CHEMICAL & INDUSTRIAL

DISASTERS–PREVENTION,
PREPAREDNESS &
MANAGEMENT

Surendra Kumar, FIE,

Chartered Engineer (India)
Former Advisor (Environment), Siel Limited
CHEMICAL & INDUSTRIAL
DISASTERS – PREVENTION,
PREPAREDNESS & MANAGEMENT
A. Introduction

• Disaster Management forms an integral part

of any Industrial Activity Management in
dealing with the hazards and risks which
may have impact on environment, human
lives, health and safety and business
interests. It is the means by which an
industry manages itself in order to mitigate
these risks.
CHEMICAL & INDUSTRIAL
DISASTERS – PREVENTION,
PREPAREDNESS & MANAGEMENT
Some off the recent Industrial Disaster have been

1. Orgno Mercury leakage in MINAMATI in Japan

2. Bhopal gas Disaster
3. Shri ram Oleium gas Leak
4. Transportation Disasters on Road affecting large
number of near by People
5. Numerous other Examples can be cited of Industrial
Disaster which has brought in Untold misery to the
affected as well as to the Posterity

Maximum panic and turmoil created in the World due

to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) specially
Biological and Chemical warfare equipment capable of
bringing vast devastation without much tried antidots
DISASTER RISK ASSESSMENT
• ‘Risk’ is a function of probability of occurrence of
any hazardous event, and of the magnitude of its
consequences during installation/ operation of the
unit.
• ‘Risk Assessment’ is a formalised approach to
identiy potential hazards arising due to hazardous
operations and to quantify and evaluate same
besides suggesting remedial measures to
eleminate/reduce such hazards.
• The steps involved in risk assessment, which form
Disaster Management are :
• Hazard identification
• Hazard quantification
• Consequence analysis
OBJECTIVES OF DISASTER
MANAGEMENT
Disaster Management planning is done for
• Total Prevention or Safe Management of
Disaster
• Safety of men at work and in the vicinity of
Disaster.
• Effective rescue and treatment of casualties.
• Mitigating the severness of Disaster first and
ultimately to control the whole situation.
• Casuality identification, classification and safe
transportation to Trauma Centre /Hospital
• Providing factual information to authorities
coordinating the operations to avoid
contradiction and confusion.
IDENTIFICATION AND
ASSESSMENT OF SCENARIOS
• The primary step in any Disaster Management
planning is the identification and assessment of
the principal hazards. The hazard can be fire,
explosion, toxic release, failure of structure or
vessel holding hazardous substances, sudden
heavy toxic emissions from exhausts/ vents/
chimneys etc.
• Identification of vulnerable points likely to result
in Disaster are essential through :
• Operational experience
• Past history/ experience
• Criteria review
IDENTIFICATION AND PREVENTION

The following methods are applied for Hazard Identification

and prevention
 Critical review of MSD of chemicals in manufacture,
pipeline and storage
 “What if” analysis of each design, operation and
maintenance which could trigger Disaster
 Minimizing inventory of hazardous chemicals
 Study of cloud formation Dispersion Module in case of toxic
release and Identification of area and population affected
 Setting up of effected WAD system for entire stored
quantity of lethal chemicals “List available under MSIHC
rules”
IDENTIFICATION AND PREVENTION

 The high level control applicable to 17 potentially

more hazardous chemicals are:
• Threshold quantity
• Preparation and updating of Safety report.
• Identification of hazardous units and segments
of plants and storage units based on relative
ranking technique, viz. Fire Explosion and
Toxicity Index (FETI)
FIRE EXPLOSION AND TOXICITY
INDEX (FETI) APPROACH

 Hazard potential in a chemical process plant

has been calculated by classifying,
categorising/ indexing chemicals based on
their toxicity, reactivity and instability.
 The most widely used relative ranking hazard
index is Dow Chemical Company’s “Fire
Explosive Index” (F&EI) and Monds Toxicity
Index (TI). These together are called Fire and
Explosive and Toxicity Index (FETI).
 OBJECTIVES OF FETI

 Identification of equipment within a process

plant that would contribute to initiation or
escalation of an incident.
 Quantification and Classification of damage
potential of fire, explosion and toxicity incidents
in realistic terms.
 Determination of “Excessive Area of Exposure”
surrounding the process or storage units.
SELECTION OF PERTINENT
PROCESS UNITS
• For the purpose of FETI calculations, a
Process Unit is defined as any primary
item of process equipment.
• Storage tanks, reactions, separation
trains such as distillation, absorption/
disorption systems, warehouse facilities
handling hazardous materials termed as
process units.
• Pertinent process units with an impact
from the loss prevention stand point
need to be evaluated.
SELECTION OF PERTINENT
PROCESS UNITS
The selection of pertinent process unit is based on The
following factors :
• Chemical energy potential represented by Material
Factor (MF).
• Inventory/quantity of hazardous material in the
process unit.
• Capital investment involved in setting up the
process unit.
• Operating temprature and pressure conditions.
• Past accident record.
• Identification through Dispersion Modelling of a
toxic release for possible scenarios like leakage
from pinhole, complete failure of a pipeline, storage
vessel either due to physical aberrations or due to
natural calamities.
SELECTION OF PERTINENT
PROCESS UNITS
 Dispersion model for a toxicc release based
on any scenario would determine the
trajectory or space of influence of the release
in the vicinity with varying Degree of
concentrations taking into account all
Possible Meteorological Conditions.

 Drawing a peripheral graph in giving the

concentration whether dangerous or tolerable
alongwith details taken from worked out
Wind- Roses. The maximum area of impact
determined to clearly define planning
parameters.
SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF
CHARACTERIZATION OF MAJOR
CHEMICAL HAZARDS

 lies in the analysis of harmful effects

arising from certain substances.

 Some substances are inflammable,

some unstable which may result in
explosions while some substances are
toxic and may result in serious injury
to human kind, plant life and property
if released beyond safe limits.
SUBSTANCES DANGEROUS
Substances dangerous due to intrinsic properties on:
• Affinity for reaction with surroundings.
• Effect on particular substances.
• Runaway actions if mixed with other substances
during any accidental release.
• Physical properties affecting the toxicity/
inflammability/ instability depending on:
• Temperature
• Pressure
• State of substance i.e. gaseous vapour, liquefied
gas volatile liquid or a solid.
The most dangerous/ Hazardous state is liquefied gas
and least hazardous is that of being solid.
HAZARDOUS WASTES
(APPLICABLE TO ALL INDUSTRIES
PRODUCING HAZARDOUS WASTE)
Characteristics of Hazardous wastes
• Inflammability
• Corrosiveness
• Chemical Reactivity
• Toxicity causing an immediate/ or
irreversible threat to life or damage to
humans, animals, plants and environment.
• Infectiousness
HAZARDOUS WASTES
(APPLICABLE TO ALL INDUSTRIES
PRODUCING HAZARDOUS WASTE)
Treatment of Hazardous Wastes
(I) Reduction at Source/reuse/Recycle
(II) Dilution of Hazardous Waste.
(III) Commercial Available Alternatives
• Physical treatment
• Chemical treatment
• Biological treatment
• Thermal treatment
• Stablisation/solidification/ sorption
HAZARDOUS WASTES
(APPLICABLE TO ALL INDUSTRIES
PRODUCING HAZARDOUS WASTE)

DISPOSAL

• All hazardous waste should be disposed as

per norms to avoid accident during
treatment/ storage / transportation/ disposal
at site and after wards for long period.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
PLANNING (DMP)
In general, for all hazards described under
‘Identification of Hazards’, the following steps are
required for preparation of an Disaster Management
Plan.
I. To evaluate risks and hazards which may
affect the nearby community in emergency
situation.
II. To identify required response tasks not
covered in existing plans.
III. To mark these tasks to the resources available.
IV. To make changes necessary to improve
existing plans.
V. To establish procedures for periodic testing,
review and updating of the plans.
VI. To educate the general community about the
integrated plan.
OFF SITE DM PLAN :
The “Off-Site Emergency/DM plan” begins beyond
the premises of The plant. The following are the
important features of “off Site Plan”.

• The off site emergency plan will be under the

control of local administration.
• The plant authorities need to extend their
cooperation to the local administration.
• The Plant authorities should make available
their ‘on site emergency plan’ so that the
nature of risks and hazards involved in the
plant will be known to all the concerned
people.
OFF SITE DM PLAN :
• The copies of emergency plans should be
with the government authorities (e.g.
Administrator/ Fire station officer/ Factory
Inspectorate/ Environment Authorities etc).
• The people living in the immediate vicinity
of the plant should be made fully aware of
the plant activities and the possible risks
associated with the processes.
MEASURES TO BE TAKEN DURING
THE EMERGENCY CONDITIONS
 The plant authorities should immediately contact
the local administrator in case hazard is likely to
spread beyond the factory.
 The concerned Police Officers alongwith civic
officials should make arrangements for evacuation
of the people from the vicinity to safe areas.
 The plant authorities should extend all technical
support in controlling the damage.
 Most importantly, it is the responsibility of the
industry management that the people do not get
panicky.
 After all the hazard is totally eliminated, people may
be brought back to their respective places of
working and living.
THANK YOU