Thematic teachings Archives - Page 27 of 43 - La référence du retour d'expérience sur accidents technologiques

Explosion in a blasting workshop of a dynamite factory

27/03/2003
FRANCE

A violent explosion, felt more than 10 km away, occurred in a dynamite boxing workshop at an explosives plant. This shop was transforming bulk gelatinous explosives into packaged cartridges. The dynamite manufactured at the time of the accident contained 1/3[...]

Safety disc failure

04/03/2003
FRANCE

At a chemical facility, a recently replaced graphite safety disc (nominal diam.: 250) calibrated at 3 bar broke on a 12-m³ reactor used to solubilize a Resol resin. This intermediate resinous agent, included in production activities for the hide tanning[...]

Water pollution

02/02/2003
FRANCE

On Sunday, 20 m³ of a chelated iron-EDDHAS complex polluted the BRENNE River following an operational incident in one of the workshops at a chemical plant manufacturing basic organic products. A closed-loop iron complex filtration phase started up at 5 am[...]

Orthocresol leakage

16/01/2003
PAYS-BAS

In a dockside warehouse of oil and petroleum products, a reservoir containing 1,600 m³ of ortho-cresol broke and a vapour cloud rose in the direction of the nearby Rotterdam metropolitan area. The reservoir collapsed on one of its sides and[...]

Release of a chlorine cloud in a chemical plant

12/01/2003
FRANCE

Inside a chemical plant, 2 kg of chlorine were released into the atmosphere from a liquid trap that initially contained 98% sulphuric acid. The facility's internal emergency plan was activated. Notified by the operator, the railway station, located 200 m away,[...]

Fire in an isomerisation unit and domino effect on the benzene unit in a refinery

27/12/2002
ITALIE

Fire broke out in an isomerization unit at a refinery; the unit was responsible for transforming pentanes and hexanes. The blaze also damaged the benzene saturation unit, which served to convert aromatics into saturated compounds. Mechanical deficiencies on a compressor[...]

1,200 t of cyclohexane leaks

17/12/2002
FRANCE

During efforts since the previous day to locate the source of a pressure drop on the cyclohexane supply line of an olone production facility, a leak of this substance was discovered at a chemical site. The substance, used in large[...]

Tray overflow during a transfer operation

13/12/2002
BELGIQUE

A ship was unloading its cargo into a tank located in a petroleum depot. The handling operations were being carried out normally for the transfer. Suddenly, a warning alarm signalled that the first tank was nearly full. As the operator[...]

Explosion followed by a fire in a chemical plant

28/11/2002
ITALIE

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[...]

Flaming gas leak in a refinery

17/11/2002
FRANCE

At a refinery early in the evening (8:22 pm), a leak ignited on a stripping column of the gasoline hydrotreatment unit. This step was intended to eliminate a number of impurities (sulfurized, nitrogenated and oxygenated compounds, metals) before being routed[...]