On March 22, 2021, at approximately 12:30 p.m., an explosion and fire occurred at a Refinery. The explosion and fire seriously injured one contract worker Leading up to the incident, the refinery was shut down for turnaround maintenance. The planned maintenance work included removing a section of carbon steel piping in the Fluidized Catalytic Cracking…...
OSHA has issued a final decision to remove several withdrawn HAZLOC test standards from the NRTL Program’s List of Appropriate Test Standards. These final actions are detailed below in Table 1. Additionally, Table 1 lists the replacement test standard that OSHA has already incorporated into the NRTL Program’s List of Appropriate Test Standards (for informational…...
A big part of an energy isolation/control plan for Line Break/Equipment Opening tasks is how to EVACUATE the stored energy after the isolation. In this case, it was STEAM that had cooled into hot condensate, which was NOT drained from the piping before work began to fix the steam leak. A VERY COMMON error made,…...
In many Line & Equipment Opening (LEO) safe work practices, some leeway will be granted to the workers AFTER the INITIAL “break” based on the level of ISOLATION they have protecting them. For example: A LEO has a double block and bleed arrangement on BOTH sides of the opening. During the initial “break,” the worker(s)…...
I recently participated in a LinkedIn discussion about “panic hardware” for EXIT doors from an NH3 Refrigeration mechanical room. The image shared (which the poster acknowledged fell short) was a push pad about the size of an adult’s hand. Here are the specifics for our (USA-based) panic hardware on EXIT doors:… Membership Required You must...
On May 4, 2023, at 6:25 a.m., approximately 790 pounds of a hydrocarbon mixture containing about 7,000 parts per million (ppm) of hydrogen sulfide were accidentally released at a Refinery. Exposure to the toxic hydrogen sulfide vapor seriously injured one employee. The facility’s investigation found that, on the day of the incident, pressure in a…...
On Friday, February 3, 2023, at approximately 10:46 p.m., a flash fire was accidentally released from a product purge vessel (“vessel”) flange during planned maintenance activities. The fire seriously injured four (4) contract workers. On January 29, 2023, the facility shut down its polyethylene unit for planned maintenance. Following the shutdown procedure, operators purged and…...
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On September 22, 2022, at approximately 9:00 a.m., a liquid mixture comprised of aniline, formalin, and hydrochloric acid was accidentally released, seriously injuring one contractor at a chemical manufacturing facility in Geismar, Louisiana. On September 20, 2022, two days before the incident, an off-site power outage caused an immediate loss of process flow into the…...
On October 1, 2020, at approximately 9:00 a.m., approximately 554 pounds of chlorine gas were accidentally released. Exposure to the toxic chlorine vapors seriously injured one employee. At the time of the incident, four (4) workers (two unit employees and two contractors) were trying to stop a chlorine leak (described as a fugitive emission) from…...
At the time of the event, contract workers were disassembling a 2-inch flange to remove a blind (a solid metal plate used to isolate equipment) before reinstalling a section of piping that had been removed and cleaned. This type of equipment opening is commonly referred to as a “line opening” or “performing a line break.”…...
In some processes, there is ALWAYS a need to “leak test” before returning a segment of piping to service. These “leak test” pressures are done at NORMAL Operating pressures using a calibrated solution such as SNOOP. And every once in a while, I get a question about doing a “leak test” at some really low…...
