Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Technical OSH Aspects in A Chemical Plant Fire and Fire Preventions
Technical OSH Aspects in A Chemical Plant Fire and Fire Preventions
Chemical Plant
~ Fire and Fire Preventions ~
HOW and WHY it happened ?
This disaster claimed huge number of victims…
Once it explodes…
Life of the surrounding community
Nobody can escape…
money life business environment
Is it a “pleasant” disaster ?…
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki … unprecedented
atomic explosion
The same disaster will occur…not because of WAR but …?
“mushroom cloud”
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki … consequences
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki … consequences
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki … victims
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki … victims
• Chemicals present a substantial hazard
in the form of fires and explosions
• To prevent accidents resulting from
fires, engineers must be familiar with
– The fire and explosion properties of
materials
– The nature of the fire and explosion process
– Procedures to reduce fire and explosion
hazards
• Fire, or burning, is the rapid exothermic
oxidation of an ignited fuel
• The fuel can be in solid, liquid, or vapor form,
but vapor and liquid fuels are generally easier
to ignite
• The combustion always occurs in the vapor
phase; liquids are volatized and solids are
decomposed into vapor before combustion
Combustion
is a chemical reaction in which a substance combines with an oxidant and
release energy. Part of energy released is used to sustain the reaction
Ignition
ignition of a flammable mixture may be caused by a flammable mixture
coming in contact with a source of ignition with sufficient energy or the
gas reaching a temperature high enough to cause the gas to autoignite.
Flash point
the flash point of liquid is the lowest temperature at which it gives off
enough vapor to form an ignitable mixture with air.
Explosion
an explosion is a rapid expansion of gases resulting in a rapidly moving
pressure or shock wave. The expansion can be mechanical or it can be the
result of a rapid chemical reaction
• When fuel, oxidizer, and an ignition source are
present at the necessary levels, burning will occur
• A fire will not occur if
– Fuel is not present or is not present in sufficient
quantities
– An oxidizer is not present or is not present in sufficient
quantities
– the ignition source is not energetic enough to initiate
the fire
• Two common examples of the three components of
the fire triangle are
– wood, air, and a match
– gasoline, air, and a spark
• Various fuels, oxidizers, and ignition sources common
in the chemical industry are
– Fuels
• Liquids: gasoline, acetone, ether, pentane
• Solids: plastics, wood dust fibers, metal particles
• Gases: acetylene, propane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen
– Oxidizers
• Gases: oxygen, fluorine, chlorine
• Liquids: hydrogen peroxide, nitric acid, perchloric acid
• Solids: metal peroxides, ammonium nitrite
– Ignition sources
• Sparks, flames, static electricity, heat
Flammability diagrams show the regimes of flammability in mixtures of fuel,
oxygen and an inert gas, typically nitrogen.
• Useful for
• Determining if a mixture is flammable
• Required for control and prevention
of flammable mixtures
• Red zone – flammable zone
Flammability limits
• A mixture is flammable only when the composition is
between the LFL and the UFL
• Commonly used units are volume percent fuel
(percentage of fuel plus air)
• Lower explosion limit (LEL) and upper explosion limit
(UEL) are used interchangeably with LFL and VFL
• LFLi – lower flammability limit for
component i (in volume %) of
component i in fuel and air
• UFLi – upper flammability limit
for component i (in volume %) of
component i in fuel and air
• yi – mole fraction of component i
on a combustible basis
• n – number of combustible
component
Assumptions
• Constant heat capacities
• Constant number of moles
• Combustion kinetics unchanged
• Adiabatic temperature rise is the
same for all species
• Previous formula valid at 25°C and 1 atm
• T & P , flammability ranges
• P has little effect of LFL, except at very low pressures (< 50 mm
Hg absolute)
» Hc is heat of combustion
• Many hydrocarbon vapors exhibits LFL and UFL as a
function of stoichiometric concentration of fuel (Cst)
[Cst is volume % fuel in fuel plus air]
• LFL = 0.55Cst & UFL = 3.50Cst (Cst = 100 / (1 + (z/0.21))
• General combustion reaction;
CmHxOy + zO2 mCO2 + 0.5xH2O [z = m + x/4 – y/2]
• Correlation between flammability limits with heat of
combustion of the fuel
• A good fit was obtained for 123 organic materials
containing C, H, O, N, S
• UFL is only applicable over the range of 4.9-23 %
(pg 234)
What are the LFL and UFL of a gas mixture composed of 0.8%
hexane, 2.0% methane and 0.5% ethylene by volume ?
Answers
LFL 2.75% by volume total combustibles
UFL 12.9% by volume total combustibles
• Twofold strategies
– Prevent the initiation
– Minimize the damage after a fire/explosion has
occurred
• Most important is to eliminate any of the three
conditions of the fire triangle
• Strategies
– Inerting
• To reduce the oxygen or fuel concentration to
below a target value using an inert gas
• Nitrogen is the most common
– Use flammability diagram
Fire extinguisher
foam
• Fire triangle – all three components must exist for
fire to initiate
• Flammability and explosion can be estimated via
flammability diagram
• Fire prevention strategies consist of two approaches
– to prevent initiation of fire (prevention is better
than cure) and to minimize damage after
fire/explosion occurrence
NEW INFORMATION ON MINI PROJECT
36
THANK YOU
37