At a facility producing carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, fire broke out at 7 am in an electrical cabinet containing transmission cables for the liquid part of the process. The blaze caused a complete loss of control for 2 hours and a shutdown of the process responsible for releasing 2 to 8 kg of gaseous ammonia (NH3) into the atmosphere, subsequent to the sudden stoppage of the gas scrubber. In addition, ammonium hydroxide was released into the plant’s accidental pollution retention basin following discharge of a brine tank; this water made its way into the nearby river given that retention basin controls and monitoring installations had become unresponsive. This discharge wound up causing the death of some 400_kg of fish. According to the facility operator, the heating of electrical cables, traced to worn insulation, had triggered the incident. The control system, composed of control stations, a connecting bus and an automated system programmed to monitor the process, had been designed with a critical point in the form of a «node» at the time of creating the site’s 1st control system (26 years prior), through which all automated system cables were routed. Whereas all electrical component supply lines had been backed up, the automated system cables ran through a single cable tray in the electrical cabinet.
Source: Aria ACCIDENT ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
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