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Process Safety

Ali M. Sahlodin
Department of Chemical Engineering
AmirKabir University of Technology
Spring 1397-1398 S.H

Recap

Accident process

Inherently safe design

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Intensification vs. Moderation

Moderation Intensification

Large reactor Medium-sized reactor Small reactor

Low T and P Moderate T and P High T and P

Trade-off is needed
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Case History: Flixborough, UK, 1974

Flixborough, UK, 1974

Product: 70,000 tons/yr of caprolactam (raw material for nylon)

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Case History: Flixborough, UK, 1974

Each reactor containing 20 tons of cyclohexane!

Reactor 5 leaking due to crack

Reactor 5 removed for repair

Operation continued

Installed a bypass line (flexible bellows-type piping)

•Pipe rupture
•Release of 30 tons of cyclohexane
•Vapor cloud explosion
•28 died (18 from control room!), 36 injured
•Entire facility leveled.
5 Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications

Case History: Flixborough, UK, 1974

How could you have prevented this accident/ minimize effects?

?

?

?

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Case History: Bhopal, India 1984

Pesticide production plant: •Large MIC storage tank contaminated
methyl isocyanate (MIC) •Chemical reaction & evaporation
•Release of MIC through relief system

Reactive, toxic, volatile,
•Flare system not working!
flammable!
•Release of 25 tons of toxics to the

Exothermic reaction with water community
•2000 killed, 20,000 injured!

Bhopal, India: How could it have been

prevented?

Performing well-executed safety review

Smaller storage tanks

Alternate (safer) reaction paths

Smaller inventories of MIC

Produce & consume MIC in the same place (low inventory)

Operational flare system

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Chapter 2: Toxicology

Toxicology: Definition

Old definition: Science of poisons

What is poison?

Paracelsus (1500s)
All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison.
The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy

There are no harmless substances, only harmless ways of using them!

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What is toxicology about ?

How toxicants enter biological organisms

How toxicants are eliminated from biological organisms

How toxicants affect biological organisms

How to prevent or reduce entering of toxicants into
biological organisms

Toxicology Industrial hygiene

Toxicology: Qualitative and quantitative study of adverse effects on

toxicants on biological organisms

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Toxicology: Terminology

Toxicants: chemical or physical agents

Dust

Fibers (asbestos  lung cancer)

Noise

Radiation

Toxic hazard: likelihood of damage to biological organisms
resulting from exposure

Transport of toxicants

Other physical factors of usage

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Toxicants Path through the Body

Toxicant enters Toxicant enters
the organism bloodstream Damage exerted!

Toxicant eliminated Toxicant transported to

from body target organ

Other paths of damage (without bloodstream)

•Direct skin exposure (corrosive material)

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