During his shift, an employee of a special chemical products plant noticed at 1:20 pm a release of white smoke through the vents on an intermediate storage tank containing acrylic acid (AA, C3H4O2, flammable and corrosive substance, boiling point: 141°C).[...]
At a plant producing substances used in medical imaging, a temperature control defect on a biconical dryer caused product decomposition during the drying cycle. The subsequent pressure surge led, around 10 pm, to the explosion of part of the glass[...]
An explosion occurred around noon while conducting hot work (with a disc saw) on a 320-m³ fixed-roof tank at a pharmaceutical plant employing 240 personnel. The tank cover was blasted 20 m away and the subcontractor performing cutting works was[...]
Inside a pesticides plant with 520 employees, a 17-m³ reservoir used to treat methomyl residues in a methylisobutyl ketone (MTBK) solvent suddenly rose in pressure at 10:20 pm and exploded 15 min later, seriously damaging the production unit, ripping apart[...]
A cloud of chlorine gas was accidentally generated around 10.30 am while transferring hydrochloric acid (HCl) into a tank containing sodium hypochlorite (NaClO or liquid bleach) in a chemical wholesale company. The accident happened during a period of rebuilding of[...]
During the vacuum transfer of liquid waste into steel tanks at a dangerous waste treatment centre, hydrogen sulphide (H2S) was released from the vent of a receiving tank. As they could not be treated on site, these wastes (received in[...]
During the production of biogas by means of an organic waste reclamation process, a release of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) killed 3 employees and a truck driver who had come to unload slaughterhouse waste. The high concentration of H2S in the[...]
A pipeline used to transport gaseous chlorine (Cl2) exploded between a chemical platform (run by the producer) and an elastomer manufacturing site (user). The pipeline, built in 1961 for the transport of hydrochloric acid (HCl), had been operated since 1986[...]
At a chemical plant, a tank containing a mix of toluene-2,6-diisocyanate (TDI) / tars with a high boiling point increased in pressure and exploded around 7:40 pm. The cloud ignited 5 min later; afterwards, the fire was fed by 20[...]
A phenomenon of exceptional violence Between 20 and 120 tonnes of a stock containing more than 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate refuse detonated in a fertiliser plant. The causes and circumstances surrounding the accident would give rise to several investigations[...]
