Pressure Relief: Low Pressure Vessels

“Pressure comes from within and so must be mastered from within.”  — Ed Jacoby Ten years ago, on Friday morning, April 24, 2015, a catastrophic still failure at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, Kentucky seriously injured two workers, one who died 17 days later from his injuries. They were about four gallons into a [...]

Process Hazards: Using Compressed Gas to Transfer Liquids

“Science explorers are like an ideal gas. They can expand to fill any volume, but they can only do work under pressure…and the pressure’s on.”  — Robert Ballard Every time that someone at a process facility tells me that they use compressed gas to transfer liquids from one tank to another, I wince. It’s not [...]

By |2025-04-17T10:00:59-05:00April 17th, 2025|Chemicals, Gas, Procedures, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Process Hazards: Using Compressed Gas to Transfer Liquids

Odor Complaints: Can You Smell That Smell?

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.”  — Rudyard Kipling A few weeks ago, a lot of folks in this area found themselves obsessively scraping the bottoms of their boots. Based on the smell that seemed to be following them around, they were sure that they had stepped in something [...]

By |2025-01-14T13:47:22-06:00November 14th, 2024|Chemicals, Current Events, Gas, Process Safety|Comments Off on Odor Complaints: Can You Smell That Smell?

“OSHA Says”: Eye Protection

“What we see depends mainly on what we are looking for.”  — John Lubbock Every chemical plant I have ever been in has these minimum requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE): hardhat, safety shoes, and safety glasses with side shields. OSHA tells us that it is the employer’s responsibility to assess the workplace for hazards [...]

By |2024-02-29T11:32:54-06:00February 29th, 2024|Gas|Comments Off on “OSHA Says”: Eye Protection

Deadly Explosion…At a Chocolate Factory?

“The fact is the media never gets off the interstate unless there’s a major explosion.”  — Jim Harrison On Friday, March 24, 2023, shortly before 5 pm local time, an explosion leveled the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, killing seven workers. How does a chocolate factory explode? What are the explosive hazards, [...]

By |2023-08-14T15:45:53-05:00March 30th, 2023|Current Events, Gas, Process Safety|Comments Off on Deadly Explosion…At a Chocolate Factory?

Fire: What’s In a Name

“The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing.”  — Ursala K. Le Guin, The Rule of Names Process safety has three concerns: fires, explosions, and toxic releases. The most ancient of these concerns is fire. Because fire has been our servant [...]

By |2023-03-10T15:10:13-06:00March 10th, 2023|Gas, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Fire: What’s In a Name

Just Two Breaths

“I love to breath. Oxygen is sexy.”  — Kris Carr How long can you hold your breath? One minute? Two minutes? Pearl divers have been known to hold their breaths for over 10 minutes. When we’re breathing, though, it’s at a rate of between 8 and 20 breaths per minutes. So, many find it difficult [...]

By |2025-01-16T14:00:26-06:00September 15th, 2022|Gas, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Just Two Breaths

I Can’t Breathe: Asphyxia in the Process Industries

“Suffocation is a cruel way to go.”  — Arlaina Tibensky I usually think of process safety hazards as being related to fire, explosions, or toxic releases. There is another process hazard, however, doesn’t necessarily depend on any of these. It’s asphyxiation—death due to an inability to get enough oxygen to the body. Asphyxiation is not [...]

By |2025-01-16T14:05:44-06:00August 18th, 2022|Chemicals, Gas, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on I Can’t Breathe: Asphyxia in the Process Industries

Tis the Season for Static

“Take off your sweater in the darkness and static flares as a tiny lightning storm.”  — John Geddes The dry air of winter makes it much more likely that we will be shocked by static sparks. So instead of visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads, the thoughts of many of our clients turns to [...]

By |2021-12-29T19:59:44-06:00December 23rd, 2021|Combustible Dust, Gas, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Tis the Season for Static

Slightly Flammable? Low GWP Refrigerants and PSM

“You can’t get a little bit pregnant, son.”  — Hal Holbrook as Lou Mannheim in Wall Street, (1987) A whole new group of processes are about to become PSM-covered. Maybe. Some HVAC contractors have begun warning their customers that the new low-GWP refrigerants that they must switch to are “slightly flammable”, so may come under [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:35:21-06:00May 13th, 2021|Current Events, Gas, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Slightly Flammable? Low GWP Refrigerants and PSM
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