Fire in a Hydrorefiner
A tube in a hydrorefiner heater ruptured resulting in an extensive fire inside and outside the furnace. The main fire in the furnace was extinguished within 15 minutes and the escaping gas / vapour release from the ruptured tubes allowed to burn under controlled conditions. There were no injuries to personnel but the furnace suffered damage estimated at 10,000 (1973), which included four distorted tubes and certain refractory damage. Some cabling, electrical and instrument fittings on the outside of the heater were also badly burnt.The investigations revealed that during changes in operating conditions a cold circulation start-up valve was opened by mistake resulting in liquid feed/hydrogen starvation of the heater tubes for a period of 35 minutes and eventual rupture of the tube with massive release of hydrogen and hydrocarbon vapours.
Event Date
January 1, 1974
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
heater, hydrotreatment furnace
Location Type
Location description
Industrial Area
Consequences
Number of Injured Persons
3
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
1. Keep the 4" cold circulation start up valve locked in the `shut' position when the unit is on-stream and attach a `Danger, Valve Not to be Opened' tag to the valve wheel.2. Fit tube skin thermocouples with maximum temperature alarms to the furnace to give warning of overheating.
Event Nature
Emergency Action
Unknown
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Source Category
References
References
Event description extracted from the UK database ICHEME in PDF
ICHEME database is no longer available for purchase, but data can be download as PDF for free.
https://www.icheme.org/knowledge/safety-centre/resources/accident-data/
(accessed October 2020)