Safety

Nature of Accident and major disasters

Prof. Shishir Sinha
Department of Chemical Engineering.

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What we have studied in last modules???

• Introduction about safety

• What are hazards and risk
• Loss statistics
• Different methods to calculate accident and
loss statistics
• Risk management and control measures
• Hazardous Substance Rules 1986

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 What we will study in this lecture…

• Nature of Accident
• Introduction of Four significant disasters of world.
1. Flixborough
2. Seveso
3. Bhopal
4. Jaipur

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Nature of Accident Process
Three most common type of accidents are
• Fire
• Explosion
• Toxic Release

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 Types of Chemical Plant Accident
Type of Accident Probability of Potential for Potential for
Occurrence fatalities economic loss
Fire High Low Intermediate

Explosion Intermediate Intermediate High

Toxic Release Low High Low

With respect to fatalities, accident because of toxic

release having the greatest potential for fatalities.

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Most accidents follow a three-step sequence:
• Initiation (the event that starts the accident)
Example: Mr. A threw away a burned cigarette bud into dried bushes.

• Propagation (the event or events that maintain or expand the accident)

Example: A portion of dried bushes ignited, releasing thick smoke and hot flame.
Fire starts to progress to another art of bushes.

• Termination (the event or events that stop the accident or diminish it in size)
Example: Consumption of combustible materials in
process, fire extinguisher.

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Inherent Safety
The major approach to inherently
safer process designs is divided into
the following categories:
• Intensification
• substitution
• attenuation
• limitation of effects
• simplification/error tolerance
Four words to describe inherent
safety:
• minimize (intensification)
• substitute (substitution)
• moderate (attenuation and
limitation of effects)
• simplify (simplification and error
tolerance).
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 The Flixborough, UK, Cyclohexane Disaster, 1 June 74

A Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) Case

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• Flixborough disaster
was an explosion at a
chemical plant owned
by Nypro (UK) Ltd.
• Occurred in
Flixborough, England
on Saturday, 1st June
1974 at about 4.53pm.
• The plant has been in
operation since 1967.

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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Raw material was cyclohexane
Formula C6H12
Molecular Weight 84
Boiling Point 81 °C
Cyclohexane is a volatile liquid with a low boiling
point at ambient conditions (something like petrol!)
Liquid Density 780 kg/m3
Vapour Density (at Patm) 2.4 kg/m3

Hence the liquid is lighter than water while the

vapour is heavier than air (in common with many
hydrocarbons).
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 Flixborough petrochemical plant, 1974
• The Flixborough works of Nypro (UK) Ltd were virtually
demolished by an explosion of warlike dimensions on
the afternoon of Saturday 1 June 1974.
• The explosion was estimated to be equivalent to the
force arising from 15 – 45 tons TNT.
• This was due to ignition of a vapor cloud which formed
when pressurized Cyclohexane escaped from a reactor,
vaporized and ignited.
• On site 28 people were killed and 36 injured; if the
explosion had occurred during the week there would
have been many more casualties.

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Simplified flow diagram of Cyclohexane oxidation plant
before March 1974 (Whittingham, 2005)

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• Two months prior to the
explosion, Cyclohexane was
discovered to be leaking
from Reactor No. 5.
• It was decided that Reactor
No 5 to be removed for
inspection and a temporary
bypass assembly to be
constructed to connect
Reactor No.4 to No.6, while
repairs were made.

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 Scale of Accident
• Casualties: 28 people killed & 36 seriously injured.
• Records and charts for the start up were destroyed.
• Fire remained burning for over 10 days.
• Property damage extended over wide area. More
than 1,800 buildings within three miles radius of
the site were damaged.
• Blast heard till 30 miles away.

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 Conclusion
• Changes to a design should be overseen and
authorized by properly qualified personnel.
• Carry out systematic search for possible cause of
problem before any modification process being done.
• Knowledge and understanding of the hazards of the
process might have prevented the accident from
occurring.

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Seveso dioxin pollution (Italy) 1976

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 Seveso dioxin pollution (Italy) 1976
• An extremely serious accident occurred in 1976 in a
small chemical plant located not far from Milan. It is
known as “Seveso disaster”, because Seveso was the
most affected community.
• The industrial plant was owned by the company
ICMESA (Industrie Chimiche Meda Societa Azionaria), a
subsidiary of Givaudan which in turn was a subsidiary
of Hoffmann-La Roche. The plant was built many
years before the accident, and was manufacturing
dioxins.

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 Seveso dioxin pollution (Italy) 1976
• Due to a mechanical failure, temperature rose to
around 300°C, and the relief valve eventually opened:
6 tons of material, including 1 kg of TCDD (Tetra
chloro-dibenzodioxin), were released over an 18 km2
area.
• Dioxin first came to widespread public notice during
the Vietnam War, when it was identified as a
component of the defoliant Agent Orange. Previously,
the substance had been banned from agricultural use,
because of its alleged toxic effects on humans.

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 Safety measures, cleanup and restoration
• The safety measures taken by the Company and the
Authorities were badly coordinated. At least a week
passed before it was publicly stated that a dioxin
pollution occurred, and another week passed before
the evacuation began.
• Within days a total of 3,300 animals were found dead,
mostly poultry and rabbits. Emergency slaughtering
started, to prevent TCDD from entering the food chain,
and by 1978 over 80,000 animals had been
slaughtered.

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 The Judiciary Case
• In 1980 the Director of Production at ICMESA was
shot by a member of a terrorist organization.
• A few months later a compensation agreement was
signed by representatives of the Region, President of
the Italian Republic and Givaudan/ICMESA. The total
amount of the agreement was about 20 billion lire.
• The technical director of ICMESA, was sentenced to
five years imprisonment in the first degree trial, then
had his sentence reduced to two years and was
paroled on appeal.

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Bhopal Gas Tragedy

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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Occurrence: 3rd December 1984.

Place of occurrence: Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Company: Union Carbide Corporation.
Chemical: Methyl Isocyanate (27-30 tons)

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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• Half a million people were exposed to the gas
• 25000 have died to date as a result of their exposure.
• More than 120,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by
the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site.
• These ailments include blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing,
and gynecological disorders.
• The site has never been properly cleaned
up and it continues to poison the residents
of Bhopal.

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 Union Carbide Corporation
• Started in 1969 in Bhopal
• Phosgene, Monomethlyamine, Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)
and the pesticide Carbaryl, also known as Sevin.
• Taken over by DOW Chemicals in 2001.
• DOW refused Union Carbide’s Liabilities in Bhopal, India.

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20,000 KILLED
120,000 SEVERELY AFFECTED

…And you thought only weapons

could cause Mass Destruction

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Jaipur Terminal Fire, India 29th October 2009

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 Jaipur Terminal Fire
• In addition the plot accommodated the facilities for pipeline
division which operated the cross country pipeline, viz. the
Koyali Sanganer product pipeline feeding this terminal.
• The marketing terminal occupied 105 acres and the pipeline
division facilities were located in 15 acres in the north east
corner of the facility.

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 Losses
• About 60,000 KL of petroleum products stored in the Terminal at the time of
the accident and the installation was totally destroyed.
• Buildings in the immediate neighborhood were heavily damaged and minor
damages and window panes breakages occurring upto ~ 2 Km from the site.
• The total loss estimated on account of the fire and explosion as reported by
IOC in the Press, which includes the loss for finished products, stores, fixed
assets and compensation for third party losses, amount to approx. Rs. 280
crores.
• Eleven people lost their lives in the accident
 Six from IOC and five outsiders, and several
others were injured

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 Overall Lessons Learnt
Based on the Jaipur incident a few lessons learnt are
highlighted:
• Facilities and installations with inherently high hazards
should incorporate redundancy in safety systems and
ensure their upkeep at all times.
• Management should ensure that reliable systems are in
place to give timely feedback on the current practices
and state of readiness in different facilities.
• Management must ensure that identified actions are
being carried out.
• A high priority on safety from the senior and top
management groups will send the right signals down the
line to ensure safety and production.
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Thank You

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