Summary of safety issues that occurred during equipment maintenance
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Chemical processing plants are most prone to various safety issues during maintenance periods. To learn from these experiences, I hope that those who are familiar with the matter will share the safety problems that have occurred during such periods; the key is participation! Let me start with one example: Last year, our plant was repairing a tower top reflux tank. After cleaning it with water and drying it with steam to ensure it was ready, workers were sent in to carry out the repairs. Since no blind flanges were installed on the nitrogen pipelines, nitrogen leaked in, resulting in asphyxiation of the workers inside the tank. Fortunately, the supervisors noticed this in time, which prevented any casualties.
A strict work permit system must be implemented; maintenance personnel must possess the appropriate skills or qualifications!
During the maintenance of our equipment, the project owner came up with a good solution. It involves buying two chickens, placing them in the container or tower for about ten minutes first; if the chickens are still alive after that time, then the person goes down as well. It is recommended to give it a try.
The factory where I used to work prefabricated pipelines in the plant area during maintenance; while welding, they were close to the manhole covers, and sparks fell into the underground wells. There was a flash explosion. This caused a manhole cover along with its base to collapse 15 meters away; fortunately, no one was injured.