Operational Risk, Process Safety

Recently, members of  Congress sent a letter to OSHA chief, Jordan Barab, to expand PSM standard to address reactive chemicals.

Reactive chemicals have gained increasing attention since the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its report on reactive chemicals in 2002. Now I have been working in the area of reactive chemicals since 1999 and let me assure you that one cannot say let us regulate chemical A because it is a reactive chemical.

A process is described as inherently safer if it reduces or eliminates one or more process hazards and this reduction or elimination is accomplished through changes that are permanent and inseparable.Below are strategies for achieving inherent safety:

In rare cases, lithium batteries can catch fire.

Lithium battery fires have resulted in recalls in the recent past – a few notable ones are indicated in the table below.

We have been burning wood since days of the caveman. But did you know that wood can also explode?

Logs of wood will not explode but fine dust can lead to a fire and explosion. Let us see why.

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.

Lithium batteries catch fire if the anode and cathode materials contact each other. What causes short-circuit leading to anode-cathode contact?

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.

On July 27, 2009 OSHA launched its National Emphasis Program (NEP) targeted at chemical facilities. The NEP will operate as a one-year pilot program during which OSHA will conduct planned inspections of chemical facilities.

Years after 9/11 threat of terrorism continues to persist. Organizations buying insurance to provide protection from terror attacks is on the rise.

Terrorism Insurance

Prior to 9/11, there was terrorism insurance was not a major concern. However, after 9/11 insurance and reinsurance companies found themselves with significant amount of exposure. Immediately following 9/11, insurance companies were refusing to provide terrorism insurance or providing it at a very high premium to high risk facilities.

It has been awhile since Ike…so I figured this would be an appropriate time to post on hurricane risks.

During a hurricane plant equipment can be damaged both by high winds and flooding.  For example, the majority of plant equipment damage caused by Hurricane Rita (2005) was wind related, whereas more flood-related damage was reported during Hurricane Ike (2008).

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 cause the tank to rupture.  If the released liquid is flammable , it can catch on fire resulting in a fire and explosion.

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.

Because of their dependability and long effective lifespan, lithium ion rechargeable batteries are used in almost all modern electronic gadgets – cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, power tools, video games, PDA, household devices, e-bikes, security lighting, iPods, and automobiles.  As the electronic market grows, it is evident that the lithium battery market will grow exponentially!

In rare cases, lithium batteries can catch fire – often in dramatic ways.

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.

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 from a few readers: Mike Bordeaux, Sujith Panikkar, Menno van der Hauw, and Fabienne Salimi.