Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay

Mid Semester Examination, 7 October 2020

Safety in Chemical Industry (CL 444)
(All questions carry equal marks)
Total duration: 135 min
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1. During the leak of gas ‘A’ in a chemical plant, evacuation of personnel from a nearby onsite
warehouse is needed if the concentration of the gas in the building exceeds 2.0mg/m3. The air
ventilation rate through the building per hour is equal to the building volume; the ventilation
process sweeps in the external air in which the leaking gas is dispersed. Air within the
building may be considered to be perfectly mixed.

During a certain accidental release the instantaneous concentration C(t) of the gas
immediately outside the building changes as: C (t )  200t; t  hr ; C (t )  mg / m3 . The leak of the
gas is detected and plugged within 15 minutes after the release starts.
(a) Will an evacuation of the building be needed prior to stoppage of the leak?
(b) As soon as the leak is plugged the external concentration C(t) of the gas immediately
outside the building starts decaying linearly at the rate of 500mg/m3.hr. Compute the
maximum concentration that is attained inside the warehouse.

2. A hazardous liquid is stored in a cylindrical vessel (maintained at a constant internal vapour

phase pressure of 1.0 atm absolute) of 1.0m diameter and 2.0m length, with the length in the
horizontal position. The tank is 50% full (by volume) at a time when a 6.0 cm2 leak develops
at the lowest point on the tank surface. (i) How much time does it take for complete release of
the stored material? (ii) If the emergency detection and control of the leak takes 5 min,
determine how much fluid may be released till then. The liquid density is 1000 kg/m3.
Assume CD = 1.0.

3. A volatile hydrocarbon (HC) storage tank of diameter 8.0m and height 10.0m (80% full
initially) is located within a dike of height of 1.5m and diameter 30.0m. An accidental rupture
of the outlet pipeline of the tank leads to release of the HC into the dike, followed by

CL-444 Mid-semester Examination 2020 Page 1 of 2

 continuous evaporation. The upper and lower flammability limits of the HC are 310.8 and
37.6mg/m3 respectively. Making reasonable assumptions (and stating them), estimate the
effective area around the dike which needs to be free of any possible ignition source. The
average annual ground-level wind speed at the site is 4m/s, and may blow in any direction
with equal probability. The effective HC pool may be assumed to be circular and of a relevant
equivalent diameter corresponding to its actual surface area.

Data: Ambient temperature = 300K; HC molecular weight Mw = 60; for the HC at 300K,
P sat = 10, 000N / m 2 ; km (kinematic viscosity) = Dm (molecular diffusivity) = 10-5 m2/s;

 y  0.04 x 0.92 ;  z  0.1x 0.65 ; ( R = 8.314J / gmole.K )

4. 1.0kg of a toxic material is released instantaneously from a chemical plant in the form of a
vapour cloud of negligible initial dimensions from a container located at the ground level. A
human being may face irreversible health effects if the total integrated dosage (TID) one is
exposed to exceeds 100mg.s/m3. Determine the minimum distance at which a residential area
may be located in the windward direction so as to help avoid excessive exposure for a wind
velocity of 9km/hr. The total integrated dosage (TID) received by an individual located at a

point (x,y,z) relative to the release point is given by: TID( x, y, z )   C ( x, y, z, t )dt. Assume
0

that the windward distance of concern is considerably larger than the corresponding
dispersion coefficient (i.e., x >> σx). Assume that:  x   y  0.04 x0.92 ;  z  0.10 x0.65 .

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