Risk and Safety Blog

Fires and Explosions in Biodiesel and Ethanol Facilities

In an earlier post, I talked about safety in biofuel plants. Today, I would like to share couple of Google Maps (Source: John Astad of Combustible Dust Policy Institute) that graphically display incidents in biodiesel and ethanol plants.Biodiesel Fires and Explosions Map (click to view)According to the map, there were  8 fires and 6 explosions in biodiesel facilities in the U.S in 3-year period (2006-2009). This translates to approx. 5 incidents per year.Ethanol Fires and Explosions Map (click to view)Based on the map, there were 22 fires and 11 explosions in ethanol facilities in the U.S. in 10-year period (1998-2009). This translates to approx. 3 incidents per year.