Prevention is always better than a cure
In an industry as potentially dangerous as fuel storage, health and safety needs to be more than just a message on the noticeboard.
Earlier this year, international oil giant BP was castigated by US safety investigators over its Texas City plant explosion, which killed 15 workers in
2005. According to the draft report from the US Chemical Safety Board, the blast was the result of lax safety culture at BP. Fortunately, explosions
on this scale are rare, but the recent report highlights that when safety is compromised on any plant or tank terminal, lives are at risk.
Explosion and fire safety equipment in tank terminals is often bespoke to the site to avoid any potential misapplication. Regulations, such as the European Union’s ATEX directive, have created a framework for controlling explosive atmospheres and the standards of equipment and protective systems used in them.
The ATEX directive was designed to open up free trade across Europe, and align technical and legal requirements across member states for equipment and protective systems used in potentially explosive atmospheres. Since July 2003 it has been mandatory for all electrical and mechanical equipment used in potentially explosive atmospheres to be compliant with the ATEX 94/9/EC directive. The burden also falls on the end-user with a second ATEX directive 1999/92/EC and its requirement to assess an area for explosion risk.
Previously there had been no obligation to use certified equipment or to grade an area as potentially explosive. In the US, there is a system of class standards, and within those are divisions. ATEX zone one will roughly translate as US class one division one, but certification with one standard does not imply reciprocal certification.
Site managers at tank terminals protect storage tanks from implosion or explosion using a variety of measures. Thermal combustion units in chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical plants use burner systems for thermal waste disposal to reduce emissions. The problem with using premixing burner units is that they require highly flammable fuel and oxidant gases to be mixed in confined chambers before they are burned.
