Demystifying Hazard Classifications to Debottleneck Design Delivery: Insights from UltraFacility 2025

At the UltraFacility 2025 Annual Conference, Farnsworth Group’s Brandon Ekberg, Principal of Advanced Manufacturing and Technology, and Trent Adelmann, Process Engineering Associate, led a roundtable focused on a complex challenge in advanced manufacturing: hazard classification impacts to the design delivery process. 
 

Hazard Classifications impact Building Design 

All building design decisions start with room occupancies determined by hazard classifications. These decisions must then consider applicable building and fire code requirements which are organized by hazard. Incorrectly assigning hazard classifications can critically impact project costs, impact hazard communication programs, and delay system and building design schedules in all project phases from programming to permitting.  

 "We often find that project teams are not well aligned on concepts of control areas and High hazard occupancy limitations and restrictions.  Chemical inventories must be carefully managed from the beginning.  Classifications have to be finalized quickly so engineers and architects can properly assign room occupancy and design code required access and egress requirements."
Brandon EkbergPrincipal of Advanced Manufacturing and Technology

Hazard Classification Challenges 

Hazard classifications of chemicals are determined primarily by information contained in their respective Safety Data Sheet.  Architects, Engineers, Owners, and other experts assign IBC compliant hazard classifications from Safety Data Sheet information which often includes NFPA 704’s hazard ratings and the UN’s Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) hazards. When information in Safety Data Sheets is insufficient for hazard classification, other authoritative resources are used like OECD’s eChem Portal and NIH’s PubChem database. 

"The classification process can be very challenging when the chemical Safety Data Sheets don’t have well defined information, information is missing, or there is conflicting information between different Safety Data Sheets.  Other authoritative data sources often must be used to derive credible and defendable IBC hazard classifications."

Innovative Approaches from Farnsworth Group 

In response to these challenges, Farnsworth Group has developed proprietary tools designed to streamline compliance and scenario analysis.  Farnsworth Group has also developed a robust chemical database to aid in hazard classification and other industrial process safety tasks. 

"We’ve developed an analysis tool that greatly shortens the time needed to evaluate the impacts from a change in chemicals or gases on a project.  In a working meeting with the client, we can make real-time changes to room locations, quantities, container sizes, classifications....and have instantaneous MAQ feedback that enables us to make immediate code compliant corrections.  This is a tremendous help to our clients in performing what-if scenario planning more quickly and shortening their design cycle."