for deciding what to build yourself and what to just go buy, and why that spreadsheet you put together isn't nearly as free as it looks. Most facilities don't decide to build their own PSM software. They drift into it. It usually starts with one person. A coordinator who's good with spreadsheets builds a tracker to keep tabs on action items. It works. So it grows. Now it's tracking PHA recommendations, MOCs, inspection due dates, and training records, al

The process safety world is abuzz with the potential incident in Orange County. If you haven’t been staying up-to-date, here is a brief overview: An ongoing hazardous materials incident at a GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, began after a 34,000-gallon storage tank containing roughly 6,000–7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate (MMA) overheated and began venting vapor, raising fears of a catastrophic explosion or toxic chemical release. The incident prompted e

How Smart Refrigeration Technology is Helping Facilities Reduce Costs, Improve Reliability, and Simplify Compliance Industrial refrigeration facilities are under increasing pressure to operate more efficiently while maintaining safe and reliable operations. Rising utility costs, staffing challenges, aging equipment, and growing regulatory expectations are forcing many companies to rethink how refrigeration systems are managed. Fortunately, modern ammonia refrigeration technol

There's a moment when most consultants recognize you're in a room where the facility operator, the contractor, and the engineer all have different priorities, different pressures, and different definitions of what "done" looks like. Your technical knowledge got you in that room. Your ability to navigate the people in it determines what happens next. In the ammonia refrigeration world, that dynamic shows up constantly. As consultants, we're always working between groups of fac

In high-stakes projects, velocity is often killed by a silent obstacle: decision fatigue. When a project hits a critical juncture like a technical shift or a change in compliance, the speed of the decision dictates the project's value. Clogged communication leads to "analysis paralysis," where hesitation stalls momentum, creates uncertainty in the field, and frustrates stakeholders at every level. What often looks like caution is really a delay in disguise. Macha PSM’s partne

Ammonia refrigeration systems often rely on more than one compressor type to achieve efficient performance across a wide range of operating conditions. Throughout this series, we have looked at reciprocating compressors, which remain the mechanical backbone of many systems, and rotary screw compressors, which dominate large industrial applications. The final piece of the puzzle is the rotary vane compressor, a design that, while less common than the other two, plays an import

Remote meetings have transformed how we do business. They allow us to collaborate across time zones, move quickly, and stay connected despite demanding schedules. At Macha PSM and Samwise, we rely on these tools every day for business development and technical exchanges. But something is getting lost. Recently, our team joined a virtual meeting where only a handful of participants had their cameras on. The energy was low. Engagement felt distant. The conversation, while techn

Population data continues to come up during EPA Risk Management Program inspections and technical discussions, specifically the use of 2010 Decennial Census population data in off-site consequence analyses. The issue is simple: that data is over a decade old. Why this matters Population counts directly drive the number of people potentially impacted in both worst-case and alternative release scenarios. If that input is outdated, the output is also outdated, regardless of how

OSHA, from time to time, issues “interpretations” that explain how the various language in its regulations will be enforced. On June 5, 2015, an OSHA memorandum was issued that addressed several topics regarding RAGAGEP. One of the topics of the memorandum addressed the words “shall” and “should” as used in the RAGAGEP. While these two simple words should be straightforward in interpretation, we shall see that it is not necessarily the case. First, “shall” was discussed as u

For those in the natural refrigeration industry, IIAR often feels like a set of high holidays, a time when professionals from across the country come together to reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, and celebrate the work that makes this space so meaningful. IIAR 2026 lived up to that expectation and more. Amidst a packed schedule of exhibit hall hours, technical sessions, and countless conversations, our team had the opportunity to do what matters most: connect. Whethe

There’s a consistent pattern behind most serious injuries and fatalities in industrial work. They rarely start with a catastrophic failure or a single dramatic mistake. More often, they begin with something small: PPE not worn correctly, a fire watch left unattended, a permit step skipped, or a shortcut taken to stay on schedule. In the moment, these actions don’t feel significant. They’re easy to justify. The job needs to get done. Time is tight. “We’ve done it this way befo

For more than a decade, the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program served as the United States’ primary regulatory framework for protecting high-risk chemical facilities from terrorist threats. But on July 28, 2023, Congress allowed CFATS’s statutory authority to expire, effectively shutting down the program overnight. If you work in ammonia refrigeration, chemical manufacturing, energy, distribution, or any sector handli