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Explosion of a Urea Autoclave Vessel in a Fertilizer Plant

A high-pressure urea reactor vessel in a fertilizer manufacturing plant exploded with tremendous energy release, causing extensive damage to the plant and hurling pieces of the vessel up to a quarter-mile away. APTECH was part of a team of investigators retained to determine the root cause of this accident. The vessel was 30 years old and had a laminated wall design with a stainless steel liner. We reviewed and analyzed this vessel's lengthy and complicated maintenance and alteration history. The origin of the vessel fragmentation was found to be a local area where extensive corrosion had occurred through several of the wall lamina, thus substantially weakening the vessel in this area.

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.

Michael Cronin, P.E.		Fracture mechanics, stress analysis, design evaluation, engineering mechanics

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

Philip Lindsay, P.E.		Corrosion failure analysis, metallurgy, piping systems, corrosion mitigation, materials selection.

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

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