Discussion on water cutting in liquefied gas balloon tanks
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Accident case: On October 22, 1988, an explosion and fire occurred in the spherical tank area at the refinery of Shanghai Gaqiao Petrochemical Company in Xiaoliangshan, resulting in 26 deaths and 15 people being injured. The main cause of the accident was that the operators failed to follow the standard procedures when opening valves to drain water from the spherical tanks containing liquefied gas; there was no one on site to supervise the process, which led to the liquefied gas being discharged together with water. Due to delayed response, the liquefied gas came into contact with an open flame and exploded. On July 16, 2015, an explosion occurred in a liquefied gas spherical tank at Shandong Shida Technology Petrochemical Co., Ltd., also as a result of water cutting operations being carried out in the tank area; the workers left the site, leading to a leakage of liquefied gas and inadequate response to address the situation. In the previous case, apart from specifying that \"operators must leave the site when manually draining water, switching tanks, and loading/unloading vehicles in the oil and gas tank farm,\" were there any other good measures?
The dehydration tank is equipped with a cut-off valve for water separation, as well as an interlock valve that shuts off the system when the liquid level drops. In addition, a combustible gas alarm should be installed around the cutting water inlet.
There must be no slightest lapse in attention when it comes to safe production; following the operating procedures is the most fundamental requirement that must be adhered to.
There must be an operator on site to control the water cutting
1. The water cutting operator must be present. 2. It is necessary to install two additional valves. 3. Install an alarm system and an automatic interlock system. 4. Operate in accordance with the operating procedures.
Those working with spherical tanks need to be highly responsible; generally, those who are good at their work are assigned to the spherical tank area.
1. Operate strictly in accordance with safety procedures. 2. There is an opportunity to add an automatic water cut-off device for liquefied gas cylinders; advantages: automatic dehydration, inherently safe and reliable ； Fully functional with a wide range of applications ； It has no vulnerable components, a long service life, and is easy to install and maintain; no cleaning or welding of the oil tank is required during installation. The downside is that physical methods cannot achieve complete separation, so the water obtained from this process must be sent to the oil purification system and cannot be discharged directly