Major accident hazard in biodiesel production processes

The number of biodiesel production plants is rapidly growing around the world, and the related “green” technologies are developing to full industrial scale within a brief time. The exploitation of these relatively new technologies with a low operational experience is however leading to an increase in the number of accidents in this industrial sector. To better address and characterise the problem of the high accident rate in the “green” technologies in biodiesel production, an in-depth statistical analysis of past accidents has been performed. The set of records analysed (93 events, from 2003 to 2017) has been selected to depict the most relevant factors affecting the accident rate, e.g. the age of the plant and its status at the time of the accident or unit and substances involved. Correlations between characteristics of the unwanted events, such as scenario and causes, have been evidenced. The analysis of the frequency and severity of past accidents allowed an estimate of the risk figure with respect to major accident hazard for biodiesel industry, unveiling the misconception for which green technologies as biodiesel production are often perceived as safer.