Commonly used to plug leaks on pipelines, seal boxes serve stop discharge flows without entirely shutting down production. Despite this advantage, several accidents have shown that this type of remedial action is not sustainable and moreover necessitates regular monitoring during[...]
In a chemical plant, a leak of effluents containing acetonitrile (a harmful and flammable solvent) from the process wastewater system lead to groundwater contamination. As the network was used only sporadically, the duration of the leak could not be accurately[...]
This document presents the conclusions of an analysis conducted on more than 700 French accidents, extracted from the ARIA database, involving ageing. If corrosion is the first cause underlying accidents, fatigue is another recurrent one. Recurrent failures leading to corrosion[...]
A longitudinal rupture occurred at approximately 6 a.m. on a crude oil pipeline (DN 500, buried depth: 1 m in clayey soil; commissioning date: 1965; pressure: 69 bar) at 1.5 km from a nature reserve. No disturbance or pressure surges in the pumping operation[...]
Between 2014 and 2016, several spills of molten liquid iron occurred during unloading operations in a steel plant. The molten cast iron produced by the blast furnaces is discharged through a pouring hole in the lower part of the crucible.[...]
Whether they are tanks, pipelines or other equipment, whether intensively or punctually used, all of them are liable to lose over time a part of their initial characteristics in terms of operation and safety. The serious confinement losses of Donges[...]
Under standard operation of the installations, the thermal insulation and its protective sheath can complicate the detection of an anomaly, such as the local overheating of a part of equipment, leakage or releaf of chimicals or even of a possible[...]
At 2:30 pm inside a paper mill located 5 km east of Arcachon Bay, a 5,000-m³ black liquor tank ruptured. Black liquor is a highly alkaline paper manufacturing residue composed of organic matter, soda and other chemical products; it serves[...]
Around 10:30 pm in the isocyanate unit at a chemical plant, a sensor detected a rapid conductivity rise in a heat exchanger, in which phosgene (COCl2) pressurised to tens of bar was being reheated with water vapour at 28 bar before[...]
A kerosene leak (A1 jet category) was detected on a pipeline (nominal diameter DN: 108, pressure: 13.8 bar, operational since: 1942) connecting a refinery to a storage area outside the oil platform site. The quantity of lost product was estimated[...]