Janet Sminten i wouldn’t call them “very safe” but they also don’t regularly explode. If they were very safe there wouldn’t be so much safety talks at work lol
These videos are prepared for and by Government officials. You'd see these videos at the NTSB, any Government investigation into a disaster like this hires a reconsideration team and they create the graphics and physics.
Seriously, not only do they educate industry but are really useful for educating students of chemical engineering and the public in general. We need more.
My Stepdad worked at The refinery for over 15 years. I remember the call that woke him and my mother up and I remember them being on the phone with other people trying to figure out who was out in the field that night. My stepdad grew up in town there and refinery life is in the blood of all those people. It could have been anyone, every man and woman rotates through all the jobs there at the refinery. My stepdad would have been out there the next week. Working on those same tanks. It was a really hard time for all of us, for my mom especially. My stepdad and several others retired over the next few months.
That's always one of the hardest parts of watching these videos. As a chemist I find them fascinating and wish there were even more videos, until I think about the cost of that. I really do wish they would stop making videos due to lack of source content. Unfortunately that seems unlikely. I just wanted to thank you for giving me a perspective (and reminder) on these videos that is easily forgotten when you are not directly involved. Hope all is well for you now and you are having a good day!
I lived about 10 miles away when this happened and the sound and feel of it was crazy. Like half of the people in our apartments came out to see what the heck happened.
Lived on Whidby in Oak Harbor at the time, I was only 14-15 at the time, but I remember it being on the news and seeing the plant from the Swinomish Casino just a few miles away. I think we stayed in the hotel shortly after the disaster.
Actually, some of these videos would be useful for science classes in school: Dust explosions are something few even would think possible -- I'd have never thought flour or confectioner's sugar could explode.
@@RobGcraft confectioner's sugar explodes because it's so finely granulated. this gives it a very high surface area to volume ratio, which means it combusts more violently and rapidly. regular granulated sugar is equally flammable, but neither is all that flammable. the issue with combustible dust is that there can be huge amounts of it in a tight space where it's mixed with the air. so rather than just a pile of sugar catching fire, you get a fire that spreads through the air, and it spreads and expands very rapidly because the dust is so fine. the finer the dust, the faster it burns, and the faster it burns, the faster the combustion byproducts expand. which is essentially an explosion. there is some minutiae about what really defines an explosion, there's a strict line between detonation and deflagration, but in practice they can seem like the same thing, because a fireball doesn't need a massive shockwave to do extreme damage. a giant, rapidly expanding fireball below the speed of sound is potentially more dangerous than a grenade that breaks the sound barrier. anyway that's the deal with dust. if you have a flammable material, and you're gonna be cutting it up into super tiny particles that can float in the air in high concentrations, then you need to take a lot of precautions to prevent it from combusting, or you need to clean it up. both from the air and from surfaces.
One more tragedy however one more learning to operate rest of the plants safer. Every line personnel and service engineering personnel have to see and get the awareness. Very useful and effective educational tool. Thanks CSB Team.
I would also like to see more videos from you guys. They are the most informative and well laid out safety videos on youtube. Please make them more often!
These videos are really useful. They underscore the importance of chemical safety very well. Would like to see a few more of these for other accidents as well.
"The heat exchangers had a history of developing leaks during start up, something refinery personnel had come to see as 'normal'" Yipes, really?! If anything at a refinery is freaking leaking, the safety inspectors should be called in.
You'd be sadly surprised how common it is. Even running with certain leaks. As shutting down a specific pipe or vessel to repair its leak might cause the rest of the facility to have stop production and thats to costly. In the end its only for the money, safety first is only on paper
I'm a Retired UA 342 Steamfitter Welder..... Anacortes is in 290 territory...I'm outta Calif... Alameda and Contra Costa we Covered.... I've worked in many refineries....And I've NEVER SEEN THOSE EXCHANGERS or BUNDLES pulled every 6 MONTHS...The only time I've seen them Pulled is on SHUTDOWNS and that could be YEARS APART....That's Bolier maker work but as a Pipe fitter we sometimes Unhooked the Pipe to the Exchanger...Most times you hardly see a company operator.....Thier sitting in a control shack or out doing whatever....I think that Plant was a SHELL REFINERY that Blew up in Anacortes....They ALL BLOW UP... I'VE seen the Aftermath from a few Fires....At CHEVRON in Richmond Calif and Shell in Martinez Calif.... Besides Fires I've seen Chemical Releases from Union 76 in RODEO Calif by Crockett Calif and Dow Chemical in Pittsburg Calif...I was at Dow when a Release went off and they evacuated the Plant....We went to Antioch about about 5/6 miles away....On the way to Antioch you could look back at Dow from the Frontage Road and there was a GAS CLOUD ALMOST A MILE LONG....These Fires and Gas Releases go on all the Time....I Retired in 95 and they didn't Report the Fires and Releases to much...BUT NOW THEY DO because they got CAUGHT SO MANY TIMES.....AT DOW in the old days you just went in the Plants in Street clothes and in small Releases you held your Breath and walked Upwind some times having to breath that shit...Now in SIMTET...not sure if that's spelled right the guys go in fully suited up with Scott Air Packs or at least a Double Canister respirator...I know one guy that DIED from working at DOW of CANCER FROM ALL THAT SHIT....LEE DECALIGERO...As a Contractor if you said anything you're down the Road....I was Working at TASCO in Concord Calif welding Pipe on Bare Dirt and the Ground is so Polluted it would catch on fire..Small fires but thier around you then another fire about 3'or4' feet away. It went on and on I had a fire watch but he couldn't get them all out....It smelled of gas so BAD I went and got a Safety Guy and they got a TASCO safety guy with a Sniffing device that Detects explosive gas and they Shut that site Down....YEA BARE DIRT ON FIRE....Tasco is real old ... I've seen a few Drain lines Some 6" in Diameter just run Straight out into the Bay ....CARQUINEZ STRAIGHT Dumping who knows what... I'm Surprised more people aren't killed.....At a Safety meeting for JACOBS...They wanted us to SIGN a paper saying it was SAFER at the Refinery than in your own home....YEA RIGHT.....I wouldn't sign it....I wish I would've stole that paper and gave it to a News Reporter after the fire....IT GOES ON AND ON....I retired in 95 and still have a ASBESTOS LAWSUIT GOING ON....I went to 7 Days of Depositions...On the 6th Day I found a few GARLOCK GASKETS in my Welding Shop... They'd been in my shop for years....There we're about 10 or 12 Lawyers in the room and another 12 on the Phones....They About SHIT when I Pulled out the Gaskets...Thier full of ASBESTOS....The lead Lawyer picked up the Gaskets and her Fingers turned Black....When she Realized what she did she wanted to go wash her hands......I SAID to her...."You aren't Scared of that stuff are you" ??????OFF SHE RAN..
I was friends with a gentleman in my church in Burlington, WA that had a coworker switch shifts with him so he could be with his family the next day. He didn't make it and my friend was super devastating but didn't take life for granted after that!
As a mechanical engineer graduate proper material selection is of the essence when designing heat exchangers for certain chemicals as well as developing maintenance routines. Copper, SS, or aluminum for water to water, SS for naphtha, and more. Even a steam heat exchanger explosion can cause life threatening burns, blast injuries, or instant deaths.
The first time I watched this video, my cat was sitting in my lap. At some point she began watching the CGI people working as the Sun set and when the unit exploded she visibly startled.
Were the original engineers aware of the hydrogen attack process? Wouldn't that mean that these exchangers would have to eventually be replaced all together?
Yes, and no. The engineering parameters nationwide were changed as a result of this incident. I work st the refinery, but I'm on the logistics side. My understanding is that the exchangers are brought up over more prolonged period now.
I've become hooked on this channel. The lack of maintenance in so many companies, this one included, totally shock 😲 me to the core. Want the fact that the CSB can't just make the changes to the law, that they can only make suggestions is disgusting. Petroleum companies have no intention of stopping these kinds of tragedies, IMHO.
Sad loss of life. Condolences to the families of the seven workers. Hope for a full recovery to the four injured men. This information must be shown to as many people in the industry as possible world wide, to increase safety awareness. Every accident must be learned from so improvements can be implemented, especially if there was a loss of life. Your animation quality is very very good, it clearly explains what happened. Looks like CSB are setting new standards?
Thank you for putting the time and effort into these videos that you do. Is this phenomenon also called hydrogen embriddlement or is that something different?
+Dan Heidel +465maltbie This is HTHA, not hydrogen embrittlement. Similar, but not the same damage mechanism. Also, this was a naptha heat exchanger, not hydrogen service. Excellent video by the CSB.
There was one video that showed a disaster caused by a software upgrade. The new software inadvertently omitted the replacement dates for a piece of equipment. It was supposed to be replaced every 6 months, was missed and wasn't replaced until it blew up 3 years later.
Informative and lesson for operators and designers. Equipment such as Heat Exchanger undergoes cyclic thermal operations need fatigue testing and remaining life cycle analysis to avoid such accidents.
I would love to use this video in a Powerpoint Presentation on the importance of QA/QC in the Oil & Gas industry is there a way to embed this video in to the powerpoint presentation? Thanks
Depending on copyright and permission to use, of course, check out "Internet Download Manager" for downloading the video (among many others). It's been a very long time since embedding video in PPT; the typical formats of video stored are .mp4 and .flv ........... you may need to convert the downloaded video to a PPT-savvy format.
What is more interesting to me here is to know that " At high temperature the hydrogen reacts with carbon to form methane (CH4) gas entrapped inside the shell wall and create stress enough to cause the shell failure"..... That is more valuable knowledge ... I think....failure of internal coating of the shell have occurred first which allowed the hydrogen to reach to carbon and reacts. It is really beneficial to know how much time this reaction had taken before it caused such failure in 1" thick shell.... regular inspection of these exchangers is expected to detect such failures. I think installing small by pass line for isolation valves to slowly heat up the heat exchangers before opening the main isolation valves may prevent normal observed leakages during start ups.
One would think there would have been something to look into having a nearly 40 year old piece of machinery used at the refinery replaced as soon as possible.
They could use something similar to ultrasound to detect defects in metal. I did a lab called “ultrasonic non destructive testing” at school but pretty much detecting cracks through pulses sent into the metal.
@@zonkeymaker ultrasound is used to detect minuscule cracks in the blades of turbofan engines. It can even detect tears in the material that haven't reached the surfaces because the broken continuity of the metal reflects differently the sound
Most refineries use all types of NDT (Non Destructive Testing) to test the integrity of pressure vessels and the piping. They use ultrasound, x-ray, eddy-current and penetrating dye most often... and maybe some magnaflux. The UOP sets a greater share of standards for procedures and frequency.
I'm a bit confused. You said the raw naphtha was preheated but then you said cold fluid was flowing through the tubes. Wouldn't the cold fluid absorb heat from naptha in the shell?
Ok wait. I got it. You're saying the fluid which *cools itself* is the cold fluid. Meaning the fluid which was initially hot but gave its heat to crude naptha and became cold
If by high pressure you mean high temperature (since both hot and cold sides of the exchanger were at high pressure), I'm guessing it was because of the fouling. It's easier and faster to clean out the insides of all of those tubes than to clean the outside of the tube bundle plus the inside of the outer shell. For the former, you can just use a pressure washer. The workers in the video actually do this. For the latter, you have to remove the entire tube bundle from the exchanger. A lot more involved and time consuming.
About the only way to prevent this kind of degradation of the steel is to either use a protective coating on the inside of the vessel or to replace the unit with one made of a more resistant steel. The latter would only be an option if the plant's budget allowed for replacement of the exchangers altogether.
Quelle triste histoire pour ces sept travailleurs! Qu'ils reposent en paix mais que leurs morts ne soient pas inutiles et servent à l'avenir à perfectionner la sécurité sur les grands sites industriels...
Old equipment that is beyond its usefulness and needs to be replaced... Ulually the culprit in most cases... Petroleum process refinement on the molecular level is always both sedimentary, AND corrosive! Therefore, pipes and vessels should be inspected, cleaned, AND replaced (if need be) on a regular basis...
