Chemical Process Safety (PSM/RMP)

With today’s announcement of the OSHRC decision that the IMC was the facilities RAGAGEP and that the IMC does not require detectors, I thought this record needs to be CORRECTED and CLARIFIED, as the ALJ’s understanding of how the IMC and its requirements apply to an ammonia refrigeration process/system.  In the decision, the facility successfully…...

This 2019 OSHRC decision is without a doubt the worst excuse for process safety I have seen since I have been involved with process safety (27 years).  This case fails to meet the most fundamental basis of how OSHA’s wrote the standard.  Employers get to pick their RAGAGEPs, but when they state the “codes and…...

The information in this report is preliminary and will be either supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation. On April 25, 2019, about 4:33 a.m. central daylight time, about 750 gallons (3,800 pounds) of anhydrous ammonia liquefied compressed gas (UN1005, Division 2.2) were accidentally released from two 1,000-gallon nurse tanks mounted on a…...

This week we saw two Canadian businesses be fined over $1.2 M (CAD) for discharging their “Ammonia bleed water” to a storm drain which discharged into a river killing around 70 fish. The business, a University in British Columbia, hired a refrigeration contractor to make repairs to the refrigeration system, at which time the contractor…...

2019 has been a year of coal-fired power plants or me so far!  It’s only June and I have spent more than four weeks in these facilities.  With that said, I wanted to provide my friends in that industry who operate an SCR some factual information on their Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) piping and what ANSI K61.1/CGA…...

The state of North Dakota has an excellent state code for Anhydrous Ammonia.  They have done so much more than just adopted ANSI K61.1/CGA 2.1.  They have written a code for a process safety novice, using the RAGAGEPs as their foundation…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a...

This study essentially concerns refrigeration installations using ammonia as a refrigerant.  However, in order to better understand and to place the risks associated with these installations in perspective, quantified information has also been collected on numerous accidents, both French or foreign, in other industrial or agricultural activities and in the field of transport. The processing of these data allows…...

Inside a vinegar plant, a 150-m³ tank containing 38.5 m³ of an alcohol vinegar mixture exploded around 9:40 am. The 3,000-m² site had been in activity start-up mode, but engineering works were still underway. The tank bottom became detached from the shell. It’s upper part, measuring 13 m high, 4 m in diameter and weighing some 3.5 tonnes, was…...

Ten kilos (22 pounds) of hydrogen chloride gas was released from a flange that had been fitted by a contractor just a few weeks earlier, triggering alarms and resulting in an internal emergency intervention. The incident had no significant consequences.  A contractor performing maintenance was instructed to remove the pressure sensor from a device and replace it with…...