Designing an effective mitigation system based on the physical barrier for hazardous chemical leakage accidents

An evaluation module based on the liquid discharge trajectory equation was developed to improve the safety as a result of chemical leakage accidents. An evaluation was performed on leakage based on changes in the vessel pressure and discharge height during a leakage accident involving a vertical storage tank containing 35% hydrochloric acid (HCI). In addition, areal locations of hazardous atmospheres (ALOHA) and the Phast program were used to evaluate the impact and dispersion range of the discharged hazardous chemicals. The evaluation results showed that installing the mitigation system resulted in a maximum 72.8% reduction in the damage impact range in the emergency response planning guideline (ERPG)-2 distance. It was also confirmed by the Phast analysis that the dispersion range and pattern were changed according to the presence of a dike. The dispersion range decreased by up to 40% depending on the presence of the dike. It was concluded that the dispersion range is related to the physical and chemical characteristics of hazardous chemicals. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.