Petroleum fuels safety

Safety Considerations Design and location of storage tanks, vents, piping, and connections are specified by state fire marshals, underwriters codes, and local ordinances. In NFPA 30, Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code, 1993 (published by the National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Mass.), liquid petroleum fuels are classified as follows for safety in handhng ... 

Also, do not overlook gasoline and carbon monoxide. Safety data sheets do not have to be provided for vehicles such as lift trucks, tractors, or automobiles. However, SDSs are required for the gasoline and other fuels used by the vehicles. Employees should be aware of the potential for exposure to carbon monoxide and associated physical hazards of petroleum fuel products such as fire and explosion. 

The synthetic fuels are intended to augment petroleum fuels that are presently produced by sophisticated processing techniques based on adequate thermodynamic data. Synthetic fuel plants will be horrendously expensive, and there is a large economic incentive to provide data good enough to eliminate expensive safety factors from the design. 

The flash point of a petroleum liquid is the temperature to which it must be brought so that the vapor evolved burns spontaneously in the presence of a flame. For diesel fuel, the test is conducted according to a closed cup technique (NF T 60-103). The French specifications stipulate that the flash point should be between 55°C and 120°C. That constitutes a safety criterion during storage and distribution operations. Moreover, from an official viewpoint, petroleum products are classified in several groups according to their flash points which should never be exceeded. 

Outlook. Total 1991 U.S. ink consumption was estimated at about 86 x 10 kg valued at over 3.0 biUion. The demand is estimated to grow at an average of about 3—4% per year in volume (26). The principal changes expected in the 1990s will continue to be in response to environmental and safety concerns and government regulations. The bulk of printing inks use raw materials based on fossil fuels, such as coal (qv) and petroleum (qv). 

Biodiesel does not present any special safety concerns. Pure biodiesel or biodiesel and petroleum diesel blends have a higher flash point than conventional diesel, making them safer to store and handle. Problems can occur with biodiesels in cold weather due to their high viscosity. Biodiesel has a higher degree of unsaturation in the fuel, which can make it vulnerable to oxidation during storage. 

As for all petroleum products, considerations of safety in storage and transportation and, more particularly, contamination by more volatile products are required. This is usually accommodated by the Pensky-Martens flash point test (ASTM D93 IP 34). For the fuel oil, a minimum flash point of 55°C (131°F) or 66°C (150°F) is included in most specifications. 

Information is sometimes needed about the human and environmental hazards associated with handling and shipping various petroleum products. This information can often be obtained by utilizing the physical property values and product safety data information compiled for hazardous materials. This chapter contains valuable safety and hazard information for common fuels, oils and solvents. 

There exists, in the literature on high internal phase emulsions, a small number of publications on possible applications of HIPEs, involving a diverse range of topics. The production of petroleum gels as safety fuels is one such example [124,125] this was mentioned in the section on non-aqueous HIPEs. The main advantage over conventional fuels is the prevention of spillage, which reduces the risk of fire in an accident. Also, studies on the flash-point of emulsified fuels [127] showed a considerable increase, compared to the liquid state, for commercial multicomponent fuels. In addition, there may be an enhancement of the efficiency of combustion of the fuel on emulsification, as it is known that a small amount of water in fuel can improve its performance [19]. 

Manufacture and use of fuels is expected to be the major source of energy well into the next century. Petroleum and natural gas will continue to be important however, the use of solid raw materials such as coal, shale, and biomass will grow with increasing constraints related to environmental impact and safety. 

Pipelines are a vital part of the energy and chemical transportation infrastructure of modern society. They are generally viewed as a safe and economical means to deliver liquid and gas fuels and chemical raw materials to customers. However, the perception of their safety varies with segments of the population. The most common pipeline with which the average person is familiar is the gas main of the local gas distribution system with service connections to homes and businesses in communities. The overall pipeline infrastructure is much more and includes long-distance transmission pipelines in addition to local distribution system pipelines. Besides natural gas, transmission pipelines transport crude oil, gasoline, petroleum products, and chemical products. 

Two units remove the sulphur concentrations (ppm), added to natural gas as an odorant for safety detection, or present in higher hydrocarbon feedstocks, to protect downstream catalysts (sulphur is a poison for SR catalysts) and process equipment. In particular, the organo-sulphur species are converted to H2S at pressures exceeding about 500 psig and temperatures higher than 350°C by catalytic hydrodesulphurisation (HDS unit), and Co and Mo alumina-based particulates are used as catalysts. This step is not required for methanol but would be necessary for any sulphur-containing petroleum-based fuels. A second unit permits the H2S produced in the first step to be removed by a particulate bed of ZnO. When necessary a further step for chloride removal should be included (not reported in Fig. 2.2). 

The basic method of distillation (ASTM D-86) is one of the oldest methods in use because the distillation characteristics of hydrocarbons have an important effect on safety and performance, especially in the case of fuels and solvents. The boiling range gives information on the composition, the properties, and the behavior of petroleum and derived products during storage and use. Volatility is the major determinant of the tendency of a hydrocarbon mixture to produce potentially explosive vapors. Several methods are available to define the distillation characteristics of petroleum and its various petroleum products. In addition to these physical methods, other test methods based on gas chromatography are also used to derive the boiling point distribution of a sample (ASTM D-2887, ASTM D-3710, ASTM D-5307, ASTM D-6352). 

For reasons of safety and availability as well as for environmental reasons, Brewer dismissed liquid methane as an inferior choice. He argued that, since civil commercial aviation is a truly international business, with airplanes refueling in New York, Rome, Tokyo, Jeddah, Warsaw, and Karachi, a future synthetic aviation fuel must be equally international— locally producible, with uniform characteristics everywhere. This is no problem as long as petroleum is cheap, and at the time kerosene and other hydrocarbon fuels were available at low cost all over the world. But aircraft makers, who have to think decades ahead when planning the useful life of airplanes, must face the fact that, beginning sometime in the period 2010-2020, petroleum may cease to be cheap. Brewer contended that it was going to be necessary to develop a new generation of synthetic aviation fuels that would be available everywhere around the world. 

The Navy s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board has considered the potential for storage and operation of the fueled vehicles in the ship s cargo holds to be hazardous to naval service personnel exposed to fuel vapors during the servicing of these vehicles or while working in their vicinity. To protect personnel from exposures to toxic concentrations of fuel vapors, the board recommended an interim 8-hr time-weighted average (TWA) permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 350 mg/m3 and a 15-min short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 1,800 mg/m3 for vapors from all three fuels. Those interim exposure limits were based on the board s review of the manufacturers technical documentation and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health s recommendations for maximum exposure to refined petroleum solvents. 

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