I was recently discussing the presently unexplained fire in hydrocarbon storage tanks at the Pertamina refinery in Indonesia, and musing about whether we were seeing an uptick in process safety incidents as a result of lockdown. A commentator suggested that the apparent increase in incidents might be a feature of selective reporting and social media bubbles, but this seems not to be the case. During the pandemic, there have been quite a number of serious incidents:
There was an explosion during reopening of a plastics factory on 5th May last year near Naples, Italy, which led to a fatality, one day after the Italian government had relaxed lockdown.
A few days later, a styrene gas leak during reopening of a polymer plant in Visakhapatnam in India killed 12 people, and injured hundreds more. There have been 32 further process industry incidents in India alone since the Visakhapatnam incident, and 75 further fatalities.
Then, on 21 July, a chemical tanker exploded In Incheon City, South Korea during its loading with hydrogen peroxide, leading to a fatality and multiple injuries.
The next day, three foreign experts were injured in a natural gas well explosion in Assam in India. The experts were there to try to deal with the same leak which had killed two firefighters in a previous explosion 56 days earlier. It was hardly an unforeseeable possibility.
A lot of these incidents seem to be happening in Asia, but the rest of the world is far from immune. In December, an explosion at a sewage sludge handling plant near Bristol in the UK killed four people.
So why the increase, and has the pandemic been a direct or indirect cause? I would argue that a knock-on effect of lockdowns has been an increase in unplanned plant shutdowns and subsequent restarts. It is also possible that on-site personal (covid related) safety measures took precedence over process safety measures during the height of the pandemic and, probably more significant, that staff shortages and unreliability as a result of infection, quarantine, and travel restrictions contributed to incidents.
Some of the incidents happened during the course of start-up following a period of lockdown. Process plant start-up is always hazardous, and start-up in pandemic conditions foreseeably even more so. Planning and organisation is always the key to controlling hazards.
Safe shutdown and maintenance of safety during shutdown is also something that needs careful planning and preparation, taking current conditions into consideration. I experienced a government mandated plant shutdown myself in Panama after a covid outbreak there, and saw at first-hand how difficult it was to shut down safely and maintain safety under pandemic conditions.
It is for example thought that the Visakhapatnam incident might be ultimately due to a lack of consideration of the degradation of styrene during storage, which would be expected when stored on site for an indeterminate period.
There are many historic incidents as a result of loss of utilities. This risk is obviously greater during present conditions. Inventories of materials which degrade in storage, require reliable utilities, or a minimum throughput of material for safety would ideally be eliminated for shutdown. Failing that, their inventory should be minimised and conditions suitably monitored.
Measures which protect against explosive atmospheres must also be maintained. I have received confidential reports of incidents similar to Pertamina occurring as a result of failures of nitrogen blanketing.
When I was writing my book on plant layout, I was surprised by the fact that the some of the most dangerous parts of a process plant are the “offsites”, particularly warehouses, perhaps because they receive less attention from process engineers. The hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction caused by the blast in Beirut in August last year showed just how dangerous warehouses can be. The aftermath showed how much worse the consequences can be when medical facilities are already overburdened by covid. Making sure “offsites” are properly looked after, and their inventories of hazardous materials properly controlled during shutdown is essential. Realistic emergency plans must be developed.
Financial pressures may also be foremost in the minds of plant management during post-covid start-up. Many businesses are struggling, and the process industries are also affected. Safety concerns may take a back seat to the urge to restart production. Shortcuts may be taken. Post-covid start-up is even less appropriate as a time to cut corners than start-up in the old normal.
