Archive for the ‘Process Safety’ Category
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 »
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 »
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, September 2nd, 2009
Inherently safer philosophy represents a slightly different approach to risk mitigation. Instead of focusing on mitigating risks, an inherently safer alternative focuses on eliminating the hazards.Let us look at couple of inherently safer examples.
HF Alkylation
There are four alternatives available to perform alkylation:
Pure HF: Potential high ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Regulations | 3 Comments »
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Green is "In".
Consumers, retail stores, and corporate policies are all going green.
But just because you have a green technology does not mean you have ZERO risks. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Biofuel Industry
As I have pointed out in an earlier post (Fires and Explosions in Biofuel Industry) biofuel ...
Posted in Ammonia, Biofuels, Process Safety | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
A few weeks ago, I had written about a recent fire at the alkylation unit in Citgo’s Corpus refinery, and raised the question about HF usage. Today, I would like to further delve into the alternate technologies for alklyation and also take this opportunity to summarize feedback I have received ...
Posted in Inherent Safety, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 3 Comments »
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Process Safety has evolved significantly since the introduction of PSM in 1992. Here are top five challenges facing the process safety community today.
1. Human Error
One of the reasons “zero incident plants” is a myth is the potential for human error. We cannot take away human intervention and the possibility of ...
Posted in OSHA PSM, Process Safety, Safety Culture | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Reactive chemicals refer to chemicals that can react with self or with other chemicals or contaminants leading to extremely high reaction rates. The high reaction rates in turn can lead to overpressure within the vessel and possible explosion. As a graduate student, I looked at behavior of reactive chemical hydroxylamine ...
Posted in Process Safety, Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
There is a big difference between proactively mitigating risks vs. reacting to incidents. Why do corporations wait to take active safety measures till an incident occurs? Because being proactive is hard...very hard and requires a lot of discipline.
Let me share a personal experience.
After my health check up a few years ...
Posted in Process Safety, Safety Culture | 5 Comments »
Monday, August 10th, 2009
RAGAGEP stands for Recognized And Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices.
Specifically, OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119 (D)(3)(ii) states:The employer shall document that equipment complies with recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices.
EPA RMP also refers to RAGAGEP in 40 CFR 68.73:Inspection and testing procedures shall follow recognized and generally accepted good engineering ...
Posted in EPA RMP, OSHA PSM, Process Safety, Regulations | 1 Comment »
