Search

This paper deals with the hazards associated with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plant. Due to the release of LPG, different possible hazards, such as fireball, jet fire and vapour cloud explosion (VCE), may take place in the bottling plant. Each critical stages of bottling plants are briefly discussed and modelled in ALOHA and PHAST, and their simulated consequences of results are compared. In this article, the complete bottling plant has been divided into various risk zones which are expected accidental areas (like tank storage area, small domestic cylinder storage area, and LPG pump and compressor area). The risks during handling and the use of LPG have been analysed and modelled and their results are compared. Among all the accident scenarios, fireball was found to be the most dangerous condition in the bullet and small cylinder storage units. Overall, bullet storage unit was found to be the most hazardous section having the most destructive damage (with an overpressure of 0.41 bar), which causes complete destruction, large number of injuries and fatalities (within a distance of 215 m) in case of VCE and having a thermal intensity of 37.5 kW/m2 which causes deaths due to burn up to the largest distance (324 m) in the case of fireball.

This paper deals with the analysis of hazards associated with accidental release of high pressure from gas-pipeline transportation system. Simplified equations which are related to the fluid properties, operating pressure, the diameter of pipeline, hole or rupture diameter and the length of the pipeline have been used for the hazard analysis due to pipeline failure. The kind of release (i.e. leak) through a hole or the complete rupture was found not to affect the effective release rate because of an increase in the operating pressure. Among various gases, the release rate of butane with lower value of specific heat ratio (γ) is found to be always higher than that of propane and methane which have higher value of γ. Decay coefficient, defined as the ratio of release rate at any instant and to the initial maximum release rate, decreases with an increase in the leak (or hole) size. The accident affected distance increases with an increase in the hole size. During the leakage of natural gas and petroleum gas pipeline, affected distance of hazard is slightly higher for fire as compared to other events. The simplified models can be used with confidence to estimate the hazard distance or hazard area. The procedure developed will be helpful for safety management or emergency response planning for the pipeline transportation of the natural gas and petroleum gas.

This paper presents an analysis and simulation of an accident involving a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) truck tanker in Kannur, Kerala, India. During the accident, a truck tanker hit a divider and overturned. A crack in the bottom pipe caused leakage of LPG for about 20 min forming a large vapor cloud, which got ignited, creating a fireball and a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) situation in the LPG tank with subsequent fire and explosion. Many fatalities and injuries were reported along with burning of trees, houses, shops, vehicles, etc. In the present study, ALOHA (Area Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) and PHAST (Process Hazard Analysis Software Tool) software have been used to model and simulate the accident scenario. Modeling and simulation results of the fireball, jet flame radiation and explosion overpressure agree well with the actual loss reported from the site. The effects of the fireball scenario were more significant in comparison to that of the jet fire scenario.

A simple and inexpensive method for the preparation of a starch/iron oxide biocomposite where iron oxide particles are densely coated with starch molecules is reported. Iron oxide particles show an excellent plasticization effect on starch. The biocomposite shows a decrease in the water absorption behavior with an increase in iron oxide binder concentration and the effect of alcohol on the biocomposite is studied.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the failure and associated hazards of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas (NG) vessels during handling, storage, and transport. The leakage of LPG and NG from the vessels creates major hazards with the loss of containment. In case of fire, an extensive damage to the property (such as building and plants) and the population also occurs. This review is focused on several areas where the work done in the literature is scarce and missing, such as the failure modes of LPG or NG vessels during storage and transport and the estimation of the amount of the leakage and ignition time during these situations. This paper describes the different possible events such as jet fire, fireball, and vapor cloud explosion (VCE) and their mechanisms and the blast effects on the population or the environment. In this paper, all the experimental studies on pool fire, jet fire, boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion, and VCE associated with LPG/LNG have been analyzed. Moreover, modeling approaches and their corresponding equations, computational fluid dynamic approaches, and software used have also been reviewed.