Chemical Process Safety

Learning from Case Histories

Roy E. Sanders

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780128016671
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Chemical Process Safety: Learning from Case Histories, Fourth Edition gives insight into eliminating specific classes of hazards while also providing real case histories with valuable lessons to be learned. This edition also includes practical sections on mechanical integrity, management of change, and incident investigation programs, along with a list of helpful resources.The information contained in this book will help users stay up-to-date on all the latest OSHA requirements, including the OSHA-required Management of Change, Mechanical Integrity, and Incident Investigation regulations. Learn how to eliminate hazards in the design, operation, and maintenance of chemical process plants and petroleum refineries.World-renowned expert in process safety, Roy Sanders, shows how to reduce risks in plants and refineries, including a summary of case histories from high profile disasters and recommendations for how to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Following the principles outlined in this text will help save lives and reduce loss.- Features additional new chapters covering safety culture, maintaining a sense of vulnerability, and additional learning opportunities from recent incidents and near misses- Contains updated information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Safety Council, with concise summaries of some of the most important case histories of the twenty-first century- Includes significantly expanded information from the US Chemical Safety Board, US OSHA, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)- Provides a completely updated chapter to guide readers to a wealth of reference material available on the web and elsewhere

1

Perspective, perspective, perspective

Abstract

This chapter is completely rejuvenated with today’s data and recent facts. It presents an accurate representation of the US chemical industry, including its value to humanity, its history, and its high degree of safety. This chapter provides a brief review of the countless benefits of the chemical industries and gives a glimpse of the history of the vital chemical manufacturing industry. However, the concept of comparative risks is the main focus of this chapter. The perceived risks of the chemical industry and its occupations are often misunderstood. Many individuals who depend on television and radio for information probably believe that working in a chemical plant is a hazardous occupation. This myth is exposed by the fact that chemical-plant employees enjoy one of the safest occupations. This chapter stresses on the general safety and low risk rates of employees in the chemical and petroleum refining industries. Despite excellent efforts in the field of process safety, there are some serious questions challenging whether enough is being done to reduce major losses.

Keywords

risks

perception of risks

good safety performance in chemical plants

dangerous jobs

fatalities by occupation

fatal occupational injuries by event

Introduction

Perspective, perspective, perspective – Chemical manufacturing industries are often the targets of misperceptions. This opening chapter shows a more accurate representation of today’s US chemical manufacturing and the petroleum refining industries, including chemistry’s value to humanity, its history, and its high degree of safety. The first section is a brief review of the countless benefits of the chemical industries that surround us, that increase our life span, and that enhance our enjoyment of life. The second section is a glimpse of the history of the vital chemical manufacturing industry; however, the concept of comparative risks is the main emphasis of this chapter. The perceived risks of the chemical industry and its occupations are often misunderstood.

Working in the chemical industry is safer than most individuals realize. We shall provide a perspective of the risks of working within this industry by comparing that risk with actual statistical dangers encountered with other well-understood occupations, commonplace activities, and life-styles. Later chapters will focus on costly errors in the chemical industry along with practices and procedures to reduce the occurrence and severity of such incidents. Viewed in isolation, case histories alone could easily lead to the inaccurate picture that the chemical industry is dangerous. In fact, the chemical industry has an impressive safety record that is considerably better than most occupations. Fatal accident rates reported by the Bureau of Statistics demonstrate that working in the chemical industry is statistically safer than working in a grocery store. The news media does not often speak of the safety of the chemical plants because these statistics lack news-selling sizzle.

The media rarely focuses on the benefits of the chemical industry

Chemical manufacturing and petroleum refining have enriched our lives. Few individuals in the developed world realize how the chemical industry has improved every minute of their day. The benefits of the industries are apparent from the time our cell phone (or our plastic alarm clock) tells us to wake up from a pleasant sleep on our polyester sheets and our polyurethane foam mattresses. As our feet touch the man-made laminate floor (or nylon carpet), we walk a few steps to turn on a phenolic light switch that allows electrical current to pass safely through polyvinyl chloride insulated wires. At the bathroom sink, we wash our faces in chemically sanitized water using a chemically produced soap.

We enter the kitchen and open the plastic-lined refrigerator cooled by fluorochlorohydrocarbon chemicals and reach for the orange juice, which came from chemically fertilized orange groves. Many of us bring in the morning newspaper and take a quick look at the news without thinking that the printing inks and the paper itself are chemical products. Likewise, other individuals choose to turn on the morning television news or weather and do not think twice that practically every component within the television or radio was made of products produced by the chemical industry. In short, we are not very aware that we are surrounded by the benefits created from chemicals and fail to recognize how the industries have enriched our lives.

An American Chemical Society publication once stated:

The chemical industry is more diverse than virtually any other U.S. industry. Its products are omnipresent. Chemicals are the building blocks for products that meet our most fundamental needs for food, shelter, and health, as well as products vital to the high technology world of computing, telecommunications, and biotechnology. Chemicals are a keystone of U.S. manufacturing, essential to the entire range of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, automobiles, textiles, furniture, paint, paper, electronics, agriculture, construction, appliances and services. It is difficult to fully enumerate the uses of chemical products and processes… . A world without the chemical industry would lack modern medicine, transportation, communications, and consumer products [1].

A glance at the history of chemical manufacturing before the industrial revolution

Humanity has always devised ways of trying to make life a little better or easier. In the broad sense, prehistoric people practiced chemistry beginning with the use of fire to produce chemical changes like burning wood, cooking food, and firing pottery and bricks. Clay was shaped into useful utensils and baked to form water-resistive hard forms as crude jars, pitchers, and pots as far back as 5000 bc [2].

The oldest of the major industrial chemicals in use today is soda ash. It seems to date back to 3000–4000 bc because beads and other ornaments of glass, presumably made with soda ash and sand, were found in Egyptian tombs. It seems a natural soda ash was used as an article of trade in ancient Lower Egypt [3].

Other chemical processes can also be dated back thousands of years. From what we know today, even the earliest civilized man was aware of the practical use of alcoholic fermentation. The ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1: Perspective, perspective, perspective
• 2: Good intentions
• 3: Focusing on water and steam: the ever-present and sometimes evil twins
• 4: Major US incidents in the twenty-first century: Some folks thirst for recent case histories
• 5: Two highly destructive twenty-first century vapor cloud explosions: one in the United Kingdom and the other in Venezuela: Two massive explosion incidents with some significant similarities
• 6: Preparation for maintenance
• 7: Maintenance-induced accidents and process piping problems
• 8: One-minute modifications: small, quick changes in a plant can create bad memories
• 9: Accidents involving compressors, hoses, and pumps
• 10: Failure to use, consult, or understand specifications
• 11: “Imagine If” modifications and practical problem solving
• 12: The role of mechanical integrity in chemical process safety
• 13: Effectively managing change within the chemical industry
• 14: Investigating and sharing near misses and unfortunate accidents
• 15: Keep a sense of vulnerability for safety sake: seven recommendations for keeping a sense of vulnerability at your chemical processing or refining site
• 16: A strong safety culture is essential: it is essential to develop a strong safety culture
• 17: Sources of helpful information for practicing chemical process safety
• Index