Cediac

The present paper describes the development of an accident and incident database for the Biodiesel Industry for the period 2003eNovember 2013. The work performed is related to the collection of data from different documental sources and the subsequent setting of a database containing general information about adverse events, its sequence, mitigation, causes, and human, environmental and material consequences occurring at biodiesel facilities during the last ten years. This database comes to fill a gap existing in this field. Availability of these data will allow applying risk analysis tools, having a management tool to check organization performance, generating lessons learned to avoid accident recurrence and identifying those accidents more likely to occur. Data statistical analysis shows that the frequency of accidents at biodiesel plants has an increasing tendency, being fires and explosions the main type of accidents that occurred. Immediate causes and consequences of the accidents have also been analyzed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn concerning the need of maintaining an update accidental and incidental database, and improving biodiesel plants safety based on information obtained.

The process to obtain biodiesel is simple, however it is a chemical process in which toxic and flammable substances are used or variables like temperature or pressure should be controlled to avoid any kind of incident. Literature report accidents where most human errors are related to the confidence of operators by this simplicity. Much of these accidents are influenced by a number of factors involved constituting latent failures. This paper presents a summary of latent failures identified on biodiesel plants and a description of their causes and the accepted practices to eliminate them.

During the last decade biodiesel production facilities has had a fast growth all over the world. Productions levels and installed capacity have increased continuously to respond the demands of renewable oils. This growth has been accompanied by increasing accident rates. This fact raises the necessity of understand accidental causes in order to eliminate or diminish them. The present paper applies the Reason’ Swiss Cheese model of Human Error to a series of accidents that have taken place at biodiesel facilities in the period 2003 to January 2014. It allows identifying the unsafe acts and latent conditions that have conducted to accidents, and implementing tools to manage them.

Numerous theoretical models and techniques to assess human error were developed since the 60's. Most of these models were developed for the nuclear, military, and aviation sectors. These methods have the following weaknesses that limit their use in industry: the lack of analysis of underlying causal cognitive mechanisms, need of retrospective data for implementation, strong dependence on expert judgment, focus on a particular type of error, and/or analysis of operator behaviour and decision-making without considering the role of the system in such decisions. The purpose of the present research is to develop a qualitative prospective methodology that does not depend exclusively on retrospective information, that does not require expert judgment for implementation and that allows predicting potential sequences of accidents before they occur. It has been proposed for new (or existent) small and medium-scale facilities, whose processes are simple. To the best of our knowledge, a methodology that meets these requirements has not been reported in literature thus far. The methodology proposed in this study was applied to the methanol storage area of a biodiesel facility. It could predict potential sequences of accidents, through the analysis of information provided by different system devices and the study of the possible deviations of operators in decision-making. It also enabled the identification of the shortcomings in the human-machine interface and proposed an optimization of the current configuration.

which ethanol can be found. This growth has been accompanied by rising accidental rates. Given the difficulty of modelling the human error in this type of facilities, the objective of the present work is to determine if there is correlation between production and the number of accidents. Additionally, a Multiple Correspondence Analysis and an Association Analysis through Contingency Tables are going to be made in order to determine association between the different analyzed variables. Data for analysis comprises accidents and incidents occurred at ethanol fuel facilities between 1998 and January, 2014.

This work presents a study of accidents with fatalities in biofuel industries. The objective is to present preliminary accident risks associated with biodiesel and ethanol plants. The analysis is based on data occurring from 2003 to November 2013. Data statistical analysis shows that the frequency of accidents in biofuel plants has an increasing tendency, being fires and explosions the main type of accidents that occurred.

El artículo analiza la relevancia de estudiar la historia, la configuración y el rol que ha tenido el Estado en Brasil. El concepto de paradigma de Estado, que implica una nueva interpretación de la forma que adopta la economía y la sociedad con sus intereses, el patrón de inserción internacional y la formación nacional de cada etapa, es una herramienta conceptual propuesta por Amado Cervo, para comprender la interacción entre los factores internacionales y los condicionantes domésticos. Este autor sostiene la existencia de cuatro paradigmas: el liberal conservador, el desarrollista, el normal y el logístico.

El presente relato de experiencias se centra en la trayectoria de proyectos de extensión y prácticas sociales educativas desarrollados por un equipo interdisciplinario de docentes y estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo en el marco de transiciones socio-tecnológicas en zonas aisladas del Departamento de Lavalle, Provincia de Mendoza, República Argentina, aunque se han llevado a cabo experiencias similares en la zona de Alta Montaña del Departamento de Las Heras. Estas actividades, impulsadas desde 2015 fundamentalmente en el marco de convocatorias de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, han demostrado resultados fructíferos no solamente en materia de extensión, sino también en ámbitos educativos y de investigación, tanto establecidos como disruptivos.