H2S kills again

 The Times of India has reported that two people lost their lives after inhaling H2S gas at a sewage treatment plant. One of the persons who died was a rescuer. Apparently a job of cleaning a pump was in progress when the incident occurred. Six other people were hospitalized.Neither of the two men given the job of cleaning pumps had any safety equipment or gas mask.
Read the article in this link
See a video of H2S safety in this link.

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Fukushima and Process Safety

The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent commission has submitted its report. There are lessons to learn from the incident.One of the conclusions of the commission is " Replacing people or changing the names of institutions will not solve the problems.Unless the root causes are resolved, preventive measures against future similar accidents will never be complete. The Commission believes the root causes of this accident cannot be resolved and that the people’s confidence cannot be recovered as long as this “manmade disaster” is seen as the result of error by a specific individual. The underlying issue is the social structure that results in “regulatory capture,” and the organizational, institutional, and legal framework that allows individuals to justify their own actions, hide them when inconvenient, and leave no records in order to avoid responsibility. Across the board, the Commission found ignorance and arrogance unforgivable for anyone or any organization that deals with nuclear power. We found a disregard for global trends and a disregard for public safety. We found a habit of adherence to conditions based on conventional procedures and prior practices, with a priority on avoiding risk to the organization. We found an organization-driven mindset that prioritized benefits to the organization at the expense of the public".


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Runaway reaction incident

The EPA has shared details of a runaway chemical reaction involving phenol formaldehyde reaction. In the incident investigation report,the following recommendations are made:
1. Conduct a thorough hazard assessment
2. Complete identification of reaction chemistry and thermochemistry
3. Ensure human factors are considered in administrative controls
4. Facilities should evaluate capacity of cooling system with respect to controlling unexpected exotherms.
5. Facilities must pay attention to the order of ingredients, the addition rates, under- or over-charging, and loss of agitation.
6. Learn from accident history and near misses

Read the case study in this link.

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Update on reactor blast incident

Further to the reactor blast incident at a pesticide manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh, a Times of India newspaper report indicates the following:
"According to experts, there were no control valve and safety rupture disc in the reactor, which exploded following increased temperature. Sources said that employees were testing 'myclo vutanyl', which is used as a pesticide in the agricultural sector, when the blast occurred. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and trizol mixture of 8,000 litres in the reactor was tested by night shift employees and the sample sent to the lab. The lab reportedly was not satisfied with the results and the morning batch employees were testing the compound again. During the process, temperature in the reactor shot up to more than 150 degrees centigrade. The block in-charge noticed it and tried to address the problem but it exploded before he could take any action. The fifth block has about 30 reactors and tanks, sources said. A majority of the workers were on tea break during the incident. "Had all the workers been present at the time of the blast, it could have led to fatalities. Eighteen workers got injured as splinters from glasspanes struck them," a worker said'.
 While the root causes of the above incident are under investigation, when operating batch processes, many incidents occur due to lack provision or sizing of  adequate pressure relief devices. This occurs many times due to scaling up of pilot plant trials to plant production without adequately assessing all the reaction data and associated hazards. Have a proper management of change process to address these gaps in a robust way. Read the article in this link.


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A new refinery shutdown by caustic corrosion

 Reuters report that a new refinery in the USA which was being commissioned had an inadvertent slippage of caustic into the system. Apparently the caustic caused severe corrosion of the major equipment in the refinery when the temperature of the unit was increased as part of the start up process. operators came to know of the problem when they started having leaks and fires. The damage apparently is huge and about 50 heat exchangers have to be cleaned. The process hazard analysis of the plant should have spotted the possibility of caustic leaking into the system. While I do not know the reason for the incident, today what I see in HAZOP studies is the competency of the team is coming down and the net result is a poor study output. The onus is more and more on the chair to guide the team properly, No PHA software can do this for you.
Read the Reuters article in this link.

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