NEW 2023 REPORT on Lessons Learned from Ammonia Tank Accident - Dakar, Senegal - 1992 1

[MJCronin]

Report released in article of CEP Magazine ---

WORST AMMONIA ACCIDENT - over 100 deaths, over 1100 people injured

https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/cep/20230747.pdf

I believe that the true cause of this accident were the PV "welding repairs" by maintenance staff !!!

Any comments by anyone ????

MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

 

[shvet]

Why in "Mechanical Engineers", not in "Failures and Disasters"? Why a repair? Why not an improper inspection after cracking reporting (e.g. only wept cracks were repaired)? Why not overfilling or overpressure?
Actually incident has not been investigated properly so discussion of causes is some sort of speculations. Only aftermaths are able to be considered as proven.
All as usual, nothing new - something has happened, no one knows what exactly but it was horrifying. Not so many people know where Senegal is located and how looks like, and a few of them are concerning about peoples living in a shantytown around an unknown factory.

Note that fatalities are able to become fake as fatalities number in this particular case means profit to local administration and/or locals. Who is counting all those blacks out there?

This material is more about social issues than industry one as shantytowns are not engineered. It is a kind of - "See, see there is a shantytown grown around a factory and it is affected by every accident inside". Hmmm, sure. Everything around a process side is affected by happened inside. What's new? Is this a reason why improper zoning should be discussed in PV forum?
Note that this is "THE WORST AMMONIA INCIDENTS" (c) only from fatalities point of view. Jonava 1989 was much more severe.

https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/wp-content/files_mf/FD_717_jonova_1989_ang.pdf

I am not sure such material is worth of a reputable industry magazine. I suggest to discuss a degradation of AIChE from this perspective as problems of shantytown inhabitants are not interesting.

 

[Trestala]

The "overpressure" probably and not sufficient overpressure protection. They did not specify clearly anything about those welds and if it was done properly or not. Was the failure proven to start on those welds?