Scribd
Upload
77 views2 pages

Bhopal Disaster: Causes and Safety Failures

1. In 1984, a leak of water into a tank containing the toxic chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India caused one of the world's worst industrial disasters. 2. MIC is an extremely toxic and flammable liquid that reacts violently with water, producing heat and toxic gases. When water leaked into the MIC tank, a chemical reaction occurred that released a toxic gas cloud over parts of Bhopal. 3. The accident was caused by negligence and poor maintenance, as safety systems meant to prevent water from entering the MIC tank and to contain toxic gases had been shut down or allowed to fall into disrepair.

Uploaded by

Dilhara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
77 views2 pages

Bhopal Disaster: Causes and Safety Failures

1. In 1984, a leak of water into a tank containing the toxic chemical methyl isocyanate (MIC) at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India caused one of the world's worst industrial disasters. 2. MIC is an extremely toxic and flammable liquid that reacts violently with water, producing heat and toxic gases. When water leaked into the MIC tank, a chemical reaction occurred that released a toxic gas cloud over parts of Bhopal. 3. The accident was caused by negligence and poor maintenance, as safety systems meant to prevent water from entering the MIC tank and to contain toxic gases had been shut down or allowed to fall into disrepair.

Uploaded by

Dilhara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Bhopal Accident in 1984

Union Carbide India Limited was a pesticide manufacturing company in Bhopal, India. According to
the Literature the closest reason for the disaster is a leakage of a large volume of water into the
Methyl Iso Cyanate (MIC) holding tank.
MIC is a clear, colorless, sharp smelling, extremely toxic and highly flammable liquid. Its boiling
point is around 40 0C. MIC reacts violently with water.
MIC + H2O ----------> 1,3,5 TRIMETHYLBIURET + CO2
MIC + H2O ---------> 1,3 DIMETHYLUREA + CO2
3 MIC ---------------> Trimmer
Layers of Safety Protection Available in the MIC Storage Tank
1. The Nitrogen Supply to the Tank
This was to avoid the reaction with oxygen as MIC is highly flammable. The nitrogen supply works
as a blanket or a pad which provided a positive head of 15 to 20 psig within the tank so that material
could be forced through the feed pipe to the transfer pumps. According to the regulations, MIC level
in the tank shouldnt exceed the 50% mark. Then in case of dangerous chemical reactions occurring,
solvents could be pumped to quench the reactions.
2. Concrete Cover to the Tank
The storage tanks are put under a concrete cover to protect them from hot Indian sun.
3. Valves of flanges with sliding plates
These sliding plates are efficient to prevent any quantity of water from entering the tank when
cleaning the (MIC transferring pipe) by flushing with water.
4. External Cooling Jacket
In case that water for any reason enters the tank, there was external coiled jacket with
(Freon/chloroform) coolant capable to keep the vessel contents close to 0C. This can prevent the
propagation of run-away reactions.

After Tank Safety Process


This was to cater the explosions occurs in case of failing the refrigeration system. Here a safety valve
of rapture disk type allows the released gas to enter into the gas scrubber. In this scrubber NaOH is
sprayed in order to neutralize MIC and converted it into a harm less material. Any residual MIC gas
should be taken to a flare. Inside this flare there is a burner which burns any MIC and convert it to
harmless CO2 gas.
Other safety feature is the water curtain spray. It is wall of sprayed water droplets which can react
with the MIC gas in the plant atmosphere and convert it to less harmful water soluble materials.

Reason For the accident to still happen


The reasons are basically maintenance negligence and the poor management skills in

the

plant.
According to the literature
contributing

the

factors for the


accident can
listed out as follows;

be
1

Shutting down the refrigeration system in June 1984 and draining the refrigerant and use it
somewhere else in the plant.

Several weeks before the disaster, a corroded portion of the line leading to the flare system
was removed for maintenance. Due to that the vent gases could no longer be moved to be
burned in the flare.

The vent gas scrubber was put in a standby mode because the MIC production was stopped.

Carbon steel valves and pipes were used in the factory. Carbon steel is corrodible when
exposed to acid. This was the reason of malfunctioning of a lot of safety devices; need to
sequence dangerous water flushing of pipes. Moreover, the existence of Iron oxides with
water which entered the MIC tank acts as a catalyst accelerates its chemical reaction with
water.

You might also like