Reactive Hazards Management: Lessons Learnt from Major Incidents

Chemical process industry has long suffered from major incidents due to lack of proper understanding of reactive hazards. The methyl-isocyanate leak in Bhopal, India, has been by far the worst industrial incident in history which led to the development of many process safety regulations. However, the formation and implementation of regulations has not prevented the occurrence of these incidents. Many incidents such as Concept Sciences Inc. where a hydroxylamine manufacturing unit was destroyed, the explosion at the Sterigenics International Inc., ethylene oxide sterilization facility, Bayer CropScience Pesticide Chemical Runaway Reaction Explosion and West Fertilizer Explosion have highlighted the importance of having a better understanding of the reactive hazards. The focus of this presentation is to identify different types of reactive hazards through examples of chemicals incidents and analyze how a better understanding of these hazards could have avoided these incidents.