Common problems in gas processing facilities

Mr Vimal Kumar has listed 22 common problems faced in gas processing facilities in this link. Worth a read. 


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Tower malfunctions - 50 year history study

A good article by Henry Z Kister on"What caused tower malfunctions in the last 50 years" can be read in this link.

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Responsible Care - to make it work in India

The accident at the fireworks factory in Sivakasi highlights the need for enhancing safety in the chemicals and explosives industry. There are two aspects to safety - one is voluntary and the other is enforcement. I want to talk about the voluntary initiatives. Initiatives like Responsible Care (trademark of American Chemistry Council) etc  are adopted voluntarily by organisations. In India, the awarding of the Responsible Care logo is carried out by the Indian Chemical Council (an organisation of chemical manufacturing units). The proof of the pudding in awarding the logo lies in the company not experiencing any fatal accident after the award of the logo. If any fatal accident does occur in a company that has been awarded the logo, then the logo must be withdrawn by the awarding authority. Unless this happens, the public are not going to develop faith in the process.
In India, for Responsible Care, I suggest that companies must adopt one more code called " mentoring of small scale industry" around the location of the unit. This means that resources for improving the safety in nearby small scale industries must be voluntarily expended by the company. This will have a trickle down effect to improve safety in the whole chemical industry.

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The importance of pre start up safety review

OSHA has cited a company in the US that produces of liquid natural gas through a cryogenic process." The incident occurred while employees were restarting the process. Cryogenic liquids were improperly routed through equipment not rated to withstand extreme cold temperatures, resulting in the explosion and fire.The willful violation is for failing to conduct an analysis of pre-startup safety conditions and systematically managing changes to process-related technology, equipment, procedures and facilities".
Read the citation in this link.

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More pictures of Venezuela refinery fire

National Geographic have some excellent pictures of the Venezuela oil refinery fire in this link. 

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