Friday, October 23rd, 2009
The reactivity of a chemical or a mixture is normally assessed by thermal analysis. Thus the thermal analysis data forms the basis of risk mitigation decisions. What does the thermal analysis data tell us and how to base risk mitigation decisions? How to tell which compositions are more reactive and ...
Posted in Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
Friday, October 16th, 2009
During process development or plant operation it is often necessary to estimate energy of reaction based on chemical formulae representation alone. This heat of decomposition represents the potential energy that can be released and is therefore a measure of explosion potential. One can therefore envision that estimation of heats reaction ...
Posted in Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
CSB’s approach to chemical accident investigation is a step further than OSHA’s. CSB gathers background information about the accidents, performs a detailed root cause study, and makes recommendations to appropriate stakeholders. Great approach to a complex issue...but CSB’s strategy following the investigation leaves a lot to be desired.
The hope from ...
Posted in Chemical Accidents, Process Safety, Regulations | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Last year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is not meeting its statutory mandate by investigating major chemical accidents.
CSB’s Statutory Mandate
The Clean Air Amendment Act (CAAA) of 1990 directs CSB to
(1) investigate and report on the cause or probable cause of any accidental chemical ...
Posted in Process Safety, Regulations | 3 Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
According to a recent report (Aug. 2008) from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is not in compliance with its statutory mandates. The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents and has been in operation since 1998. GAO report states that ...
Posted in Incident Investigation, Process Safety, Regulations | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
The 20th century was a time of great technological change that forever transformed how we live and work – changes that necessitated the birth and development of the field of Process Safety Management. The early years saw the evolution of mechanization into assembly lines and true industrialization. Lack of access ...
Posted in OSHA PSM, Process Safety | 3 Comments »
Sunday, March 15th, 2009
Reactivity hazards involve conversion of stored chemical energy of the components into mechanical or heat energy, andit is the uncontrolled release of this stored energy that causes the damage in a reactive chemical incident. The reactivity of a substance is normally assessed by performing calorimetric measurements.
Information about the amount of ...
Posted in Reactive Chemicals | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 16th, 2009
The presence of certain functional groups is considered an indicator of reactivity. This is the simplest possible reactivity screening method and serves as a guideline for further analysis. For example, chemicals containing the following functional groups can be considered potentially reactive:
-NO2 : organic nitro compounds
-O-O-, -O-OH : organic/inorganic peroxide and ...
Posted in Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Certain chemicals can pose explosion hazards due to their inherent reactivity or interaction with other chemicals or metals. A few years ago the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) had recommended regulating "Reactive Chemicals". This begs the question - what are reactive chemicals?
At the outset let me tell you that it is ...
Posted in Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
