The Use and Storage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) at Bayer CropScience (2012) / Chapter Skim
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In 2008, an explosion at the Bayer CropScience chemical production plant in Institute, West Virginia, resulted in the deaths of two employees, a fire within the production unit, and extensive damage to nearby structures. The accident drew renewed attention to the fact that the Bayer facility manufactured and stored methyl isocyanate, or MIC -- a volatile, highly toxic chemical (see Box 1)
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In light of these concerns, the Board requested the National Research Council con vene a committee of independent experts to write a report that examines the use and storage of MIC at the Bayer facility, and to evaluate the analyses on alterna tive production methods for MIC and carbamate pesticides performed by Bayer and the previous owners of the facility. Following the 2008 accident, Bayer halted MIC production while completing safety modifications, such as reducing onsite inventory of MIC and building underground storage facilities.
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The goal of process safety is a systematic approach to safety that involves the pro active identification, evaluation, mitigation, or prevention of chemical releases that might occur as a result of failures in the process, procedures, or equipment. Process Safety Management ensures that facilities consider multiple options for achieving a safe process, and carefully weigh the possible outcomes of each decision, and the Process Safety Management Standard, promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1992, lists 14 mandatory elements -- ranging from employee training to process hazard analysis -- to building a chemical processing system.
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Although a valuable tool, consideration of inherently safer processes is not currently a required component of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Process Safety Management Standard. See Box 4 for the alternative production methods considered by Bayer.
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IMPLEMENTING INHERENTLY SAFER PROCESS ASSESSMENTS Inherently safer process assessments can be valuable components of process safety management that can help a facility consider the full range of options in process design. However, inherently safer process assessments will not always result in a clear, well-defined, and feasible path forward.
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Consider human factors in the design of equipment to minimize the potential for incorrect opera tion and human error. Operation: Use inherently safer processing principles in ongoing process safety management activities such as management of change, incident investigation, pre-startup safety reviews, operating procedures, and training to identify new opportunities for inherently safer processes.
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published a book that suggested this and other decision aids could be used to support process safety assessments. However, though employed regularly in other sectors, these decision aids have yet to take hold in the chemical process industry.
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Reduce the volume of stored MIC, and the risks associated with transporting MIC from site to site, by rearranging process equipment BOX 5 Inherently Safer Process Assessments at Bayer CropScience Because the view of what constitutes an inherently safer process varies among professionals, the chemical industry lacks a common understanding and set of practice protocols for identifying safer pro cesses. In its presentations to the report's authoring committee, Bayer stated that inherently safer processing is an integral part of its process safety management strategy.
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A working group including experts in chemical engineering, inherently safer process design, decision sciences, and negotiation could identify obstacles and identify options for tailoring methods from the decision sciences to process safety assessments. POST-INCIDENT PROCESS ASSESSMENT Incident investigation is one of the mandatory elements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's process safety management stan dard.
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Bayer CropScience did perform Process Safety assessments, how ever, Bayer and the legacy companies did not perform systematic and complete ISP assessments on the processes for manufacturing MIC or the carbamate pesticides at the Institute site. Bayer and the pre vious owners performed hazard and safety assessments and made business decisions that resulted in MIC inventory reduction, elimination of aboveground MIC storage, and adoption of various passive, active, and procedural safety measures.
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The working group should identify obstacles to employing methods from the decision sciences in process safety assessments. It should identify options for tailoring these methods to the chemical process industry and incentives that would encourage their use.
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