Experience Base – Hazardous Material Release and Impact Analysis

The RMP and CalARP regulations require an analysis of the adverse effects of an accidental release of highly hazardous material. For all our RMP and CalARP projects we have conducted an offsite consequence analysis of the systems and materials understudy. In addition to supporting environmental impact assessments, or to justify certain design and safety features of a system, we have supported our clients in conducting spill, dispersion, and fire and explosion studies. The following are few noteworthy examples from our projects:

• Conducted offsite consequence analyses as part of RMP and CalARP program development for a large number of systems that handled the following chemicals:
  - TDI
  - Chlorine
  - Nitric Acid
  - Sodium cyanide
  - Potassium cyanide
  - Aqueous ammonia
  - Anhydrous ammonia
  In these studies several release scenarios, including a worst-case scenario, have been considered. These studies were submitted to the local administering agencies for review.
• Conducted fire and explosion analysis for a range of hydrocarbons in oil refinery facility settings.
• Conducted analysis of the effects of potential explosion scenarios, related to a jet engine test cell, for an aerospace manufacturing company.
• Analyzed the effects of fire and explosion from the release of propane, butane, and several other refinery materials for a refinery in Southern California. The analysis specifically addressed BLEVE, fire ball, pool fire, flame jet, unconfined vapor cloud explosion, and flame flashback. The result of this analysis was submitted to local regulatory agencies for review as part of the permit application for refinery expansion.
• For a major chemicals manufacturing company, Dr. Kazarians led the effort for a comparative fire risk assessment of PCB Transformers.