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Refinery Delayed Coker Accident

An oil refinery contracted with skilled concrete workers for the repair of concrete structures supporting a delayed coker vessel. The refinery staff believed that repairs could be safely made while the unit was operating. If the coker had to be shut down to make these repairs, the refinery would have to reduce production to accommodate the unavailability of the unit. While the crews were working on the unit, an accidental release of superheated steam severely scalded several workers. APTECH was retained by a law firm representing these workers. We were asked to investigate the prudency of assigning repair crews to work on an operating unit of this type, to survey the experience of other refineries regarding safe work practices, to develop accident statistics, and to determine if any mechanical failures were involved.

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.

Steven Kohan, Ph.D.		Chemical engineering, refinery processes, toxic fume generation.

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.