<p>The process industry is comprised of various process equipment, and shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE) networks are widely used, which may fail and cause severe damage. The process safety concept is envisaged to reduce these failures through various techniques. Inherent safety technique is preferred as they can be applied efficiently from the preliminary design stage. Available inherent safety methods are limited in considering equipment characteristics for the SHTE network, along with the chemical mixture. Consequently, a novel inherently safer framework for generating process design of STHE network at the preliminary design stage is presented in this paper, considering said limitations. Initially, in the STHE network they are comparatively analyzed using a newly developed inherent safety index for shell and tube heat exchanger (I2STHE) to recognize the dangerous STHE. It is further examined using risk estimation and analysis. In case the risk is beyond acceptability, inherent safety principles are employed to make modifications in the design until the risk is acceptable. A case study of synthesis loop for ammonia production is used to demonstrate the method. It offers the benefit of widely used process simulation software by process engineers, enabling them to quickly generate an inherently safer process design for a heat exchanger network at the preliminary design stage.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>