SAFETY IN CHEMICAL PLANTS

Prepared By:
Kamesh Kr. Tripathi
18CH60R39

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 Introduction
“Safety is, without doubt, the most crucial investment we
can make. And the question is not what it costs us, but what
it saves.”
Safety or loss prevention: The prevention of accidents
through the use of appropriate technologies to identify the
hazards of a chemical plant and eliminate them before an
accident.
Hazard: A chemical or physical condition that has the
potential to cause damage to people, property, or the
environment.
Risk: A measure of human injury, environmental damage, or
economic loss in terms of both the incident likelihood and
the magnitude of the loss or injury.
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Safety concern in chemical plant

There are different issues which needs to be concerned in

Chemical Plants regarding safety. Chemical plants contain a
large variety of hazards like :

 Mechanical hazards: That cause worker injuries from

tripping, falling, or moving equipment.

 Chemical hazards: These include fire and explosion

hazards, reactivity hazards, and toxic hazards.

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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
1984

Major
Upahar Cinema Fukushima
Disaster
Fire,Delhi Disaster
In
1997 2011
History

NTPC Boiler Blast ,Raebareli

2017

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Chemical hazard due to leakage

Overview of events that led to the Bhopal disaster

http://www.hrdp-idrm.in 5
 Accident and Loss Statistics
Accident and loss statistics are important measures of the effectiveness of safety
programs. These statistics are valuable for determining whether a process is safe
or whether a safety procedure is working effectively. Here 3 are discussed :

1. OSHA incidence rate

2. fatal accident rate (FAR)
3. Fatality rate, or deaths per person per year.

OSHA : OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of
the United States government. OSHA is responsible for ensuring that workers are
provided with a safe working environment.

OSHA incidence rate = Number of injuries and illness X 200,000

(based on injuries and Total hours worked by all employees during
period covered
.
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FAR: The FAR is used mostly by the British chemical industry. The FAR reports the
number of fatalities based on 1000 employees working their entire lifetime.The
employees are assumed to work a total of 50 years. Thus the FAR is based on 108
working hours.

FAR = Number of fatalities X 108

Total hours worked by all
employees during period covered.

Fatality Rate: This system is independent of the number of hours actually worked
and reports only the number of fatalities expected per person per year. This
approach is useful for performing calculations on the general population, where the
number of exposed hours is poorly defined.

Fatality rate = Number of fatalities per year

Total number of people in
applicable population.

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Highest incidence rates of total nonfatal occupational injury and illness
cases, 2016
Industry Incidence rate
Nursing and residential care facilities (State government) 13.7

Veterinary services (Private industry) 12.3

Truss manufacturing (Private industry) 10.2

Police protection (Local government) 10.2

Fire protection (Local government) 9.5

Heavy and civil engineering construction (Local 9.1

government)
Motor home manufacturing (Private industry) 8.7

Beet sugar manufacturing (Private industry) 8.5

Hospitals (State government) 8.2
Wood container and pallet manufacturing 7.7
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, U.S. Department of Labour 8
 Estimating Worker Exposures to Toxic Vapours
Concentration of volatile , C
(Mass/Volume)

Ventilation Rate, Qv Volatile Rate out, k Qv C

(Volume/time) (Mass/time)

Enclosure volume, V

Evolution Rate of Volatile, Qm

(Mass/time)

This enclosure is ventilated by a constant volume airflow. Volatile vapours are evolved
within the enclosure. An estimate of the concentration of volatile in the air is required.
Let k be the non-ideal mixing factor .

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Total mass of volatile in volume = VC,
Accumulation of mass of volatile = d(VC)/dt = V*(dC/dt)
Mass rate of volatile material resulting from evolution = Qm
Mass rate of volatile material out = k Qv C
Because accumulation equals mass in minus mass out, the dynamic mass
balance on the volatile species is

VdC/dt = Qm - k Qv C

At steady state the accumulation term is 0, so

C = Qm /kQv
Let m represent mass, p represent density, and the subscripts v and
b denote the volatile and bulk gas species, respectively. Then ,

Cppm = Vv/Vb * 106 = (mv/pv) * 10

6 = (mv/Vb )*(Rg T/PM) * 106

Cppm = (Qm * Rg T/k Qv PM * 106

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 Evaluating Exposures to Volatile Toxicants by Monitoring

A direct method for determining worker exposures is by continuously

monitoring the air concentrations of toxicants on-line in a work environment.
Although it has some limitations.

Threshold Limit Value – Time-Weighted Average (TLV-TWA) : The

concentration of a hazardous substance in the air averaged over an 8-hour
workday and a 40-hour workweek to which it is believed that workers may be
repeatedly exposed, day after day, for a working lifetime without adverse
effects.

TWA = 1/8 ∑ C T

Where
C is the concentration (in ppm or mg/m3) of the chemical in the air and
T is the worker shift time in hours.

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 Safety Programs
A successful safety program requires several ingredients. These ingredients
are
System
Attitude
Fundamentals
Experience
Time
You

Three Steps to manage Health and Safety at work :

I. Hazard Identification (Spot the Hazard)
II. Risk Assessment (Assess the risk )
III. Risk Control (Make changes)

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 Hazard Identification
The hazard identification methods include :

1. Process hazards checklists: This is a list of items and possible problems

in the process that must be checked.

2. Hazards and operability (HAZOP) studies :This approach allows the

mind to go free in a controlled environment. Various events are suggested
for a specific piece of equipment with the participants determining whether
and how the event could occur and whether the event creates any form of
risk.

3. Safety review: An effective but less formal type of HAZOP study. The
results are highly dependent on the experience and synergism of the group
reviewing the process.

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 HAZOP STUDY
1. Begin with a detailed flow sheet. Break the flow sheet into a number of process
units. Select a unit for study.
2. Choose a study node (vessel, line, operating instruction).

3. Describe the design intent of the study node.

4. Pick a process parameter: flow, level, temperature, pressure, concentration, pH,

viscosity, state (solid, liquid, or gas), agitation, volume, reaction, sample, etc..

5. Apply a guide word to the process parameter to suggest possible deviations.

6. If the deviation is applicable, determine possible causes and note any protective
systems.

7. Evaluate the consequences of the deviation (if any).

8. Recommend action (what? by whom? by when?)

9. Record all information. 14

Source : group10integratedprojectmay15.weebly.com

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Hazard and Operability review

Source: http://group10integratedprojectmay15.weebly.com 16
 MSDS Sheet
A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is a document that contains information
on the potential hazards (health, fire, reactivity and environmental) and how to
work safely with the chemical product. It is an essential starting point for the
development of a complete health and safety program.

What information is on the MSDS?

1. Product Information: product identifier (name), manufacturer and suppliers
names, addresses, and emergency phone numbers.
2. Hazardous ingredients.
3. Physical Data.
4. Fire or Explosion hazard data.
5. Reactivity data.
6. Toxicological Properties: health effects
7. Preventive measures.
8. First Aid measures.

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Challenges To Advancing Process Safety
Performance
1. Application of Risk Assessments and Land-Use Planning
2. Chemical Incident Surveillance
3. Competency Level of Practicing Engineers
4. Investments in Fundamental and Applied Research
5. Risk-Based Regulations

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Conclusions:
• Process safety begins with Land use planning i.e. Plant Layout is very
very necessary for implementing safety.
• Machines should be adequately fenced so as to avoid any accident.
• Data are very important for the perspective of designing a new plant.
• For the successful implementation of a safety program, their must be a
team of skilled people.
• Workers must have sufficient knowledge of the chemicals they are dealing
with ,so as to take preventive measures in case of emergency.
• HAZOP, HAZID, Process checklists are important for eliminating the
existence of hazards.
• Cost compromise should not be there at any cost in terms of installing a
good control system for safety.
• Always use the best alternative way to reach the product which is less
harmful for workers and environment, cost can be compromised.

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References:
• S Soundararajan ,Threshold limit values and their applicability in the realms of
chemical exposure control,17 March,2012 (Vol.34,No.1)

• Paul Baybutt ,Design Intent for Hazard and Operability Studies,18 October 2014
Process Safety Progress (Vol.35,No.1)

• M. Sam Mannan , The Evolution of Process Safety: Current Status and Future
Direction ,14 March2016 , (Vol. 7, No. 135)

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