Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Management issued the mandatory industrial standard Guidelines for the Preparation of Special Chapters on Safety Facility Design for Hazardous Chemicals Construction Projects (AQ 3066-2025), which will come into force on July 1, 2026.

Safety facility design is a fundamental and critical task for preventing and resolving major safety risks at the source and implementing intrinsic safety. Based on previous normative documents, the Guidelines address design deficiencies and "congenital defects" exposed in accidents in recent years. Adhering to the concept of intrinsic safety design and focusing on process hazard analysis, they impose strict requirements on the qualifications of design entities, and regulate provisions including process safety and reliability demonstration, reaction safety risk assessment, and external safety protection distances. The Guidelines strengthen safety control measures for projects involving "two key points and one major source" and under abnormal operating conditions, and elaborate requirements for the configuration of safety facilities covering automatic control, process systems, layout, equipment and piping, electrical and instrumentation, and accident emergency response. They clarify who shall conduct safety facility design, how to conduct it, what to include and how to compile the special chapter, and will effectively enhance the level of safety risk prevention and control for hazardous chemicals construction projects.