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Disaster Management BGT

The document summarizes the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in India. It describes how a leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide resulted in one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Key details include that water entered a tank containing 42 tons of MIC, causing a chemical reaction that released 30-40 tons of toxic gas. Safety systems at the plant were malfunctioning, and the gas killed thousands of people in the surrounding area over the following days and weeks.

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46 views9 pages

Disaster Management BGT

The document summarizes the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in India. It describes how a leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide resulted in one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Key details include that water entered a tank containing 42 tons of MIC, causing a chemical reaction that released 30-40 tons of toxic gas. Safety systems at the plant were malfunctioning, and the gas killed thousands of people in the surrounding area over the following days and weeks.

Uploaded by

vexic
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Disaster

Management
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Introduction:Union
Carbide
• Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company. It currently
employs more than 2,400 people. Union Carbide
produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or
more further conversions by customers before reaching
consumers.
• Some are high-volume commodities and others are
specialty products meeting the needs of smaller
markets. Markets served include paints and coatings,
packaging, wire and cable, household products,
personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles,
agriculture, and oil and gas.
o Founded in 1917 as the Union Carbide and Carbon
Corporation, from a merger with National Carbon Company, the
company's researchers developed an economical way to
make ethylene from natural gas liquids, such as ethane
and propane, giving birth to the modern petrochemical industry.
Infrastructure
• The Bhopal UCIL facility housed three
underground 68,000-liter liquid MIC storage
tanks: E610, E611, and E619. In the months
leading up to the December leak, liquid MIC
production was in progress and being used to fill
these tanks. UCC safety regulations specified that
no one tank should be filled more than 50%
(here, 30 tons) with liquid MIC. Each tank was
pressurized with inert nitrogen gas. This
pressurization allowed liquid MIC to be pumped
out of each tank as needed, and also kept
impurities out of the tanks.
• In late October 1984, tank E610 lost the ability to
effectively contain most of its nitrogen gas pressure,
which meant that the liquid MIC contained within
could not be pumped out. At the time of this failure,
tank E610 contained 42 tons of liquid MIC. Shortly after
this failure, MIC production was halted at the Bhopal
facility, and parts of the plant were shut down for
maintenance. Maintenance included the shutdown of
the plant's flare tower so that a corroded pipe could be
repaired. With the flare tower still out of service,
production of carbaryl was resumed in late November,
using MIC stored in the two tanks still in service. An
attempt to re-establish pressure in tank E610 on 1
December failed, so the 42 tons of liquid MIC
contained within still could not be pumped out of it.
On The Day Of The Tragedy
• By early December 1984, most of the plant's MIC related
safety systems were malfunctioning and many valves and
lines were in poor condition. In addition, several vent gas
scrubbers had been out of service as well as the steam
boiler, intended to clean the pipes.During the late evening
hours of 2 December 1984, water was believed to have
entered a side pipe and into Tank E610 whilst trying to
unclog it, which contained 42 tons of MIC that had been
there since late October. The introduction of water into the
tank subsequently resulted in a runaway exothermic
reaction, which was accelerated by contaminants, high
ambient temperatures and various other factors, such as
the presence of iron from corroding non-stainless steel
pipelines.
 A refrigeration system meant to cool tanks containing liquid MIC,
shut down in January 1982, and whose freon had been removed in
June 1984. Since the MIC storage system assumed refrigeration, its
high temperature alarm, set to sound at 11 °C (52 °F) had long since
been disconnected, and tank storage temperatures ranged between
15 °C (59 °F) and 40 °C (104 °F)

 A flare tower, to burn the MIC gas as it escaped, which had had a
connecting pipe removed for maintenance, and was improperly sized
to neutralise a leak of the size produced by tank E610

 A vent gas scrubber, which had been deactivated at the time and
was in 'standby' mode, and similarly had insufficient caustic soda and
power to safely stop a leak of the magnitude produced
About 30 tonnes of MIC escaped from the tank into the
atmosphere in 45 to 60 minutes.This would increase to 40
tonnes within two hours time.The gases were blown in a
southeasterly direction over Bhopal.

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