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2018 12 Baboo Major Safety Hazards in Urea Plants

In 2018, AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com introduced FIORDA to the fertilizer industry: The Fertilizer Industry Operational Risks Database, a cloud based global set of risk registers for ammonia and urea plants (www.fiorda.eu). On September 1, 2018, the Risk Register “Safety Hazards in Urea Plants” contained 110 safety hazards derived from amongst others 114 serious incidents. This paper provides the detailed analysis of these 110 safety hazards: In which plant sections do these safety hazards occur and which hazards have the highest risk factor: This paper provides an overview of the most critical safety hazards. A surprising conclusion is that most safety hazards may lead to a sudden release of toxic ammonia. Other safety hazards are Carbamate corrosion risks, Backflow risks, Vibration, cavitation and hammering risks, Crystallisation risks, Hydrogen explosion risks, Corrosion Under Insulation / Atmospheric corrosion risks. Most safety hazards in a urea plant involve a release of toxic ammonia of which 90% can occur suddenly, without any pre-warning. Other main safety hazards are crystallization risks, vibration risks, backflow risks, hydrogen explosion risks, ammonium carbamate corrosion risks and  corrosion under insulation / atmospheric corrosion risks. The Risk Register “Safety Hazards in Urea Plants” contain also prevention and mitigation measures of each safety hazard. Even if one would implement all recommended prevention and mitigation measures, a significant number (64) of the safety hazards would still remain a high-risk factor (catastrophic consequences and rare likelihood). This means continuous attention and awareness of these 64 safety hazards including its prevention and mitigation measures is very important.

 

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