Lessons Learned from Major Accidents Relating to Ageing of Chemical Plants

Major industrial accidents that occurred in the past and even recently, such as the Flixborough, UK in 1974, the ConocoPhillips, UK in 2001 and the Chevron, US in 2012 show that ageing is still a disturbing phenomenon present in chemical process industries. Further to these cases, it is estimated that 30 % of the major accidents reported in the eMARS accident database run by the Major Accident Hazards Bureau of the European Commission are connected to at least one ageing phenomenon. It is sometimes mistakenly believed that ageing is about how old the establishment or the equipment is. Some countries solely consider corrosion as a sign of ageing. However, ageing of chemical plants has a wider meaning which indicates the degradation of the equipment in use, its overall condition and the change in its condition over time, as it is defined in the study published by the UK Health and Safety Executive. People or written procedures could also be key features of ageing plants. Overall, ageing is related to keywords such as material degradation, fatigue, obsolescence. All these physical states, mechanisms and organisational elements can lead to major accidents. Having engaged in a number of studies relevant to ageing, the Major Accident Hazards Bureau of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) performed an analysis of keywords on accident reports in the eMARS database as well as reports on chemical accidents in the French ARIA database. The objective was to determine whether accidents associated with obsolescence and loss of competence due to ageing could be easily identified in the databases. This paper discusses the results of this analysis and makes recommendations on how future accident reports could put more focus on the ageing-related impacts of obsolescence and loss of knowledge and competence.