Mobile acetylene cylinders are present in all sectors of activity owing to their common use on welding machines. Even if they look like risk free, these cylinders are real hazard potential ! Five major accidents in France since the beginning of[...]
A gas boiler exploded during a restart test phase in a steel plant at 11:13 p.m. The site's firefighters were able to secure the facility. Although the boiler was severely damaged, production operations were not affected. The boiler had just been[...]
Pressure equipments are everywhere in our daily life: fire extinguishers, LPG tanks, compressors, oxygen bottles are just examples. The knowledge of their potential danger, both in operating or in maintenance phase, can limit the consequences of accidents. This study based[...]
Damaged compressor : dual-stage compressor compressing ethylene from 3 to 33 bar. It operates alternately with the main compressor. On the day of the accident, it had been in operation for 43 days since its last maintenance five months prior. It was[...]
Hydraulic, leak or strength tests, internal or external inspections are just some of the operations conducted to verify the reliability of pressure equipment, with the aim of preventing pressure risk. Yet even though these tests appear simple to implement, they[...]
Natural gas distribution networks are regularly damaged by public works vehicles during road works in the city. This fact sheet shows the main accident scenarios affecting these structures. Significant accidents, in regard of their human and social consequences or their[...]
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[...]
At a petrochemical plant, a pipe supplying air to a steam production boiler exploded at 3:40 pm, triggering a few seconds later a 2nd and more powerful explosion on a duct used to recover volatile organic compounds (VOC). The explosion[...]
An explosion occurred around 1:40 am in a formulation reactor upon completion of camphorsulfonic acid loading into the toluene for the purpose of drying by means of azeotropic distillation. The explosion injured 1 technician due to the direct (blast) effect[...]
An empty butadiene tanker car not yet degassed was in transit at a marshalling yard. Due to the ambient cold temperature (-17°C), the gaseous phase of the butadiene liquefied (Tboiling=-4.4°C); cistern pressure was drawn down by an estimated 0.35 bar[...]