Modifications chemical plant

A hasty modification can result in an accident, as discussed in Chapter 6. To address the problems of one-minute modifications, chemical plant management must persistently encourage employee awareness and train their employees about the potential dangers that can be created by the quick, inexpensive substitutions. It is essential that well-maintained engineering and equipment specifications are readily available. Changes which might include improper substitutes (such as incompatible materials of construction) or improper procedures should be reviewed by a third party. However, this is sometimes easier said than done in the sometimes hectic pace of maintaining maintenance and production schedules. 

Applications Research. Specialty chemical producers devote a larger share of their time and costs to appHcations research than do producers of most commodity chemicals. As noted earHer, the most successful specialty chemical producers have been those companies that ate able to respond quickly to customer needs and problems under the conditions found in the customer s plant. This entails having, at the specialty chemical plant, equipment and procedural knowledge which closely approximate those found among customers. Tests can then be mn and a solution to the problem or need may result. If successful, even in part, it can be brought to the customers and tried there. In practice, of course, each customer s plant has some variables which make a single answer or product quite unlikely. Fortunately, slight modifications by the suppHer will often solve the next customer s problem. 

In-Plant Waste Control. Pollution can be reduced or eliminated by process modification, chemical and raw materials substitution, or recovery of by-products. In addition, process modification generally increases product yield by incorporating control devices. 

Control of Plant and Process Modifications Many accidents have occurred because plant or process modifications had unforeseen and unsafe side effects (Sanders, Management of Change in Chemical Plants Learning from Ca.se Histories, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1993). No such modifications shoiild therefore be made until they have been authorized by a professionally quahfied person who has made a systematic attempt to identify and assess the consequences of the proposal, by hazard and operability study or a similar technique. When the modification is complete, the person who authorized it... 

On chemical plants and oil refineries, steam, nitrogen, compressed air. lubricating oil, and other utility systems are responsible for a disproportionately large number of accidents. Flammable oils are recognized as a hazard, but services are given less attention. If the modification to the lubricating system had been systematically studied before it was made, as recommended in Chapter 2, a larger vent could have been installed, or a pipe-break and funnel could have been installed at the inlet to the sump. 

Krasnov, K. A., Kartsev, V. G. and Vasilevskii, S. F. 2005. Chemical modification of plant alkaloids. 4. Reaction of cotarnine with bifunctional NH- and CH-acids. Chemistry of Natural Compounds, 41 446 50. 

Rarely in the pharmaceutical industry is a new plant built to accommodate a new process or product It may happen in the petrochemical industry, where economies of scale mean that product-specific plants are designed from scratch and then continuously de-bottlenecked over a number of years to increase and optimize productivity, but it is not the case in the pharmaceutical industry, where the number of types of unit operations in use is generally fairly small and fixed. Within a multi-purpose chemical plant commonly found in the batch chemical industry, it is common practice for process designers to make do with what is available on a given site to avoid capital expenditure and plant shut-down for modifications. 

Kletz, Trevor A., A Three-Pronged Approach to Plant Modifications, Chemical Engineering Progress, Nov. 1976 pp. 48—55. 

A chemical plant complex used large volumes of brackish water from an adjacent river for once-through cooling. Occasionally, trace emissions of caustic soda were present in the effluent river water, and the company was concerned with pH excursions. An engineer was assigned to make modifications to reduce the opportunity of having environmental insults. 

This accident occurred over 25 years ago, but it serves as a good example of the need to study any chemical modifications. Nearly every experienced chemical plant worker understands the problems of just a few percent of flammables in air or just a small amount of acid transferred into a nonresistive system, but we sometimes take the other chemicals for granted. Sometimes production-minded chemical engineers think more like plumbers than chemists. 

This incident illustrates that we must train our mechanics to seek approval of any changes in job scope, before they independently initiate alternate approaches. We cannot assume that because we employ qualified craftsmen and graduate engineers, they will never carry out repairs with foolish or improper methods. Chemical plants must be continually vigilant for unwise modifications. 

The material in this long chapter may not cover the needs of every chemical plant and every petro-chemical plant, but the ten or fifteen Management of Change procedures developed by major corporations and reviewed by me did not seem to exactly fit the needs or culture of my own organization. Trevor Kletz has said many times that improper plant modifications have been a major cause of chemical plant accidents. I have been working in a process safety function for three decades and my experiences have been similar. It just seems appropriate to repeat the first three paragraphs of the second section of this chapter, as a fitting close. 

How Are Chemical Plants Addressing Plant Modifications during the 1980s and Beyond ... 

I assisted Trevor Kletz in teaching a two-day course entitled Chemical Plant Accidents—A Workshop on Causes and Preventions. We periodically taught the course for six years, and then he encouraged me to consider writing this book on Plant Modifications. Jayne Holder, formerly of Butterworth, was extremely supportive with all my concerns and questions. 

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