Archive for the ‘Fires and explosions’ Category
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
I recently came across a report from European Gas Pipeline Incident Data Group (EGIG) titled "Safety Performance Determines The Acceptability of Cross Country Gas Transmission Systems". The paper presents incident data contributed by six European gas transmission operators over a 30-year period of 1970-2001.
An incident within this failure database implies ...
Posted in Failure Data, Fires and explosions, Natural Gas Pipelines | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
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 ...
Posted in Biofuels, Fires and explosions | No Comments »
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
While performing consequence modeling we are often required to evaluate damage to population and property from a fire.
Thermal radiation impact to humans from a fire should be based on the dosage – i.e. the intensity of exposure and the duration of exposure. Furthermore, such an impact from thermal radiation on ...
Posted in Consequence Modeling, Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Thermal Radiation | 6 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 Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
Biofuel production and manufacturing facilities in the United States are increasing rapidly. On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6) into law. The comprehensive energy legislation includes a nationwide renewable fuels standard (RFS) that will double the use of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012.
Biodiesel ...
Posted in Biofuels, Fires and explosions, Incidents | 7 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 Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Reactive Chemicals | No Comments »
