Fatality at ammunition factory

A fatal accident at an ammunition factory has even experts "baffled". The article mentions "Mule, a permanent employee, was described as a highly skilled worker. The incident happened around 2.10 pm when he was about to go for lunch. AFK officials said there was a spark and suddenly Mule was on fire. Showing presence of mind, Mule sprinted towards a water tank and doused the fire. Otherwise, the fire could have spread causing much damage, said some of the employees". Maybe static electricity was the cause??
Read the article in this link
Read another article in this link

The dangers of aerosol cans

Yesterday I had been to the birthday party of my friend's eight year old daughter. The kids were playing with an aerosol can which generated foam thread, when pressed. None of the kids were aware of the hazards of the aerosol can and that the gas used as a propellant was flammable! What does this have to do with process safety? We also use aerosol cans for dye checking or lubricating/removing rust etc. Read the warnings on the can before you use them. Propane and butane are often used as propellants and the escaping gas can catch fire if a source of ignition is present. Also do not dispose empty aerosol cans in a fire. They can explode.
Thanks to R.Sriram for sending these tips on aerosol cans:

• Aerosols contain a product and a propellant that are packed under pressure.  
• Many people use aerosols without realizing some of the potential hazards associated with them. 
• Oven cleaners, tile cleaners, pesticides, disinfectants, hair sprays, room deodorizers, paints, and furniture polishes are examples of aerosol products. 
• When the nozzle of an aerosol is pressed, the product and propellant are released from the container in a fine mist. The actual product propelled by the aerosol, such as some oven cleaners, can be corrosive, flammable, or poisonous. Acute symptoms of aerosol exposure include headache, nausea, dizziness, shortness of breath, throat irritation, and skin rash. 
• A misdirected spray can cause eye injury and chemical burns. 
• Never leave or place an aerosol can near high heat sources, such as a heater, direct sunlight, or fire. 
• Keep aerosol cans away from children and pets. 
• Never puncture or subject an aerosol can to sharp impact; a sudden puncture may cause an explosion. 
• Dispose the Aerosols in a proper way.

A water tank kills

A supervisor was killed when he attempted to rescue his fellow worker who had collapsed after entering an empty water tank. Investigation is on to determine what was present inside the water tank. If a water tank can kill, just imagine the hazards you face when you enter a confined space in a chemical factory. Follow your company procedures strictly and don't take any confined space for granted. Read the article about the water tank fatality in this link.

Two killed in pharma factory fire near Hyderabad

A news article mentions that a fire in a pharma factory at Patancheru has killed two people. The article mentions that
"According to police, the fire engulfed the factory after a reactor exploded due to an electrical short-circuit. The fire broke out in the evening, and spread to neighboring factories. Fire-fighting personnel had to battle for five hours to control the flames.This is the second such accident in three days. Four workers of a chemical factory were killed in a reactor blast at Polepalli Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jadcherla in Mahabubnagar district near Hyderabad last Friday".
Read the article in this link
See a photo in this link.

The dangers of sewers

Two people were reportedly killed in a factory in Chennai when they entered a sewage tank that was not opened for a long time. Be careful of sewers in your factory and residential colonies. Entry should be done only with proper confined space entry permits

The dangers of water hammer

Many of you would have heard the "banging" noise that a water hammer produces inside a pipeline. We also do not expect a pipeline to be destroyed by water hammer. But it happens. An article by Gregg Basnight mentions the following:
"Contrary to old operating practices to drain and warm up steam lines, "Cracking Open" valves in lines to bleed condensate under steam pressure is NOT safe and has resulted in numerous reported water hammer fatalities.Before admitting steam to any line, the condensate must be removed. Condensate should be assumed to be in all low points and dead legs until proven otherwise by verification of drain or steam trap position and operation. Pressurized dead legs without functioning traps or periodic manual blowdowns will have condensate present. The affected section of piping should be isolated, depressurized and drained before restoring steam to the system".
Read the full article in this link.

Give importance to sight glasses

30 years ago, in the ammonia plant where I worked, the sight glass of a high pressure (200 Kg/cm2) ammonia separator leaked during start up. Luckily we managed to shut the plant down safely with no injury to anyone. The root cause was the wrong torquing procedure used. A good article about sight glasses mentions the following:

"Proper design, installation and maintenance of sight glasses are the keys to their safe and effective use....a sight glass almost always fails in tension rather than compression. This is similar to the case for concrete, because glass is not ductile and cannot stretch like metal. Therefore, tiny imperfections in a sight glass window can create stress concentrations, which are potential failure points. Just the touch of a finger on the window can reduce the tensile strength of a virgin glass element by three orders of magnitude from one million to 1000psi. Although design and manufacturing flaws are important, most sight glasses fail due to improper installation. Mechanical stress is a frequent cause, arising from the over-tightening or uneven torquing of bolts that generate bending loads on the glass. When an existing sight glass window is replaced, trapped debris may become a problem if old gaskets have baked onto the flanges. While this may seem trivial, it is actually very dangerous. Even small contaminant particles or build-up might be enough to scratch, pit or bend the new glass during installation".

Read more: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Sight-Glass-Safety-A-Major-Process-Plant-Concern/1604779#ixzz1gkkBXVxV
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

Laser scanning - a tool for Management of change and Asset Integrity

The most difficult elements to implement in a PSM program are management of change and asset integrity simply because of the large quantity of data involved and less time available. I was reading an interesting concept of laser scanning in an article in Power magazine. It mentions the following:
"Laser scanning also provides a dimensionally accurate representation of the plant and all its equipment as well as a photographic quality visual representation. The laser scan database can be integrated with a variety of plant design applications to provide comprehensive facility management support".
The concept will be very useful for PHA teams who are analysing changes/modifications as they can virtually "see" the proposed modification. It is also an useful tool for managing your asset integrity as another article mentions.
Read the article on laser scanning in this link
Read the article on Virtual asset integrity management in this link.

US Unions briefing on Process Safety

The USW union of the US has briefed the US Congress about health and safety problems in the oil industry. As per a news article,"USW Health and Safety Specialist Kim Nibarger outlined five fatal flaws at the briefing on where the oil industry needs to improve its health and safety record: process safety, mechanical integrity, management of change, incident investigation and control room alarms and instrumentation. “When things go bad in a refinery, they go really bad and people die,” he told the briefing. “Focusing on personal safety—the wearing of hard hats and safety glasses, slips, trips and falls—says nothing about how safe a refinery is for workers and the surrounding community. BP had a low personal injury rate at its refineries, but the 2005 explosion and fire at its Texas City plant showed it failed miserably in terms of process safety. Fifteen people were killed and 170 were injured in the 2005 accident as a result of this failure. “The oil companies are playing Russian roulette with their equipment,” Nibarger said. “They are doing quick, stopgap fixes, like placing clamps on pipes instead of replacing the pipe. They’re extending the time between unit shutdowns when all the equipment is checked. When there is a shutdown they’re not always repairing or replacing critical equipment. When they do repair equipment they’re not bringing it up to current RAGAGEP (Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices) standards.”
If the above sound familiar to you, take a hard look at your PSM program!
Read the full article in this link.

Adding too much chemical causes an incident

A news report mentions an incident where an orange gas cloud leaked from a manufacturing facility for making ferric sulphate. Apparently, too much nitric acid was added to a batch, resulting in a violent reaction that produced excess amounts of nitrogen dioxide that escaped from the reactor into the air.Nitrogen dioxide is a reddish brown gas and is highly toxic if inhaled and is also corrosive.
Ensure that you have proper controls over addition of chemicals, especially if adding an excess of one chemical can trigger something unwanted. Engineering controls are the best to avoid such mishaps. Depending only on an SOP in such situations may cause an an incident to happen.
Read the article in this link.

Boiler burst kills 4

A boiler of a dyeing unit  burst on Tuesday, killing four persons and injuring 20 others on Tuesday. Inquiries are on to find out the reason for the blast. An official said that the safety valve failed release in time, leading to pressure building up inside the boiler.Read about it in this link.

A change in piping material may overlook something else!

A plant decided to change its sulphuric acid piping from Cast Iron to SS. However, they decided to conduct piping design analysis as per code requirement.The analysis found out that design did not adequately consider the difference in cross-sectional thickness between Cast Iron and SS (Cast iron is very thick compared to stainless steel). Also, the heat transfer rates of CI and SS differ. The piping expert redesigned the piping system to account for the thinner cross-section and thermal expansion properties of stainless steel and thus avoided premature failure. 
Read the article in this link.

Explosion in sulphuric acid tank

An explosion in a sulphuric acid tank has injured four personnel in Japan. There is the danger of presence of hydrogen in sulphuric acid tanks and when you do hot work be aware of the simple precautions like gas testing etc.
Read about the accident in this link. The Chemical Safety Board had earlier brought out a safety bulletin on the Dangers of Hot work, which is worth reading for every plant operation, maintenance and safety personnel. Read it in this link.

Fire in Pharma Plant

A fire in the vacuum dryer area of a pharma plant has reportedly seriously injured three people. As per Company press release, it states "There was a fire incident in a powder processing area at early hours on Nov 28,2011, at unit 11 which is located at Pydibhimavaram, Srikakulam near Vizag, A.P. Three persons were injured and they were taken to the hospital. The powder processing area is isolated from the intermediate block. There was no impact to the operations as well as to the assets".
Another news report indicates that the fire was caused by an explosion due to high pressure in the vacuum dryer.
Read the news reports in these links
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

Remembering Bhopal............

Please spend December 2nd/3rd as “Process Safety Day” in your organisation. Educate your personnel on the Bhopal Gas tragedy and its lessons. 27 years ago, on the night on December 2nd/3rd, 1984, on a wintry night in Bhopal, thousands of men, women and children died an excruciating death when MIC leaked from the Union Carbide factory. The survivors and the next generation children born to those exposed to the gas still are suffering from the effects of the gas. Bhopal is an ongoing tragedy and should never be forgotten. The Bhopal gas disaster comprises actually of three disasters - the first was the actual incident, the second was the inadequate compensation received and the third is the ongoing legacy of genetic defects and effects of the hazardous waste that has seeped into the ground water. Every plant operating, maintenance and safety personnel must never forget the lessons of Bhopal. They are still relevant today:
1. Do not cut costs without looking at the effects on process safety
2. Maintain all your layers of defense including asset integrity
3. Continually ensure that competency of personnel operating and maintaining plants are updated and current
4. Be prepared for the worst case scenario.
5. Understand the risks and measures to eliminate / reduce or control them
6. Learn from your past incidents. Those who do not learn are condemned to repeat the incidents.
7. Pay heed to your process safety management system audit reports

As you are aware, this blog is also dedicated to the surviving victims of Bhopal and for my regular subscribers, I appeal to you to buy my book "Practical Process Safety Management", the proceeds from which are donated to the surviving victims of Bhopal.Contact me at bkprism@gmail.com for buying the book.

See a presentation on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy by Vijita S Aggarwal, Associate Professor, University School of Management Studies,GGS Indraprastha University,Delhi, India in this link.
Read my older post comparing the Bhopal and the BP incident of 2005 in this link
Read the then Police Chief’s account of the tragedy in this link.

Witness to a catastrophic near miss!

On 29.11.1984, I was working  in an ammonia plant when a cylcone hit the place. Management had taken advance action and instructed us to shut off the back end of ammonia plant (the back end of the ammonia plant involves high pressures). We had shut down the back end and were waiting for the cyclone to hit us. The wind speeds were very high and all of us were taking shelter in the control room. A complaint then came in from the  another plant that was located within the same complex, that they were experiencing severe ammonia odour.  Thinking that the pilot burners of the ammonia derrick supported flare that was provided for emergency venting of the ammonia storage tank was put off by the high winds, I requested operators to go out and check them. Three operators had to go, holding each other tightly,as the wind speed was so high and could blow a man off his feet. After a short while they came back and reported that the flare was missing. I went out to check with another team and we found to our horror that the flare structure had collapsed on the main ammonia vapor line coming from the tank. The derrick structure was weak and could not bear the brunt of the wind speeds, but the main flare gas pipe was in good condition and when the derrick toppled, the main gas pipe prevented it from falling all of a sudden. Instead it fell slowly and came to rest on the ammonia vapor line! The 8" main ammonia vapour line from the tank was dented, but did not leak.
When you conduct your asset integrity program, pay attention to structures. Nowadays, in many plants, painting schedules are taking a back seat, with the net result that corrosion creeps in. Corrosion is a silent killer. It will hit you one day if you don't maintain your assets.
Interestingly, recently I read an article where a complete flare structure repair was done with minimum downtime in a plant.Read the article in this link.

Escaping from steam

Many of you will be working with steam. During startups the possibility of water hammer in a steam pipeline has the potential to rupture the line or flange joints. Your SOPs must warn operators about the dangers of water hammer. An article mentions that the best way to escape from a closed space in which a steam leak has been triggered due to water hammer is to escape in the direction in which the steam is leaking through an exit. Read this article in this link

Heat transfer fluids

Paratherm have brought out a good booklet on heat transfer fluids - do's. dont's and best practices. Some of the points brought out are:
"If any hydrocarbon liquid (oil, grease, heat transfer fluid, hydraulic fluid) is allowed to enter porous insulation, it will begin to oxidize, raising the insulation’s internal temperature. If this temperature exceeds the fluid’s autoignition temperature, the fluid is likely to spontaneously combust into a smoldering fire. Thoroughly inspect all insulation for signs of wetness and other damage.Although “hydro” testing is a commonly accepted practice with heat transfer systems,alternatives such as pressure-testing with inert gas or with the heat transfer fluid itself should be considered. Water in a system can cause pump cavitation and corrosion and, if trapped in a “dead leg” and hit by high-temperature oil, can flash to steam and literally blow the pipe or tubing apart. And if the pipe doesn’t burst, the expansion can push a slug of hot oil out the expansion tank’s vent—a serious safety hazard".
Read the complete article in this link.

Blast in melamine plant kills 14

A BBC news report indicates that 14 people were killed in a blast in a melamine plant in China when work was going on an heat exchanger. Read the news report in this link. The cause of the explosion is not known.
The European agency for safety and health and work reports an incident in 2003, in Netherlands, where three maintenance workers were killed when a gas oven in a melamine plant exploded and the three workers who were standing on the cover of the oven fell into it.The gas oven was fired by natural gas and off gases from neighbouring plants. The off gases were contaminated and were filtered before use. The filters had to be cleaned regularly. A short cut taken during maintenance of these filters created a combustible mixture of gas and air in the oven which was ignited by a stray spark. Although this was the immediate cause of the explosion, investigations concluded that the underlying cause was a company culture which had allowed the untested short cut procedure to be used.
The lesson is to follow safe procedures and not to take short cuts even under time pressure. The accident also highlights the importance of the safety culture. Read the report in this link.

Chlorine leak in paper mill

Thanks to Abhay Gujjar for sending information about a chlorine leak from a chlorine dioxide storage tank in a paper mill. Four people are reported taken to hospital.
TAPPI, the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging and converting industries has published a booklet on safe handling and storage of Chlorine dioxide. The following points are mentioned:
Chlorine dioxide gas is unstable and readily decomposes to chlorine and oxygen under upset conditions
Chlorine dioxide decomposition is a propagating reaction similar to a combustion front or flame. Providing a sweep of fresh air across the vapor space of a storage tank has shown to reduce the probability and violence of decomposition.
Read the complete guidelines in this link. 
Read about the incident in this link.