Risk analysis of an epichlorohydrin manufacturing industry using the new computer automated tool MAXCRED

Studies pertaining to risk analysis, conducted on the storage units of a typical chemical industry engaged in the manufacture of epichlorohydrin, are described. A comprehensive software package MAXCRED (MAXimum CREDible accident analysis) recently developed by us has been utilized for the purpose. Eight different scenarios, one for each storage unit, have been studied. It is observed that the accident scenario for chlorine (BLEVE followed by dipersion) leads to the largest area-under-lethal-impact while the accident scenario for propylene (CVCE followed by fire ball) forecasts the most intense damage per unit area. The accidents involving propylene, epichlorohydrin and fuel oil have high possibility of causing domino/secondary accidents as their destructive impacts (shock waves, heat load) would envelope other storage and process units. Besides demonstrating the utilizability of MAXCRED, this study also focuses attention on the need to bestow greater effort towards risk assessment/crisis management. The authors hope that these studies would highlight the severity of risk posed by the industry and would thus generate safety consciousness among plant managers. The studies may also help in developing accident-prevention strategies and installation of damage control devices. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.