The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) has released a new safety video that examines the concept of inherent safety and its application across industry; “Inherently Safer: The Future of Risk Reduction” stems from the August 28, 2008, explosion that…
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) has announced a public hearing to support its continued analysis of effective safety-performance indicators and to release preliminary findings into the agency’s investigation of the Macondo well blowout, explosion and fire in the…
Understanding the inherent limitations of current overpressure protection analyses is key to developing a more robust heuristic In designing and sizing relief-device and effluent-handling systems, one commonly overlooked aspect of the performance is examining the potential for low temperatures that…
After a serious accident at a chemical plant, petroleum refinery or other freestanding industrial facility, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) may immediately initiate an investigation, often getting “in the air” while the emergency is still unfolding. The CSB…
Circa 1978, Reese and I visited a petrochemical plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. Primarily, our job was to inspect trays that had been installed in three columns. Each of those columns was about 10 ft in diameter and 100 ft…
Electrochemical and chemical-precipitation technology from New Sky Energy (Boulder, Colo.; www.newskyenergy.com) allows the conversion of salty wastewater and CO2 from fluegas into valuable process chemicals, such as soda ash, calcium carbonate, sulfuric acid, bleach and other chemicals. New Sky’s customizable…
An explosion is defined as “a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner,” and is usually accompanied by high temperature generation and gas release. Flammable gases, vapors, dusts and ambient oxygen — all present in…
U.S. House approves cybersecurity bill to ease information sharing Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a measure that would ease information sharing among chemical firms and other companies…
A new process for removing oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from industrial foul-air and cool combustion exhaust uses ClO2 in a unique way to remove over 99% of both NO and NO2 with a single scrubbing stage. The reaction vessel is…
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.csb.gov) has deployed a four-person investigation team to El Dorado, Ark. to determine the cause of an explosion and fire that severely burned and killed three workers. The accident occurred Monday, May 21, 2012,…