Proccess safety BEACON – July 2020
An explosion on October 13, 2002, propelled large fragments of debris offsite, some landed near crude oil storage tanks. Three people were injured, but fortunately, no fatalities occurred. Steam leaking through manual block valves heated crude Mononitrotoluene (MNT)...
Proccess safety BEACON – June 2020
Can a “fail open” valve fail closed?. Clearly the answer is YES or we would not have asked the question! On piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) or other process safety information (PSI), valves may be indicated as “fail open,” “fail closed,” or “fail in...
Proccess safety BEACON – May 2020
On November 9, 2010, in upstate New York, USA, a contractor was welding new support brackets on a tank for water-based polymer slurry. The area outside the tank had been monitored for flammables and approved for hot work, but the inside of the tank was not tested. An...
Updated BP Texas City Animation on the 15th Anniversary of the Explosion
On the 15th anniversary of the incident, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is announcing a forthcoming interactive training application based on one of the worst industrial disasters in recent U.S. history–the March 23, 2005, explosion at the BP refinery in Texas...