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Leak Of Butadiene

Leak of butadiene

  • FRANCE
In a synthetic rubber plant, a valve broke on a 12.5 m³ tank half filled with butadiene; 5 m³ of the substance were released into the atmosphere. Production was halted and the internal emergency plan activated (under the scenario of[...]
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Explosion During A Maintenance Operation In A Refinery

Explosion during a maintenance operation in a refinery

  • BELGIQUE
At 12:27 am, an employee attempted to replace a manometer placed on a tap downstream of a pump that was moving propylene from a storage capacity to the depropanizer (i.e. a tower that separates propane from the remainder of product[...]
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Packing Of A Styrene / AcryloNitrile Copolymerisation Reactor

Packing of a Styrene / AcryloNitrile copolymerisation reactor

  • FRANCE
At 10.40 pm, during a styrene/acrylonitrile copolymerisation reaction in a plastics manufacturing plant, the operator in the control room detected an abnormal temperature increase to 125 °C on one of the 75-m³ reactors. The visual display screen in the control[...]
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Leak Of Butadiene

Leak of butadiene

  • FRANCE
340 kg of butadiene leaked from a 55 m³ reactor in a plant manufacturing ABS resins. Following pre-polymerisation tests (safety systems, reactor pressure test), 25 tonnes of water, emulsifying agent, an initiator and 15 tonnes of liquid butadiene under a[...]
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Chlorine leakage

  • FRANCE
At a site on the urban fringe specialised in packaging industrial gases, 4 kg of chlorine (Cl2) escaped during a transfer between bottles. The "source" bottle, which had been heated to 50°C by an electric blanket, contained 8.2 kg of[...]
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VCM leakage on an autoclave

  • FRANCE
A monomer vinyl chloride (MVC) leak occurred on a 27-m³ autoclave in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) workshop at a chemical plant. Monomer polymerisation was dispersed in water at 6 to 9 bar of pressure and a temperature of 40° to[...]
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Accident On A Cooling Box In An Incineration Plant

Accident on a cooling box in an incineration plant

  • FRANCE
The lower part of a waste feed chute on a furnace (capacity: 28 tonnes/hr) at an incineration plant exploded. A technician was violently thrown and sustained serious injuries. Water under 3 bar of pressure cooled the base of the chute,[...]
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Disilane leak and fire in a room

  • FRANCE
At an industrial gas packaging site, fire broke out in a room housing 16 bottles of silane. The internal emergency plan was activated and the site evacuated. The blaze could not be immediately controlled and wound up destroying the room[...]
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Refrigerant gas leak in a food production plant

  • ROYAUME-UNI
In an industrial catering facility dedicated to fish dishes employing 700 staff, a water pipe carrying an added bio-detergent product with corrosive properties was punctured and its contents spilled onto a 28-mm diameter copper pipe transporting chlorodifluoromethane (R22) under high[...]
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Explosion in a pharmaceutical plant

  • FRANCE
In a pharmaceutical plant, during an operation intended to remove dimethylsulfide (an odoriferous compound), a violent explosion audible for several kilometres fractured equipment (rupture disc, manifolds...) on a tank containing a cyclohexane-rich flammable distillate, and blew windows out of a[...]
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