Gas blowthrough incident

A gas blowthrough incident caused  H2S release from a tank roof. The cause of the gas blowthrough was due to a level control valve failure.Read the incident in this link.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Pressure vessels and hazards

A US EPCRA newsletter highlights the rupture hazards of pressure vessels and their prevention in their newsletter. It covers case studies also. These are basic precautions to be taken for pressure vessels. Make sure you heed them!
Read the news letter in this link.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

CSB's Chairman's comment on refinery safety

In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chairman of the CSB has commented on the spate of refinery accidents and says "I recently read some comments in the media suggesting that "accidents will happen" and suggesting that one bad mishap every few years is acceptable. It is not. The oil refinery industry has the resources to do a lot more to enhance process safety and thereby protect workers, neighbors and the country's increasing energy needs".

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Refineries-must-do-more-to-improve-safety-3851977.php#ixzz26DCbMlQz

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

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. 


 Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

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.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

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.

 Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

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.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

More pictures of Venezuela refinery fire

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

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

LPG road tanker accident

Thanks to M. Sujith for sending news about a LPG road tanker accident that reportedly has killed 2 persons in Kerala. Read about it in this link.
I hope the lessons learnt are shared publicly.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Major fire at Pharma factory

A major fire in a pharma plant near Halol has been reported. The cause was apparently a boiler burst. This reportedly caused a solvent fire. Read the article in this link.
 
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Blast and Fire in Venezuela refinery

News reports of a major blast and fire at a large Venezuela oil refinery are pouring in. 26 persons are feared dead. See the news report and watch raw video of the fire in this link
 
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Metrics and process safety

There is a lot of work in progress regarding leading and lagging indicators for process safety performance. While I do not dismiss the importance of the metrics, the problem is that unless the metrics are understood by the board or whoever is interpreting risk through the usage of these metrics, it will just be another non financial number. A dollar metric will grab eyeballs rather than metrics that tell you about leading indicators for process safety. This is the nature of humans. This can be avoided only by having technically competent personnel on the board of chemical companies. I believe things will improve only after it becomes legally necessary to have technically competent persons on the board of chemical companies and make them responsible for process safety management. Otherwise we will only keep seeing newer and newer terminologies but accidents will continue to happen and I will never be out of a job as a Process Safety Consultant!!
I welcome your views.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"