During a routine inspection of a spherical 2,000-m³ propane tank (previous test date: 2002) located in an LPG depot, the facility manager heard a whistling sound caused by a leak. The origin was a 1" tube positioned 2.50 m from[...]
A gaseous oxygen (O2) pipe failed at around 4 am in a liquid oxygen production unit located in a port area. This pipe, most of which was buried underground, crossed the River Rhine to supply a German steelworks. The pressure[...]
A flash of LPG occurred a refinery during a transfer operation between a fixed storage tank and a tanker truck. On the day of the accident, a tanker was being loaded when the screw-type connection between the loading arm and the[...]
The safety disc on a reactor broke during an oxidation reaction at a chemical plant. The reaction medium emitted from the gas washing towers, i.e. a soda effluent (pH = 10) loaded with cyanide (6 ppm), partially vaporised and destroyed[...]
A chemical platform emitted into the atmosphere 1,586 kg of monomer vinyl chloride (MVC) (i.e. a rate of 7.5 kg/sec of MVC). The accident occurred at 5:15 am while loading an autoclave with MVC, as the manual "drain first" valve[...]
During the re-start phase of an electrolysis workshop in a chemical plant, chlorine (Cl2) gas leaked from a pipeline in a confined chlorine liquefaction unit. The operators shutdown the facilities and evacuated the premises. The internal emergency plan of the[...]
At a steel factory, a small ammonia (NH3) leak was observed during the day on a tap valve fitting (inner tap diam.: 8 mm) of a pipe connecting storage tanks in the hydrogen production unit. This gas was being used[...]
Fire-fighters battled for 45 min to contain the blaze at a 1,000-m² hangar belonging to a fruit farmer when a very powerful explosion rocked the building around 5 pm. The explosive mass involved was estimated at 300-500 kg of TNT.[...]
At a chemical plant, a large cloud of phosphorus trichloride (PCl3) and hydrogen chloride was released during a degassing test conducted on a PCl3 iso-container damaged during an incident that same morning (ARIA 26003). The plant's internal emergency plan was[...]
At a chemical facility, a recently replaced graphite safety disc (nominal diam.: 250) calibrated at 3 bar broke on a 12-m³ reactor used to solubilize a Resol resin. This intermediate resinous agent, included in production activities for the hide tanning[...]
