Hélène Moumrikoff, Deputy Director of Gesip, discusses the nature and influence of the organization on the evolution of industrial regulations and safety technologies. She explains how Gesip’s technical expertise helps enhance industrial safety through testing and evaluation of a wide range of safety technologies.
Gesip has established itself as an international leader in industrial safety. What does your company’s expertise entail?
We have been specialists in industrial safety since 1953. Gesip is a community of industry professionals and experts dedicated to enhancing the safety of people and facilities through technical expertise and training. As such, we provide consulting services to industrial and logistics sites as well as government agencies.
Pour réaliser sa mission, Gesip fédère une soixantaine d’industriels français et internationaux, membres de différents secteurs industriels. Nous travaillons ensemble à l’amélioration de la sécurité industrielle dans le cadre de groupes d’échange et d’étude, au sein desquels, Gesip recueille les positions des meilleurs experts sur les sujets de sécurité au coeur de l’actualité du secteur.
In that regard, Gesip is known for having developed high-quality technical expertise—is that accurate?
Recognized by the authorities, Gesip’s expertise and impartiality enable our organization to contribute to the development of numerous regulatory documents that cite our methodological guides as references. This is the case, for example, with regulations concerning POIs and pipelines, as well as with the ongoing work on NGV and CNG.
Gesip operates two technical facilities—unique in Europe—located in Vernon and Roussillon, equipped with full-scale training units within industrial facilities. These facilities enable us to conduct trials and tests to ensure the safety and effectiveness of existing and emerging technologies.
Gesip has therefore built a 300-meter pool2. Its extraordinary dimensions—50 meters long by 6 meters wide—allow for the testing of new fluorine-free foams on pool fires under real-world conditions to simulate pool fire scenarios such as the one that occurred at the Lubrizol fire.
The infrastructure at our sites has also enabled us to conduct CAF tests, including performance tests of a foam generator mounted on a fire truck with compressed-air foam propulsion, as well as LPG nozzle tests and a performance evaluation of a PONS robot.
In addition, we conducted evaluations of high-flow Williams nozzles, performance tests of a fire retardant exposed to a flaming gas jet, and fire resistance evaluations of bonded and non-welded materials.
In collaboration with the military, particularly as part of Operation Barkhane, Gesip has conducted combustion tests on water tank liners, tarps for the SEA, and fuel tanks.
Finally, Gesip experts conducted boil-over tests to control this phenomenon of sudden vaporization of water trapped by the product, which creates a fireball capable of causing extensive damage to equipment.
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What training services does Gesip offer at its industrial facilities?
Risk management relies on understanding events and sharing experiences. That is why we offer a wide range of training programs tailored to industrial and logistics sites.
Gesip also makes its technical facilities and team of trainers available to its partners to help them organize an event, a training session, or a demonstration of products and services.
Gesip’s training facilities feature a variety of workshops designed to facilitate hands-on training in dynamic scenarios involving large hydrocarbon fires, chemical leaks, confined-space operations, risk assessment, and immersive crisis management.
Thanks to a unique combination of accumulated technical expertise and full-scale facilities, Gesip has become a leader in industrial safety training.
Gesip’s existing expertise is an undeniable asset in ensuring that past mistakes are not repeated. It also serves as a solid foundation for sustainably building on new knowledge, developing a collaborative regulatory framework, and enhancing the safety of operations.
