Chemical Safety Board (U.S.) has uploaded a free 56min video on BP Texas Fire and Explosion case. Titled Anatomy of a Disaster: Explosion at BP Texas City Refinery, the video is valuable to all safety and health professionals, especially those involved in oil and gas industry. Click here for the video.
Posts Tagged ‘explosion’
Free BP Texas Fire & Explosion Accident Video
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008CSB’s primer on dust explosion
Monday, February 18th, 2008In the latest statement on the investigation into the Imperial Sugar Company Explosion and Fire at Georgia, USA, CSB gave the following summary on the key elements of a dust explosion. I thought it is a very good introduction to dust explosion.
“It is necessary for five elements to be in place for a dust explosion to occur.First is the presence of a combustible dust itself. That can be almost any organic material – grain flour, plastic, corn starch, pharmaceuticals, and even powdered metals such as aluminum. And as was the case here in Savannah sugar particles are a combustible dust.An important parameter is the particle size. Finer particles are more likely to be both ignitable and dispersible. Additional parameters are particle shape and the molecular composition of the substance itself.A second needed element is a source of oxygen. Because air contains appreciable amounts of oxygen, air is all that is necessary to support an explosion.
Thirdly, the dust needs to be dispersed into the air.
Finally, some energy source is required to ignite the mixture. That may be something with as little energy as static electricity or a stronger energy source such as an open flame or an electrical fault.
A final element is confinement. And because buildings have walls, ceilings, floors and roofs, they create confinement. However, another form of confinement may be process equipment and even ducting. It can be ironic that ducting used for dust extraction and other equipment such as dust collectors can themselves be conducive for the initiation of dust explosions.”
Click here for the full statement.
Click here for a powerpoint presentation on dust explosion.
Propane tank explosion
Thursday, January 31st, 2008Was reading CSB’s email bulletin on the propane tank explosion at West Virginia (http://www.csb.gov/index.cfm?folder=news_releases&page=news&NEWS_ID=411) and I found this video of an propane tank explosion at Tacoma (don’t it’s the same accident). http://www.break.com/index/tacoma-propane-tank-explosion.html really powerful explosion…
BP Texas Fatal Accident
Friday, January 18th, 2008A fatal accident occurred at BP texas on 14 Jan 2008, says Chemical Safety Board (www.csb.gov). The following site has some additional information on the accident: http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200801151305DOWJONESDJONLINE000648_univ.xml
This is the same site that saw 15 deaths in March 2005 when a distillation tower overfilled during an isomerization process.