ADIS: P-4 [1-03.

0]

Major Industrial Disasters

(General)

By A.K. Gupta
Hazchem Incident
• Major industrial incidents involving dangerous chemicals
pose a significant threat to humans and the
environment.
• Furthermore, such accidents cause huge economic losses
and disrupt sustainable growth.
• However, the use of large amounts of dangerous
chemicals is unavoidable in some industry sectors, which
are vital for a modern industrialised society.
• To minimise the associated risks, measures are necessary
to prevent major accidents and to ensure appropriate
preparedness and response should such accidents
nevertheless happen.
2
Hazchem Incident

• A hazardous chemical incident: Any

situation that may potentially lead to a
catastrophic fire, explosion, and/or toxic
effects on people.
• This situation may result from –
• a spill of a hazardous material,
• loss of containment from a chemical
storage vessel or shipping container,
• mixing of incompatible chemicals resulting
in a dangerous chemical reaction with
release of energy and generation of toxic
and perhaps flammable byproducts.
3
4
5
 Harmful Effects of
Chemical Disasters
•Precise symptoms and severity would
depend upon the nature of chemical, its
concentration and duration of exposure,
besides individual’s susceptibility.
• Breathing difficulties, respiratory problems,
nausea, vomiting, chest or abdominal pains
• Skin lesions, eye problems, respiratory
failure, internal organ failure, weight loss,
fever, etc.
• Death.
6
 The Bhopal Disaster

• Worst industrial disaster in history

• 3,000 people died in immediate aftermath
• Another 13,000 died in next fifteen years
• 10-15 persons dying every month
• 5,20,000 diagnosed chemicals in blood
causing different health complications
• 1,20,000 people still suffering from –
• Cancer
• Tuberculosis
• Partial or complete blindness,
• Post-traumatic stress disorders, etc.
• Rise in spontaneous abortion and still-births
7
Accidents Involving Chemicals
• Though most of the chemical
accidents have a limited on-site effect,
at times there have been disasters
like–
• LPG tank explosion in HPCL refinery,
Visakhapatnam in 1997
• VCE involving Isobutane in Phillips plant
at Pasadena, Texas, USA, in 1989
• LPG explosion in Pemex facility, Mexico in
1984
8
 Some Major Fire and Explosion Incidents
Place Year Incident Loss of
Life
Feyzin, France 1966 Propane: BLEVE 18
Flixborough, U.K. 1974 Cyclohexane: 28
UVCE
Mexico City, 1984 LPG: BLEVE > 550
Mexico
BPCL Refinery, 1988 Petroleum 35
Mumbai products: Fire
Pasadena, USA 1989 Isobutane: UVCE 23
HPCL, Vizag 1997 LPG: UVCE 589
Major Hazard Potential
• The major hazard potential in case of a fire
is generally much less than the explosions
and toxic releases.
• If the ignition of escaping volatile
flammable chemical is delayed, an
unconfined vapour cloud may be formed.
• Ignition of vapour can cause a fire.

10
Dangerous Events

• Fires involving hazardous chemicals

can take several forms, ranging
from pool fires or jet fires to
BLEVEs besides the toxic effects in
the atmosphere.

BLEVE = Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion

11
Dangerous Events (Contd.)

• Thus, the dangerous events involving hazardous

chemicals may result in the following types of
hazardous events:
• Jet fires
• Pool fires
• Flash fires
• Vapour cloud explosions (VCE) / unconfined vapour
cloud explosion (UVCE)
• High pressure rupture
• BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion)
• Formation of toxic atmosphere.

12
 How does a BLEVE occur?

• The liquefied gas stored in the tank is in

equilibrium with its vapour.

LPG
(Vapour)

Horton Sphere LPG

13
Flame Impingement

LPG Tank RV Pops

Heating of
Vapour Vapour Space

Escape of
Heat Liquid
Source of
(Convection) Heat
14
BLEVE

15
BLEVE
• A BLEVE corresponds to the complete ruin of
a pressurized tank containing a liquid stored at
a higher temperature than its boiling point at
the atmospheric pressure.
• A BLEVE does not necessarily require a flammable
substance to occur, and therefore is not usually
considered a type of chemical explosion.
However, if the substance involved is flammable, it is
likely that the resulting vapour-cloud will ignite as soon
as BLEVE occurs, forming a fireball and causing an
explosion.

16
BLEVE

• A BLEVE erupting
from a rail tank-wagon
• Look at the enormous
size of the fire-ball!

17
 Disaster Mitigation
•It denotes the activities that prevent or
minimise the adverse effects of natural
or man-mad disasters.

Event

18
 What you need to do
• Prepare a disaster management plan
• Educate your employees and contractors
• Work with your Disaster/ Emergency
Medical and Nursing staff to develop an
action-plan.
• Conduct frequent disaster drills on all shifts.
• Managers must be prepared with resources,
equipment, and trained manpower.

19
Preparedness

• Awareness
Preparedness Is the Key to
• Training
combat Chemical disaster • Equipment
• Resources
• Planning
• Exercises / Drills

* * * * *
Thank you for
your attention