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Control & Mitigation of
Gas Explosion & Flashfire Hazards

The Challenges to Control Gas Explosions & Flashfires

Flammable gases are widely used in all kinds of facilities, industrial plants, business buildings, hotels, stores, schools and homes.

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Gas explosions and flashfires are serious threats to personnel safety and properties in all kinds of occupancies due to the following hazard characteristics of flammable gases:

 

  • Leaked gases spread rapidly and can accumulate in space, creating large flammable gas clouds.

  • Flammable gases are very sensitive to ignition sources, like electrical and electrostatic sparks. A tiny static spark can ignite a gas-air mixture.

  • Gas flame accelerates very fast due to the flow turbulence produced by the gas flame. Gas explosion or flashfire often gives little time for people to react and the explosion pressure can be high in closed or partially confined space.

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Therefore, an ignition of accidentally released flammable gas always results in an explosive result - explosion or fast flashfire. If the gas-air mixtures is allowed to accumulate in a long pipes or propagate for long distance, the flame speed can exceed the speed of sound - a state of flame propagation that is called detonation.

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Gas hazard in each facility should be assessed based on its specific conditions. Based on the PHA and/or risk analysis, concrete safety measures (safeguards) and actions can be developed to prevent and to mitigate the effects of potential gas explosions and flashfires.

 

All relevant factors have to be taken into account in hazard and risk analyses. Often, safety measures are limited by process requirements and physical conditions of the plant. In some cases, creative approaches have to be developed in order to overcome challenges posed by these limitations to control the risk and to comply with regulations.

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What Do We to Help

We bring effective solutions to gas explosion hazard control to your facilities through:

 

  • Identify gas explosion and flashfire hazards;

  • Assess risk of gas explosion and flashfire by evaluating the ignition likelihoods and consequences;

  • Recommend effective and practical hazard and risk control measures;

  • Provide the supporting services assist you in implementing changes and safety measures to prevent fire explosions and flashfires;

  • Provide performance-based analyses in case the physical conditions prevent effective implementations of some safety measures/solutions.

 

Our gas explosion hazard control services are supported by our extensive expertise on gas explosion research and testing, and extensive hand-on experiences on hazard/risk assessments, incident investigations, litigation support/expert witness, and compliance reviews.

Our Approach

Our help begins with gas explosion hazard review/assessment

 

  • Reviewing the gas explosion hazard characteristics of the flammable gases used in your facility;

  • Identifying scenarios in which explosible gas clouds could be present;

  • Identifying potential ignition sources that could be present under normal and foreseeable abnormal conditions;

  • Evaluating all potential gas explosions and flashfires in the processes and operations in your facility;

  • Ensuring safety through properly defined fire and explosion prevention and protection measures – “Basis of Safety.

 

For some processes or operations, a systematic analysis, such as Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), will be performed to identify and evaluate steps of processes, components of an equipment, and/or operations that may cause releasing of flammable gases, creating ignition sources, and consequences of gas explosions or flashfires.

 

Our experts will assess the actual risks of gas explosions and flashfires. Based on the risk analysis, resources can be allocated effectively for eliminating or minimizing the gas explosion and fire risk.

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Sometimes, some safety measures cannot be implemented due to plants' physical limitations or process conditions. In such a case, our experts offer performance-based analysis of the hazards and risks and work with clients to develop effective and cost-effective solutions for controlling the hazards and risks and complying with OSHA regulations, codes and standards. 

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We will work with you to learn more about relevant details of your operations and develop a plan for the most practical and cost-effective approaches to reduce the risk of gas explosions. We can also assist you to implement the recommendations effectively. Our supporting services cover all stages of the implementation process based on our more than three decades of process safety experience.

Why Work with Us on Gas Explosions?

Princeton Safety Solutions possesses over 35 years' experiences on gas, liquid and dust fire and explosion throughout the process industries globally. Our process industry experiences include hundreds of process safety projects. Our experts possess extensive expertise on dust explosion hazards and control that have been obtained from:

 

  • Extensive experiences in laboratory and full-scale dust explosion testing and research;

  • Both standard tests and specially designed tests to determine fire & explosion hazards under specific process conditions;

  • Solutions for controlling gas explosion and flashfire hazards;

  • Successful expert consulting services to OSHA Citation cases related to combustible dust hazards;

  • Successful expert consulting services to litigation cases related to gas explosion hazards;

  • Active participations of combustible dust standard making processes as a Principal (Technical Committee) Member of NFPA 484 - Standard on Combustible Metals, and NFPA 30B - Code for the Manufacture and Storage of Aerosol Products.

 

We have been recognized for our effective and cost-effective practical solutions for preventing and mitigating gas explosions, which are based on our scientific and yet practical approach using test data to determine the real hazard and risk.

 

With our extensive expertise and experience in gas explosion hazard control in various industries, gas fire and explosion incident investigations, litigation consulting, laboratory testing, training and code and standard compliance review, we will address the issues you are facing adequately and effectively, and develop effective and practical solutions for prevention and mitigation. We will help you navigate efficiently through complex problems and prioritize recommendations based on sound hazard and risk assessment.

 

To learn more about our expertise in gas explosion prevention & mitigation, please call us at 609 240 7545 or email us at info@PrincetonSafetySolutions.com today.

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