CH 09 703 SAFETY

ENGINEERING IN PROCESS
PLANTS
MODULE II
Manilal A M
Dept. of ChE, Govt Engg College Thrissur
CHEMICAL HAZARDS CLASSIFICATION
 Hazardous chemicals are those that, following
worker exposure, can have an adverse effect on
health.
 Major Chemical hazards are classified into
 Fire hazard
 Hazard due to explosion
 Hazard due to toxic chemicals
 Radiation hazard
 From the escape of process materials which may be
inherently dangerous (eg. flammable or toxic) and/or
present at high pressures and high or low
temperatures.
 Large and sudden escapes may cause explosions, toxic
clouds and pollution whose effects extend far beyond
the works perimeter.
 Small and persistent escapes may lead to chronic ill-
health and environmental pollution.
HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS
 Characteristics which make a substance
hazardous :
 Flammability
 Explosivity
 Toxicity
 Reactivity
 Corrosivity
 Radio activity
HAZARDS DUE TO FIRE
 Fire hazards are an important concern. There are two
main kinds of fire hazard. One is that from very
flammable materials, which may give rise quickly to a
dangerous fire or explosion. The other is that from fires
in buildings, which may trap people by the spread of
fire or smoke.
 The thermal radiation intensity and the time duration
of fires often are used to estimate injury (severity of
burns) and damage due to a fire.

 Effect of fire : Skin burns due to thermal radiation

 Human skin can withstand a heat radiation intensity of

10 kW/m2 for approximately 5 seconds and that of 30
kW/m2 for less than 0.4 seconds before pain is felt.
HAZARD DUE TO EXPLOSION
EXPLOSION
 We define an explosion as an event leading to a rapid
increase of pressure. This pressure increase can be
caused by: nuclear reactions, loss of containment in
high pressure vessels, high explosives, metal water
vapour explosions, run-a-way reactions, combustion of
dust, mist or gas (incl. vapours) in air or in other
oxidisers.
 Result in a pressure wave.

 Damage to materials and property

 Explosives industry

 Explosions of industrial chemicals outside the

explosives industry.
 GAS EXPLOSIONS
 gas explosion Is a process where combustion of a
premixed gas cloud, i.e. fuel-air or fuel-oxidiser, is
causing rapid increase of pressure. Gas explosions can
occur inside process equipment or pipes, in buildings or
offshore modules, in open process areas or in unconfined
areas.
 The consequences of a gas explosion will depend on the
environment in which the gas cloud is contained or which
the gas cloud engulfs. Therefore it has been common to
classify a gas explosion from the environment where the
explosion takes place: i) Confined Gas Explosions within
vessels, pipes, channels or tunnels. ii) Partly Confined
Gas Explosions in a compartment, buildings or off-shore
modules and iii) Unconfined Gas Explosions in process
plants and other unconfined areas.
 CHEMICAL EXPOSURES
 Sources of Exposure :
 Periodic emissions
 They arise from the need to open or enter the ‘system’
occasionally, for example, during sampling, cleaning,
batch additions, line breaking etc. Periodic emissions
tend to be large and include both anticipated events
and unplanned releases, in which human error may
be a factor.
 Fugitive emissions
 Small but continuous escapes from normally closed
sources. 15-20 % of total volatile organic chemical
(VOC) emissions are fugitive. They occur from
dynamic seals such as valve stems and pump or
agitator shafts and from static seals such as flange
gaskets.
CLASSIFICATION OF ATMOSPHERIC
CONTAMINANTS

 Carcinogenic
 A substance which if it is inhaled or ingested or if it
penetrates the skin may induce cancer in human beings
or increase its incidence.
 Teratogenic

 A substance which if it is inhaled or ingested or if it

penetrates the skin may involve a risk of subsequent
non-hereditable birth defects in offspring.
 Mutagenic

 A substance which if it is inhaled or ingested or if it

penetrates the skin may involve a risk of hereditable
genetic defects.
TLV CONTAMINATION REDUCTION OR
REMOVAL METHODS

 For the control of air born substances in the work

environment some occupational exposure limits are
fixed. They are the maximum concentrations in air of
the substances which should not be exceeded in the
breathing zone of workers.
 The most commonly used Threshold limit values
(TLVs) are

 TLV-TWA (Time weighted average)

 TLV-STEL (Short term exposure limit)
 TLV-c (ceiling )
 The Threshold Limit Value - Time Weighted
Average (TLV-TWA) : Time-weighted average
concentration for a normal 8-hour working day and a
40-hour working week, to which nearly all workers may
be repeatedly exposed day after day, without adverse
effect

 The Threshold Limit Value - Short Term

Exposure Limit (TLV-STEL) is defined as a 15-
minute, time-weighted average which should not be
exceeded at any time. During a working day, even if the
8-hour time-weighted average is within the TLV
 RELEASE OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Continuous versus Instantaneous Releases
 Toxic releases may consist of continuous releases or
instantaneous emissions. Continuous releases usually involve
low levels of toxic emissions, which are regularly monitored
and/or controlled. Such releases include continuous stack
emissions and open or aerated chemical processes in which
certain volatile compounds are allowed to be stripped off into
the atmosphere through aeration or agitation.
 Greater concern is warranted for the case of an instantaneous
release, which is usually the result of an uncontrolled process.
Most of these incidents are the result of a highway or railway
accident or a fire, windstorm, or other natural accident.
However, the cause can sometimes be linked to the breakdown
of normal safeguards in plants, factories, mines, or chemical
storage facilities. Whatever the cause, the result is often a
significant potential threat to life, property, and/or file
environment.
 RADIATION HAZARD
 Radioactive materials that decay spontaneously produce
ionizing radiation, which has sufficient energy to strip
away electrons from atoms (creating two charged ions) or
to break some chemical bonds.
 Any living tissue in the human body can be damaged by
ionizing radiation in a unique manner. The body attempts
to repair the damage, but sometimes the damage is of a
nature that cannot be repaired or it is too severe or
widespread to be repaired.
 Also mistakes made in the natural repair process can lead
to cancerous cells. The most common forms of ionizing
radiation are alpha and beta particles, or gamma and X-
rays.
 RADIATION HAZARD
 In general, the amount and duration of radiation
exposure affects the severity or type of health effect.
There are two broad categories of health effects:
stochastic and non-stochastic.
 Stochastic Health Effects

 Stochastic effects are associated with long-term, low-level

(chronic) exposure to radiation. Increased levels of
exposure make these health effects more likely to occur,
but do not influence the type or severity of the effect.
 Cancer is considered by most people the primary health
effect from radiation exposure. Damage occurring at the
cellular or molecular level, can disrupt the control
processes, permitting the uncontrolled growth of cells
cancer This is why ionizing radiation's ability to break
chemical bonds in atoms and molecules makes it such a
potent carcinogen.
 Radiation can cause changes in DNA, the "blueprints"
that ensure cell repair and replacement produces a
perfect copy of the original cell. Changes in DNA are
called mutations.
 Sometimes the body fails to repair these mutations or
even creates mutations during repair. The mutations
can be teratogenic or genetic. Teratogenic mutations are
caused by exposure of the fetus in the uterus and affect
only the individual who was exposed. Genetic mutations
are passed on to offspring.
 Non-Stochastic Health Effects

 Non-stochastic effects appear in cases of exposure to

high levels of radiation, and become more severe as the
exposure increases. Short-term, high-level exposure is
referred to as 'acute' exposure.
 Many non-cancerous health effects of radiation are
non-stochastic. Unlike cancer, health effects from
'acute' exposure to radiation usually appear quickly.
 Acute health effects include burns and radiation
sickness. Radiation sickness is also called 'radiation
poisoning.' It can cause premature aging or even
death. If the dose is fatal, death usually occurs within
two months.
 The symptoms of radiation sickness include: nausea,
weakness, hair loss, skin burns or diminished organ
function.
 Medical patients receiving radiation treatments often
experience acute effects, because they are receiving
relatively high "bursts" of radiation during treatment.
 REDUCTION OF PROCESS HAZARDS BY PLANT
CONDITION MONITORING.
The principles of condition monitoring
 The general principle of condition monitoring involves the
selection of some appropriate indicator of the machine
condition, which can be measured at ntervals.
 This measurement is recorded and is then usually plotted
on a graph, against time in service, to indicate whether
deterioration is occurring.
 The object of the condition monitoring activity is to
achieve a lead time or advanced warning of failure to
enable the machine or plant to be taken out of service in a
planned manner .
 Failures in service can then be eliminated and the
maintenance operation can also be much more efficient,
because the necessary spares and skilled labour can be
standing by to do the job.
 There are five basic methods used at present for
monitoring the condition of plant and machinery and
these are: -
 1. Visual monitoring.

 2. Vibration monitoring.

 3. Wear monitoring.

 4. Performance monitoring.

 5. Corrosion monitoring.

All these methods really involve an extension of long

established machine minding practice by the application of
modern technology.
ADVANTAGES OF CONDITION MONITORING
THE GENERAL APPLICATION OF MONITORING METHODS TO
THE DETECTION AND DEFINITION OF MACHINE PROBLEMS