Where does your reactor rupture disc vent?

An accident in a reactor caused a rupture disc to burst open and spew the reactor contents out, killing people. Very often, people think that just by installing a rupture disc, a reactor is safe. You need to properly design the outlet system of a rupture disc. Read about the incident in this link.

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Ammonia transfer line incident

An incident of ammonia release has been reported in the USA when apparently a pressure safety valve malfunctioned. Check your safety valves in transfer lines - where do the PSV's release?  Are they tested regularly? Many times, tranfer lines are always in use and operations do not find the opportunity to release them for maintenance.

Read about the incident in this link.

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Ruptured reboiler caused fire?

A company news release about the explosion at their Geismar plant indicates the following:

"According to the preliminary findings three main factors in combination with one another contributed to the incident:

>      The unexpected presence of liquid hydrocarbons in the reboiler in standby mode

>      The introduction of heat into this standby reboiler

>      The pressure relief system was isolated from the reboiler which was in standby mode"

Read the news release in this link.

It is heartening to see this news release on the company's website itself. In India, we are still waiting news about the investigation about the cooling tower explosion in a refinery!!

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"This is your pilot sleeping"

A recent incident in a British airline where both the pilot and copilot dosed off because of lack of adequate sleep in the previous nights highlights the importance of fatigue management in the chemical industry, too. While the chance of a control room operator in a common control room in a chemical unit to fall asleep unnoticed is less, fatigue often impairs judgement and reaction. For plants using process simulators for training, it is worth to take the trainee through a series of night shift training sessions so that he himself feels the difference.
Read about the incident in this link.

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Emergency exits

Thanks to Mr Salim Akthar for sharing news about a fatality in a cement plant where a person died due to lack of proper emergency egress. The incident occurred when the persons went to attend to a cement extraction problem in a silo.  As the choke suddenly cleared, the victim panicked and it appears that while trying to escape from the exit staircase his forehead struck against some equipment / obstruction on the way. He died due to the impact. This incident highlights the importance of emergency exits while performing non routine jobs.


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Possible dust explosion during hot work

Thanks to Sujith for sending information on a possible dust explosion in a tank storing HDPE in Korea, during welding work. The news article in the Korea Joongang Daily mentions:
"The sudden and massive blast hit the plant, located at the Yeosu Industrial Complex, at around 9 p.m. Thursday, catching workers engaged in welding off guard, some falling 30 meters (98.4 feet) down from the tank to the ground, according to witness accounts.
The death toll is likely to rise as five of the 11 wounded are reportedly severely burned. Firefighters contained the fire within 10 minutes after the blast.
The plant, owned by Daelim Industrial, was undergoing maintenance work at the time.
Workers were welding a door into the tank to make an entrance so the company could send inspectors in to examine the interior, the company said. 
“We checked if there was remaining gas in the tank every time workers were put to work, thus multiple times a day,” said an official with Daelim’s public relations team, who requested anonymity.
“Each time, the result was zero. There was no gas lingering in the tank and thus that was not what caused the explosion.” 

Read the article in this link.


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Hot work accidents

We keep hearing about hot work accidents and loss of life. They are totally preventable and we need to apply basic precautions. See a powerpoint on welding cutting and brazing in this link.

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State of preparedness for chemical emergencies

A news report in the Times of India indicates that are 380 "Major Accident Hazard" (MAH) prone industrial units, of which 331are operational in Gujarat.  It also mentions that toxic chemicals with more than 5,000 MT tonnes storages in Gujarat are acrylonitrile, ammonia, benzene, chlorobenzene, chloroform, cyclohexanone, ethylene dichloride, hydrogen, cyanide, P-xylene, styrene monomer and toluene. The report specifies the gaps in infrastructure required for chemical emergency preparedness. Read the report in this link.

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Inherent safety and LOPA

A Chemical Engineering friend of mine (Vijay) who has about 35 years of experience in Process Industry wrote in to say this:

"Participated in a LOPA study involving pyrophoric materials. However, what struck me was people failed to understand intrinsic safe and unsafe. They did not grasp that giving high SIL rank and spending lot more on SIL certified instrumentation does not buy any increased safety from accidents that can occur when a pyrophoric material is handled. Only a process change can make things safer, not SIL certification or LOPA for inherently unsafe processes. This also happens to be the message of Fukushima. But people dont get it".

There is a strong lesson in his message!!
 
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HPCL refinery fire death toll increases to 27

The latest figure indicates 27 people have died till now in the HPCL cooling tower fire. I feel very sad when newpaper articles mention the death toll, also mention that only one HPCL employee was killed in the incident. A life is a life whether it is a contract worker or employee.
I am waiting for any news about the investigation. Any one know anything about the investigation findings?

Novel solution to flange leaks due to thermal expansion

Often, flanges leak due to the thermal expansion difference between the flange material and the fasteners.  An interesting article by a company that deals with such leaks. Read the article in this link.
PS: This is for information only.

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Another confined space fatality due to nitrogen

On 18th May an engineer in a refinery in Iran died when he entered a vessel filled with nitrogen. Time and again we keep hearing about deaths due to nitrogen. What are you doing to raise awareness of your employees about the hazards of nitrogen?
Read this article in EHS today.


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