At a chemical plant, leak occurred at 5.20 pm while a tank car containing 48 tonnes of ammonia (NH3) was being unloaded. Twenty-seven tonnes of NH3 were released over 37 minutes until the operator closed the tank's bottom valve by[...]
In a fertilizer production plant, an ammonia leak injured 3 workers, one of whom died. On December 1st, 1994, the weekly cleaning of the dryer was scheduled. The tubular reactor of this dryer was shut off at 6:25 am then[...]
In a fine chemistry unit, the temperature of a reactor abnormally surged (tripping the alarm) during the casting of an aldehyde-phenol compound into a mix of hydrogen peroxide, maleic anhydride, methylene chloride and dimethylformamide. The technician shut down the metering[...]
A reaction between cyanuric chloride and sulphanilic acid ran away inside a fine chemistry unit. Water, sulphanilic acid and cyanuric chloride were loaded into an 8,000-litre reactor. According to the new operating protocol, 1 tonne of ice was supposed to[...]
In a bituminous materials depot run by the BTP company and comprising 17 tanks, one of which contained hydrochloric acid, the vapour space of a vertical container filled to half its "cut-back 0/1" capacity (i.e. 18 tonnes of liquefied bitumen[...]
The summary of this accident has not yet been translated. In the meantime, please refer to the French summary : Sur un site chimique en milieu urbain, un disque de sécurité éclate et une soupape s'ouvre à 21h31 et durant[...]
An explosion occurred at 1:30 am inside an urban heating plant (500 MW, 6,000 m² floor area), with the energy dissipated into the ground estimated at the equivalent of a 50 kg charge of TNT. Operational since 1987, this heating[...]
Inside a pectin extraction unit at a food processing plant, 102 m³ of nitrous vapours were discharged into the atmosphere during 1 or 2 min, following bursting of the rupture disc on a reactor. Fire-fighters were called to the scene,[...]
Fire followed by explosion struck a (32-m³) road tanker during a transfer operation at a depot storing home heating oil and diesel (3 underground 30-m³ tanks, 3 aboveground 70-m³ tanks) subsequent to a fuel oil leak at the transfer hose[...]
An exothermic runaway reaction triggered an explosion and subsequent fire in a workshop at a pharmaceutical plant during a reduction step carried out inside a reactor inerted with nitrogen; this reduction was being performed in an anhydrous environment on an[...]
