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A propylene fractionator was equipped with 2 shell and tube-type reboilers, one in service, one on standby. The standby reboiler was being brought on stream to allow the operating reboiler to be taken off-line for cleaning. The operations supervisor opened the manual tube side isolation valves to establish a flow of hot quench water to the standby reboiler in preparation for the reboiler switchover. Three minutes later the standby reboiler shell failed catastrophically. The escaping propane/propylene mixture caused a boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) and fire, releasing approximately 13.6 tonnes (30,000 lb) of flammable hydrocarbons to atmosphere.
Ask yourself and your crew:
- How can something like this happen here (e.g. on our site)?
- What safety measures (i.e. procedures, controls/barriers) do we have in place to mitigate the risk?
- How do we know the risk controls/barriers are working?
- What improvements or changes should we make to the procedures, controls/barriers or the way we work?
Original content courtesy of IChemE Safety Centre
