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Coke Oven Gas Explosion in an Ammonia Scrubber in a Steel Mill

Underground Migration of Coke Oven Gas

Dangerous concentrations of carbon monoxide were discoverd by the local fire department in a private residence adjacent to a large steel producing plant. The residents were evacuated and personnel from the steel plant quickly determined that the most probable source of the carbon monoxide was a leaking 24-inch scrubbed coke oven gas (COG) pipeline buried immediately inside the steel plant property. Aptech was hired to determine the quantity of benzene, a constituent of COG, which had leaked. Working with steel plant personnel, Aptech determined that the leak originated on the inside of the steel pipe due to the highly corrosive nature of the COG. The leaking was able to migrate such a long distance because in the days preceding the discovery of carbon monoxide in the residence there had been heavy rains followed by a hard freeze. The frozen top layer of soil thus prevented the leaking COG from exiting the surface immediately adjacent to the buried pipeline. Aptech conducted gas migration analyses of both the COG plane formed in the soil beneath the frozen surface and the gas ingress and egress paths in the residential structure. From these analyses, we were able to estimate the benzene release rate and duration. The benzene release rate was found to be less than 10 pounds per hour and the leak duration was approximately two to four days.

Satish Almaula		Plant failure and root cause analysis; process and design engineering analysis; process technology development and testing; plant engineering, operations, maintenance and safety management; plant and process control system management.

Kimble Clark, Ph.D.		Failure analysis, heat transfer & thermodynamics, process plant equipment failures & explosions, fuel science, combustion, industrial fires and explosions.

Richard Schreiber, P.E.		Machinery and mechanical device failure analysis, mechanical testing, combustion and heat transfer, industrial fires and explosions, gas appliances.

Eric Sullivan, P.E.		Metallurgy, welding, failure analysis, fire and explosion investigations, equipment, piping.