Assessing the environmental risk of fire and explosion events associated with chemical process routes

The development of inherently environmentally friendly chemical process plants is one approach to reduce or avoid potential harmful environmental consequences that could occur due to chemical plant accidents. This can be achieved by selecting the chemical process route involving the least environmental risk, during preliminary design stage. To assist the route selection process a risk-based index called Inherent Environmental Risk Index for Fires and Explosions (F&E-IERI) is proposed. The F&E-IERI assesses and ranks chemical process routes considering environmental impacts caused by accidental fires and explosions that could occur in a chemical plant. This index considers the environmental impact magnitude, fire or explosion event occurrence frequency, and the environmental element vulnerability. A higher index associated with the route indicates a higher environmental risk. The proposed index has been applied in four possible routes to produce acetone. The p-diisopropyl benzene oxidation process route to produce acetone showed the lowest F&E-IERI value indicating the route having the lowest environmental risk.