Safety and Loss Prevention

Petrochemicals

The incident summaries provide a brief description of the event and highlight key points (including basic causes, critical factors, root causes and lessons learned) in addition to signposting interested readers to the detailed investigation report and selected other pertinent reference materials.

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Flixborough - 01 June 1974

Incident: Temporary reactor bypass line rupture. Location: UK. Keywords: bellows, caprolactam, competence, corrosion, design, explosion, Flixborough, layout, MOC, planning, QA, temporary, UVCE. Author: Peter Marsh.

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Pasadena - 23 October 1989

Incident: Reactor inventory release via settling leg. Location: USA. Keywords: actuator; blockage; deviance; explosion; HDPE; isolation; layout; Pasadena; permit; procedure; training; valve. Author: Peter Marsh.

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Castleford - 21 September 1992

Incident: Nitration plant residue exothermic runaway. Location: UK. Keywords: building, Castleford, CoW, Hickson, jet, layout, MoC, MNT, muster, nitration, procedure, runaway, training. Author: Peter Marsh.

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Geismar - 13 June 2013

Incident: Propylene fractionator reboiler shell rupture. Location: USA. Keywords: bleve, exchanger, explosion, Geismar, hierarchy, MoC, olefin, PHA, PSSR, PSV, valve. Author: Peter Marsh.

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Moerdijk - 03 June 2014

Incident: Reactor overpressure and rupture. Location: Netherlands. Keywords: alarms, catalyst, communication, control, explosion, MoC, Moerdijk, procedure, reactor, runaway, startup. Author: Peter Marsh.

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