In a recent work, the authors showed that the trend of accidents affecting biodiesel (BD) industry follows the production trend, which is increasing worldwide due to environmental issues and climate change action plans (Marmo et al., 2017). The analysis presented a risk figure for the sector that seems above the expectation with respect to "more traditional" facilities adopting similar technologies, revealing the misconception of "green = safer". Indeed, the number of biodiesel production plants is rapidly growing around the world, and the related technologies are developing to full industrial scale within a brief time. Most of the plants adopt the consolidated transesterification process technology; despite supercritical process technology has almost achieved the buildup stage. To better address and characterise the problem of the high accidental rate in biodiesel industry, an in-depth statistical analysis of past accidents was performed and is presented in this paper. The set of records analysed 93 events, from 2003 to 2017 have been selected to depict the most relevant factors affecting the accidental rate, such as: • Plant characteristics: size, location, capacity, production technology; • Plant lifetime: plant life stage, operating time; • Accident Scenario: type of event, substances involved, losses, fatalities and injured. An overview of the results is hereby summarised: The majority of the records accounts for events in the US, which is currently the main biodiesel manufacturer. The more frequent scenario is relative to fire and explosion, while the highest fatality is due to explosion events. A relatively low lifetime could be accounted for investigated BD plants, as more than half of events occurred in the earlier years from plants' start-up and relative low number of plants withstand without an event in the long term. Accidents occurred mainly in start-up phase, or in operating stage, when some maintenance operations are performed on structures and equipment. Considerations could be done analogously on variables as production capacity, plant section (where accident happened), equipment involved, with respect to the accidental rate, referred to the overall operating time of the plant, belonging to the considered category (depending on size, section, etc.). Accidental rate, referred to overall operating time of the plant, could also be referred with respect to different variables as production capacity, plant section, equipment involved and sort by previously defined categories (size, section etc.). The findings of this work could also help to individuate the more adequate risk assessment techniques for this peculiar industrial sector and to suggest correct risk moderation measures. © 2018 IChemE.
Accidental rate in Biodiesel production plants
Casson Moreno V;Salzano E;Cozzani V;
2018
Abstract
In a recent work, the authors showed that the trend of accidents affecting biodiesel (BD) industry follows the production trend, which is increasing worldwide due to environmental issues and climate change action plans (Marmo et al., 2017). The analysis presented a risk figure for the sector that seems above the expectation with respect to "more traditional" facilities adopting similar technologies, revealing the misconception of "green = safer". Indeed, the number of biodiesel production plants is rapidly growing around the world, and the related technologies are developing to full industrial scale within a brief time. Most of the plants adopt the consolidated transesterification process technology; despite supercritical process technology has almost achieved the buildup stage. To better address and characterise the problem of the high accidental rate in biodiesel industry, an in-depth statistical analysis of past accidents was performed and is presented in this paper. The set of records analysed 93 events, from 2003 to 2017 have been selected to depict the most relevant factors affecting the accidental rate, such as: • Plant characteristics: size, location, capacity, production technology; • Plant lifetime: plant life stage, operating time; • Accident Scenario: type of event, substances involved, losses, fatalities and injured. An overview of the results is hereby summarised: The majority of the records accounts for events in the US, which is currently the main biodiesel manufacturer. The more frequent scenario is relative to fire and explosion, while the highest fatality is due to explosion events. A relatively low lifetime could be accounted for investigated BD plants, as more than half of events occurred in the earlier years from plants' start-up and relative low number of plants withstand without an event in the long term. Accidents occurred mainly in start-up phase, or in operating stage, when some maintenance operations are performed on structures and equipment. Considerations could be done analogously on variables as production capacity, plant section (where accident happened), equipment involved, with respect to the accidental rate, referred to the overall operating time of the plant, belonging to the considered category (depending on size, section, etc.). Accidental rate, referred to overall operating time of the plant, could also be referred with respect to different variables as production capacity, plant section, equipment involved and sort by previously defined categories (size, section etc.). The findings of this work could also help to individuate the more adequate risk assessment techniques for this peculiar industrial sector and to suggest correct risk moderation measures. © 2018 IChemE.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
