Basic safety guidelines while using gas cylinder

Air products has brought out a simple and effective safety bulletin on gas cylinders.
Read it in this link

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Taiwan gas pipeline blast

Close on the heels of the GAIL pipeline blast in Andhra Pradesh recently, comes news of a similar blast in an underground gas pipeline in Taiwans second largest city. The pipeline was passing through a busy road. See the video and 10 photos of the blast in this link. (Courtesy of Time magazine)


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Lessons from an air crash

The NTSB's investigation of an air crash at San Francisco airport during landing last year mentions that

"The board’s acting chairman, Chris Hart, warned that the accident underscores a problem that has long troubled aviation regulators around the globe — that increasingly complicated automated aircraft controls designed to improve safety are also creating new opportunities for error. 

The Asiana flight crew ‘‘over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand,’’ Hart said. 

‘‘In their efforts to compensate for the unreliability of human performance, the designers of automated control systems have unwittingly created opportunities for new error types that can be even more serious than those they were seeking to avoid,’’ he said. "

Read the article in this link. 

I am a firm believer of keeping it simple. Just because that vendors try to sell you a piece of "latest" technology, do not buy it unless you are convinced it will be useful for you. If the argument is that we need more automation systems as competency is going down, I would answer by saying, keep your systems simple so that your training programs become more effective!


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Operational Safety and Maintenance: Fear Ad Hoc Fixes | Chemical Processing

Operational Safety and Maintenance: Fear Ad Hoc Fixes | Chemical Processing



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We are like this only........

Recently I was travelling on a highway which is notorious for accidents. The company car which had picked me up had 4 other employees in it. Only the driver and me (sitting in the rear seat) were wearing the seat belts. I finished my work in the company (which has many plants at various locations) and was travelling back with the corporate safety head of the company along with me. He was not wearing his seat belt!! The driver was rash but none objected till I told him to drive safely. Guess you know where the problem is!!
Why are we like this??

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Pneumatic test accident

The dangers of pneumatic testing is highlighted in this fatal accident.


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PROCESS SAFETY TRAINING SERVICES BROCHURE

To all my readers, please find the process safety training brochure listing out the various topics I provide training in this link. 

 
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Major fire in chemical factory in AP

A major fire in a chemical factory in Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh has been reported. The fire apparently began due to methanol catching fire. Read and see the video at NDTV in this link 



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Bypassing overrides and the metro incident

The recent incident in the Delhi metro where the train travelled some distance with the doors open has a parallel to process safety. Apparently, problems were observed by the driver with the door closing system and he requested permission to override it and operate it manually. After getting the permission, he apparently did operate the doors manually in a few stations, but forgot to do so at one.

When you authorise trip or override bypasses due to a malfunction, the sense of vulnerability must increase ten fold with close supervision to prevent human error remember WHERE HUMAN, THERE ERROR!

Read the article mentioning the incident in this link. 


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Controlling a chemical plant by thought

 Engineers are perfecting the art of flying a plane just by using a pilots thoughts. This research has progressed rapidly and the article in this link explains the status.
Is it possible that a few years down the line, we may be controlling plants through the DCS operator thoughts? If they perfect the art of flying a plane just by thoughts, then I am sure the technology will filter down.


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Explosion in chemical plant injures one

 News reports in the USA indicate an explosion occurred in a chemical plant, injuring one. "A broken process line produced a chemical reaction, causing a small explosion in the chemical production area" is the statement made by plant official in this link. 

 While I am not commenting about the cause of this incident which is under investigation, how good is your asset integrity program? A good asset integrity program should ensure that you do not have failures like broken lines etc.

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Contamination in pipelines can cause disasters

In 2009, a commercial jet liner had to declare an emergency and land at Hong Kong airport after its engines lost thrust due to contaminated fuel. The reasons for the contamination was because of salt water in the fuel which was loaded in the previous airport. The underground fueling system at that airport was being extended. During the commissioning, salt water in a new pipe entered the main fuel lines as the clearing procedures were inadequate. This caused the thrust problems in the engines. In our chemical process industry, we often line up equipment after repair/hydrotest. Any remnants of water could cause a catastrophic incident later. Make sure your commissioning and start up procedures address this.


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People, Processes And Problems: Better Understanding The Three P’s Of Manufacturing

People, Processes And Problems: Better Understanding The Three P’s Of Manufacturing

Thanks to Balachander Rao, my chemical engineering classmate for sending this insightful article.

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GAIL officials’ negligence led to pipeline blast: expert - The Hindu

GAIL officials’ negligence led to pipeline blast: expert - The Hindu

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Deadly reaction of lime sulphur with NPK solution

An incident where a farm worker was exposed to Hydrogen Sulphide due to mixing of Lime sulphur (mixture of calcium polysulfides formed by reacting calcium hydroxide with sulphur) with NPK solution is highlighted in this link.

MSDS of lime sulphur is given in this link where it mentions acidic materials or dilution with water will cause the release of hydrogen sulfide.



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Article on flange leaks

Even though this article is 9 years old, the causes of flange leaks remain the same. Worth reading in this link.
PS: This is for information only.

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Responsible Care - reinforcing public opinion

The Indian Chemical Council is promoting Responsible Care and trying to motivate organisations into obtaining the RC logo it awards. This is a good initiative but the public needs to have faith in the process. The public are always sceptical of any self regulation by an industry body as they feel that it will be compromised. I have a few suggestions to the ICC to help to make RC more acceptable by the public:

1. The logo should be awarded with the condition that it will be withdrawn if a fatal or reportable accident occurs after awarding the logo. The company then has to go through the whole process for obtaining the logo. ICC must not only publicise the list of companies that have been awarded the logo, but also publicise the names of companies for which the logo has been withdrawn.
2. The best practices of every company that has been awarded the logo should be publicly displayed in ICC website for anyone to emulate.
3. One of the conditions of awarding the logo should be contribution to a fund to improve safety in the SME sector of chemical industries, including fireworks industries. The contribution could be fixed as a percentage of turnover.The improvement of safety in the SME sector of chemical industries should be taken up by ICC themselves and this must be publicised.


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Hydrogen safety in the sulphuric acid industry

Good article - hydrogen safety in the sulphuric acid industry

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A simple slogan

 Yesterday, while driving behind a car, I saw a sticker on  its rear window which said
" WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT - YOU PAID FOR IT"
 A simple yet effective slogan!

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Technology is not a complete substitute

The saga of the missing Malaysian airlines MH370 flight highlights the fact that technology is an enabler but it cannot override the human. The way in which vendors are hard selling process safety technology these days worries me. A typical case is SIL rated instrumented systems. While the statistics and numbers sound very good, no vendor is gong to tell you about the life cycle needs and cost of maintaining these systems.

Nowadays, I also see many cases of the operation staff  left out of the design loop. The net result is that the operator gets a system which leads to work overload during emergencies. Then the vendor hard sells "alarm management software"!!
Somewhere in our journey of process safety management we have forgotten Dr Trevor Kletz's inherent safety philosophy of "keeping it simple".
I often see complicated PSM systems in many "World Class" companies. These systems are "managed" by separate PSM cells.....have we forgotten that the owner of PSM is operations? I often see the systems getting more complicated because the PSM cell needs to justify their existence! (My due apologies if I have hurt anyone).

Having had the fortune to learn about process safety when the word was not in "fashion" , I pray the post bhopal generation of chemical engineers realise that managing process safety is not only about technology........design it for humans who make mistakes.....keep it simple and easy to understand.


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Visakhapatnam pharma unit blast: Condition of three critical - The Hindu

Visakhapatnam pharma unit blast: Condition of three critical - The Hindu

Thanks to Mr Subbu for sending news about the blast.
Ammonia and high temperature are dangerous due to the thermal expansion coefficient of liquid ammonia.

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Update on GAIL pipeline blast

The Hindu: GAIL pipeline blast in AP


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Pipeline fire kills 14 in AP

News filtering in of a GAIL pipeline blast in Andhra Pradesh which has reportedly killed 14 people. Read the story in this link


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Blast, fire in Bathinda refinery, none hurt - The Hindu

Blast, fire in Bathinda refinery, none hurt - The Hindu

You can see the photo of the fire in above link.


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Major fire at Bathinda refinery, no casualties reported - Hindustan Times

Major fire at Bathinda refinery, no casualties reported - Hindustan Times

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Don't neglect pressure gauges -chemical processing

Don't neglect pressure gauges -chemical processing

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2 die in steel plant accident

Thanks to Mr Subbu for sending news about Two engineers who were killed at a steel plant when they entered a container laboratory and were apparently asphyxiated by some gas.
Read about the accident in this link

When you enter analyser houses in chemical plants, ensure that the gas alarms are working and that there is no alarm before entering the confined space. As there will be tubing and other places from where gas from cylinders outside can leak, be careful.

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Major fire in Russian refinery

Major fire in Russian Refinery courtesy rt.com
See photos and videos in above link.

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The dangers of evaporating liquid nitrogen

A case study where a post graduate student died due to nitrogen inhalation is given in this link . The student was using liquid nitrogen. The accident highlights again the dangers of nitrogen.

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1 employee injured after fire, explosion at Moore distillery; blast blamed on ethanol flash

1 employee injured after fire, explosion at Moore distillery; blast blamed on ethanol flash



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Improving road safety in India

Please take some time off to sign this petition. It affects all of us......

Petition to improve road safety in India


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Gas leak in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai steel plant, 6 killed, 40 injured

A tragic accident where 6 people lost their lives when a water line to scrubber ruptured and gas leaked out: (two DGM's among those killed)

Times of India Gas leak in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai steel plant, 6 killed, 40 injured
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gas-leak-in-Chhattisgarhs-Bhilai-steel-plant-6-killed-40-injured/articleshow/36450920.cms

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How secure are your redundant systems?

An article in the Guardian highlights the importance of functional testing of your redundant systems. In the incidents mentioned, two helicopters of identical make faced a main lubrication oil system failure while airborne. Though the back up system came on line, an alarm indicated that it was not working properly, so the crew had to make emergency landings in the sea. Later it was found out that the back up system was indeed working fine, but the alarm was wrongly configured.
Read the article in this link. 


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Fire in Refinery

A news article mentions about a fire in a Chinese refinery in the sulphur recovery section. Interestingly, it mentions that the fire reignited a few hours after it was put off due to "chemical reaction of combustible material in an oil tank with fire extinguishing foam".

Read the article in this link. 

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Basics of flammability

A good basic primer on flammability, explosion protection and flammable gas detectors can be found in this link. 
PS: I am not endorsing any product - this is for information only.


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Ammonia leak hospitalises 54

An ammonia leak due to an apparent pipe burst in a fish processing plant in Tamilnadu has sent 54 of the workers to hospital. The reason is under investigation.
The ammonia leak incidents at the users end as well as incidents related with fireworks are on the increase in India. This is a good case for Large chemical manufacturing companies to take up the education and safety precautions for the small scale industries which handle hazardous chemicals.

Read about the incident in this link.


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Massive fire in Dutch plant

Explosion and fire at Dutch Chemical plant - BBC news


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Proposed changes after oil rig accident

The Coast Guard issued a Federal Register Notice of recommended interim voluntary guidelines concerning mobile offshore drilling units, or MODUs, and manned fixed and floating offshore facilities engaged in activities on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. This is part of the Coast Guard’s continuing response to the explosion, fire and sinking of the MODU DEEPWATER HORIZON in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010.

- See more at: http://mariners.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2014/05/02/522014-federal-register-notice-of-outer-continental-shelf-units-fire-and-explosion-analyses/#sthash.zFvYwSqf.dpuf

The Report highlighted the following considerations as areas not specifically addressed by current regulations:
Minimum values are needed for explosion design loads for use in calculating the required blast resistance of structures;
Explosion risk analysis of the design and layout of each facility should be performed to identify high risk situations;
H-60 rated fire boundaries between the drilling area and adjacent accommodation spaces and spaces housing vital safety equipment may be necessary dependent on the arrangement of the facility;
Uniform guidelines for performing engineering evaluations to ensure adequate protection of bulkheads and decks separating hazardous areas from adjacent structures and escape routes for likely drill floor fire scenarios are necessary;
Performance-based fire risk analysis should be used to supplement the prescriptive requirements in the MODU Code; such analysis should use defined heat flux loads to calculate necessary levels of protection for structures, equipment, and vital systems that could be affected by fires on the drill floor;
Maximum allowable radiant heat exposure limits for personnel at the muster stations and lifesaving appliance launching stations in anticipated evacuation scenarios should be implemented.

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Tanker explosion

An oil tanker after unloading its cargo of oil has exploded off the coasts of Japan. Apparently, a grinder was being used to clear paint from the walls of the ship when the explosion occurred. Do not underestimate the dangers of hot work even in a so called empty tank. The force of the explosion has ripped open thick metal sheets as you can see in the video in this link. 

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Explosion in 3 D printing firm

New technologies but old hazards - A 3-D printing company, was cited by OSHA after an explosion and fire , which inflicted third-degree burns to an employee. The company was using combustible metal powders like titanium and aluminium alloys in the 3D printing process. There were no Class D metal fire extinguishers on-site during the explosion and fire.

"Establishments that use metal powders in this new technology need to scrutinize their processes and take steps to prevent and protect their employees from fire and explosion hazards that arise with these materials," said Robert Hooper, OSHA's acting regional administrator.

Read the details in this link.

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Short cuts are wrong cuts - death by H2S

I came across a powerful youtube video about an accident involving hydrogen sulphide in 2008 in the Middle East where 3 people died. The accident occurred in a pit which was open to atmosphere but contained hydrogen sulphide in the bottom.The reason was taking shortcuts and not obtaining a permit. There are lessons to be learnt from this video, my thanks to whoever has shared this on you tube , as it can save many many lives. Ensure all your employees see this video......in this link.

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Reactive chemical incident due to human error

In 2012, a tragic accident in a pharma plant in Ireland claimed the lives of two employees. Apparently, the cause was due to human error in a batch reactor, when the reactants were charged without charging solvent first. The rapid reaction took place without the solvent in place to absorb the heat. This caused the reactor to explode. A news article mentions that one of the ambulances that took one victim was later found so contaminated with chemicals that it was decommissioned.
When you know that certain reactions can dangerously overheat if the operator forgets a step, proper engineering controls should be implemented.
Read the details of the accident in this link.

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One killed, six injured in NLC steam pipeline burst - The Hindu

One killed, six injured in NLC steam pipeline burst - The Hindu

It appears that the unit in which the accident occurred was over 50 years old and that residual life assessment studies were carried out. Will have to wait for the investigation to understand what happened.



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Williams Cos. reeling from four explosions at facilities in less than year - Tulsa World: Business

Williams Cos. reeling from four explosions at facilities in less than year - Tulsa World: Business

The article explains how a series of accidents have occurred at a company which had a good safety record.



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Accident at nuclear power plant - learn lessons

The accident at the newly commissioned Kudankulam power plant highlights the importance of line breaking permits. It appears that while maintenance crew were at work on the shutdown reactor, hot water at about 70 deg C came out of a valve, injuring the workers. While handing over equipment for maintenance, be careful about pockets of trapped hazardous material. Look for any dead legs, which could store them.

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Fatal accident during demolition of tank

When you are demolishing a tank or vessel, take adequate care. Conduct a hazard and risk assessment with the demolishing team to make sure the correct method is used. An incident occurred when a  tank being pulled down by an excavator collapsed on the cab of the excavator. Read about it in this link.
 
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Fatal accident due to pipe explosion

A good case study on the importance of ensuring proper positive isolation and ensuring the line is gas freed before any hot work is done is given in this link.


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Refinery attack In Algeria - Lessons Learnt

On 16 January 2013, terrorists attacked a convoy of gas refinery workers as they departed the housing area of a Refinery in eastern Algeria. The incident led to a four-day siege resulting in the deaths of 38 hostages.
 Read the article of how the emergency was declared by a security guard, (who later died) in this link

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Big is beautiful

Shell is building the Worlds first FLNG (Floating LNG production facility) called the Prelude. Watch the youtube video of the launch of the structure from the dry docks in this link. 
Worth watching is the mesmerising work of the tugboats as they steer the Prelude into the sea. The facility is planned to go into operation in 2017.

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Micro reactors and process safety

Researchers at Fraunhofer (Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization) have demonstrated how mcro reactors can be used to safely produce even explosives. Read the interesting article in this link.

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