Chemical Accident: Chevron Richmond Refinery Fire

Chemical Accident
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Chemical Accident
Introduction
A huge fire erupted at Chevron Richmond Refinery on August 6, 2012, resulting in a cloud of toxic smoke spreading throughout the town and prompting 15,000 inhabitants to seek medical attention. The Chevron Richmond Refinery is situated in Richmond, California, on a 1,200-hectare property on San Francisco Bay. It is the largest employer in the city (the refinery has 1,200 staff) and processes up to 250,000 barrels per day, with the primary products being diesel fuels, motor gasoline, lubricants, and jet fuel. The chemical accident was caused by old infrastructure and poor disaster management policies. For instance, the explosion resulted from a failure in one of the pipes after years of thinning from channeling crude oil containing high levels of sulfur: sulfur is the primary corrosive element in crude oil pipes. Furthermore, management ignored previous requests for safer equipment, and upon learning of the leak several hours before the fire, they took actions that increased the risk. This essay will reflect on the Chevron Richmond Refinery fire, including the incident's circumstances, the contributing factors to the explosion, and relevant lessons gained from the chemical accident.
Background
On August 6, 2012, a chemical accident at Chevron Richmond Refinery in the #4 Crude Unit owing to a ruptured pipe. The disastrous pipe failure occurred at the "4-sidecut" stream, one of the many process streams in the plant's C-1100 crude Unit Atmospheric column. The C-1100 crude Unit Atmospheric column separates crude oil components into various streams through distillation. These streams undergo further distilling in other refinery units. The 52-inch long section of the 4-sidecut stream raptured while light gas oil (a crude oil component) flowed at 640o F and at a rough rate of 10,800 barrels per day or 315 gallons per minute. This line operated at a pressure of roughly 55 pounds per square inch gauge (Wilson, 2013). The rapture of the piping components resulted in the release of boiling and flammable light gas oil, which engulfed a group of nineteen Chevron employees who had gathered around the leak location to fix the pipe. The partially vaporized light gas oil created a large, opaque plume of smoke and ignited approximately two minutes after the leak. Although eighteen employees managed to escape unhurt before the explosion, one staff (a Chevron refinery firefighter) was caught within the fireball when the light gas oil ignited.
The thick vapor cloud impeded a hasty escape, but the firefighter wore protective clothing and escaped safely through the raging flames. Only six Chevron employees were hurt during the chemical accident and emergency response efforts. However, the leak, ignition, and succeeding combustion of the hydrocarbon process fluid created a large cloud of black smoke, particulates, and vapor, quickly spreading throughout the surrounding city. The atmospheric pollution necessitated the cities of Richmond, North Richmond, and San Pablo to issue a shelter-in-place advisory (SIP) and a Community Warning System (CWS) Level 3 alert. A Community Warning System (CWS...