Archive for the ‘Fires and explosions’ Category
Friday, July 9th, 2010
LNG spilled onto water sometime undergoes a rapid phase transition (RPT) or physical explosion creating localized overpressures.
Such physical explosions are also observed when water contacts molten metal or hot lava (steam explosions).
RPT is a result of near spontaneous generation of vapor as the cold LNG is vaporized from heat gained ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, LNG | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Earlier I had written about the use of RFID for tracking hazardous substances. One of the readers, Sujith, wrote to me that RFID can be a ignition source and thus pose a potential for fire/explosion.
Special attention should be paid while choosing RFIDs for applications involving flammable materials.
Here's a file that provides more details on ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Technology | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
I recently came across a very interesting incident involving foam concrete.
Foam concrete is produced by mechanical mixing of foam prepared in advance with concrete mixture, and not with the help of chemical reactions. At the incident site, two workers were removing steelwork using angle grinders while the foam concrete was ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Incident Investigation, Reactive Chemicals | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Recently, Erik, a reader of this blog directed me to a video his firm has created that explains the role of trees leading to the Buncefield explosion.
Remember the Buncefield incident occurred in oil storage and transport depot. Thus the fuel involved was liquid hydrocarbon. The most probable outcome of a ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Incident Investigation, Process Safety | No Comments »
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
I would like to wish readers and the growing list of subscribers of risk and safety blog a prosperous 2010.
It has been a year since I started writing the blog. Here are top five blog posts for 2009:
1. Biofuel Safety: Is it time for Bio-PSM?
2. Lithium Battery Fires: Why Your ...
Posted in Battery Fires, Biofuels, Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 4 Comments »
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
In December 2005, fire and explosion at Buncefield oil storage depot injured 40 people. Overfilling of a fuel storage tank (Tank 912) led to release of unleaded gasoline (petrol) which formed a cloud of flammable vapor that subsequently ignited.
Puerto Rico Fire
Four years after Buncefield, around midnight on October 23, 2009, a ...
Posted in Chemical Accidents, Fires and explosions, Incident Investigation | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Last Thursday (September 24, 2009) a fire was reported in a biodisel plant near Osceola County in Florida. The biodiesel plant was owned by New Eden Energy. There were no fatalities or injuries.
Earlier, I had pointed out the need for safety in biofuel plants. Based on incident data I reviewed, ...
Posted in Biofuels, Fires and explosions | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 21st, 2009
Methane being extremely flammable, the fire and gas detection (FGD) system in LNG facilities should be capable of early detection of flammable gas leading to shutdown/isolation and depressurization.
Usually catalytic combustion type gas sensors are used for detecting LNG vapors; however, for these combustion gas sensors to work the vapors within ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, LNG, Process Safety | 7 Comments »
Friday, September 4th, 2009
BLEVE stands for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion
If a tank containing liquid is subjected to external fire, the heat from the fire lead to boiling of the liquid. This in turn leads to increased pressure in the tank. This "boiling" liquid and "expanding" vapor may increase the pressure significantly and ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Process Safety | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Following the release of natural gas, it can be ignited resulting in fire which in turn can potentially result in an explosion. So how likely will a gas release ignite?If you are interested in the major failure modes for natural gas transmission pipelines reported, please refer to an earlier post ...
Posted in Failure Data, Fires and explosions, Natural Gas Pipelines | No Comments »
