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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Massive fire in pesticide plant

A reactor in a pesticide plant apparently exploded about a few hours ago. Many people are feared injured. Read the breaking news in this link.
See photos of the fire in these links:
Link 1
Link 2  
See video in this link.

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More pictures of steel plant accident

The steel plant accident has several probes working to find the root causes. An article in the Hindu mentions three probes - one by the factory Inspector, another by National Legal Service Authority (NALSA)and another by a high level committee to go into the accident and recommend measures to prevent recurrence of such accidents.

The committee, to be headed by former SAIL Chairman S.R. Jain, will investigate the incident and submit a report within a month. I hope we get to see the root causes from all these investigations.

Meanwhile see some more pictures of the accident in this link.

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Micro reactors and inherent safety - the future?

A press release mentions the following:
"Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal have developed a method for safer production of nitroglycerine: a microreactor process, tailored to this specific reaction. What makes the process safer are the tiny quantities involved. If the quantities are smaller, less heat is generated. And because the surface is very expansive compared to the volume involved, the system is very easy to cool. Another benefit: the tiny reactor produces the explosive material considerably faster than in agitating vessels. Unlike a large agitating vessel filled before the slow reaction proceeds, the microreactor works continuously: the base materials flow through tiny channels into the reaction chamber in “assembly-line fashion“. There, they react with one another for several seconds before flowing through other channels into a second microreactor for processing – meaning purification. This is because the interim product still contains impurities that need to be removed for safety reasons. Purification in the microreactor functions perfectly: the product produced meets pharmaceutical specifications and in a modified form can even be used in nitro capsules for patients with heart disease. “This marks the first use of microreactors in a process not only for synthesis of a material but also for its subsequent processing,“ observes Dr. Stefan Löbbecke, deputy division director at ICT. The microreactor process is already successfully in use in industry".

The use of micro reactors on a large scale will usher in a sea change in process safety. We will be investigating micro explosions instead of the major ones now!!
Read the press release in this link.

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Vehicle movement near flare headers

In March this year, a backhoe knocked a flare header off a pipe rack in a refinery in the USA, leading to a partial evacuation of the refinery. Flare systems including the flare header play a critical part during emergencies, start up and shutdowns. Ensure that you have proper engineering controls (vehicle impact protection) and administrative controls to prevent this happening to your emergency flare/ vent header systems including pipe racks. Read my earlier post on vehicle impact protection in this link.

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Accident at steel plant

Thanks to Deivanayagam for sharing pictures of the steel plant accident. The pictures show the extent of the explosion. The control room damage is also seen. The cause of the incident is being investigated. I hope the incident report is shared so that everyone can learn the lessons.A blast wave can damage everything in its path. Are your control rooms blast proof? See the pictures in this link. (Large file.... be patient)
 
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Pigging accidents

An oil pipelines was being cleaned by "pigging", which involves pushing a cylindrical plug through a pipeline for cleaning it. In this incident the pig was pushed by compressed natural gas. The pig got stuck in the pipeline and natural gas blow through occurred past the pig. The natural gas found its way to pumps and storage tanks and was vented through the tanks safety valves. Luckily it did not catch fire. The investigation determined that the blow through of gas due to a stuck pig was not considered in the job safety analysis. There are many other incidents when a pig receiver cover was opened without proper depressurizing and the pig blasting out, killing the operator. Pigs have known to be blown 100 meters away. Do a proper JSA while pigging.
Read a safety advisory bu the National Energy Board in this link.

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Bhopal waste to be sent for disposal

About 350 MT of toxic wastes lying in the Union Carbide Plant at Bhopal is to be airlifted to Germany for disposal, says a news report. I wonder what happens to the contamination that has already taken place in the ground water due to these toxic wastes. Read the news article in this link

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Heed your near misses and past incidents

A massive blast in a steel plant in Vizag has killed many people. Apparently the incident occured during start up. The Times of India mentions many other incidents that occured before the fatal blast. Heed your past incidents and near misses. No major disaster comes without warning. This is also true in the Bhopal Gas Disaster and the BP Texas City incident of 2005.. There were enough signals that something big was about to happen Read the TOI article in this link.

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Withdrawing of safety award

Thanks to S.Selvam for sending news that the British Safety Council has withdrawn two safety awards pending further analysis– including one endorsed by the UK's Health and Safety Executive to a company after it was brought to their attention about controversies including fatality at the group's operations in Orissa.
I am always of the view that if PSM or any other safety management system is to succeed, the proof of the pudding is no fatalities or injuries occur in that site or outside. I often come across organizations getting an award and soon after, a fatal accident occurs in that organization. Read the article about the withdrawing of the award in this link

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Using technology for safer confined space entries

I came across a presentation in a seminar by Matty Zadnikar of Z group which has used technology to ensure safer entry and monitoring of confined spaces. Specifically, their technology allows
Automatic access control
Continuous gas detection
Camera surveillance
Communication
Alarming
Wireless data transfer
Download the presentation in this link.
PS: I am not endorsing the product - this is for information only.

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