Search

As an important consideration in the chemical industry, chemical process safety has received notable attention in China. However, catastrophic chemical accidents still occur. To better understand why accidents continue to occur, this paper presented a diagnostic analysis of 14 major chemical accidents in China from 2012 to 2022 based on VOSviewer software. The authors analysed the correlation between the accident causation and their relationship with the safety management elements. The study observed that inferior process safety culture, intentional violation (rule-breaking) of procedure, inadequate safety training, and illegal operations were the most frequent causes of accidents. These causes highlighted the prominent gaps in PSM in China in the process safety culture, compliance with standards, the conduct of operations, process safety competency, and training & performance assurance. The results based on co-occurrence analysis indicated a strong correlation between these gaps in PSM. Enterprises should pay attention to collaborative management among them. These deficiencies in the enterprise's PSM system showed that the essential defects in China's chemical industry are a poor safety culture, inadequate accident investigation, inadequate training, and a lack of chemical safety personnel. The study recommended that the chemical industry establish superior process safety culture and competency for all personnel, monitor leading and lagging process safety indicators, apply inherent safety, and practice advanced safety management concepts. We hope that the findings can provide China's perspectives and strengths for global chemical safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's chemical industry has experienced rapid development in the past decades. However, thermal runaway incidents have sporadically occurred, posing a serious threat to the development of the industry. This study performed the statistical analysis of 271 thermal runaway incidents that occurred in China from 1984 to 2019. Incident characteristics include the number of incidents, fatalities, spatial distributions, industry types, occurrence links, and immediate causes that were revealed and analyzed. The results demonstrated that the quantities and fatalities of incidents increased overall from 1984 to 2019. Thermal runaway incidents mainly occurred in the coastal economically developed provinces. Organic and inorganic industry accounted for 57.2% and 10.7% of the total thermal runaway incidents, respectively. According to the cause of the incidents, this study found that operator error was the biggest cause of thermal runaway, accounting for 35.4%. In addition, equipment damage, improper management, and other reasons had also led to numerous of incidents and casualties. Based upon the analysis of statistical data, this paper discussed the prevention of thermal runaway incidents in four aspects: strengthen the reliability of the process, improve the professional competence of practitioners, solve the problems of small and medium-sized enterprises, and replace passive measures for active prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic peroxides (OPs) readily demonstrate oxidising and self-reactive characteristics that can easily cause fire and explosion. Information regarding the thermal stability and other properties of OPs should be provided to industries that use these materials to avoid unexpected thermal decomposition in the workplace. The target substance in this study, 1,1-di-tert-butyl peroxy-3,3,5-trimethyl cyclohexane (TMCH), is commonly used in the chemical industry, and scholars have considered its applications in the aerospace sector in the last two decades. Because of different conditions in the chemical and aerospace industry, parameters measured under the previous conditions leave unforeseen thermal risks. The thermal behaviour and runaway pathway of TMCH, especially under adiabatic conditions, were investigated using experimental and theoretical computation methodologies. Differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyser, and adiabatic accelerating calorimeter were applied for the thermokinetic constants of TMCH. Experimental results indicated that TMCH could release heat and gas when decomposed, with a high potential explosion hazard. Molecular simulation calculations can compensate for the measurement restrictions of instruments. The peroxy bond dissociation energy of TMCH was amended by basis set superposition error correction calculations. The analysis determined the thermal runaway reaction pathway of TMCH and evaluated the formation mechanism of the transition state defined by the intrinsic reaction coordinate. The main reason for TMCH mass loss caused by heating was the release of CO 2 and ethane gas. This paper confirmed experimental results by molecular simulation with thermodynamic constants. The study results can be used as a reference for the loss prevention and control of TMCH in more potential engineering applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]