CSB Offers Winterization Tips for Process Plant Equipment

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released a new Safety Digest document on Tuesday that provides operators of chemical and process plants with information on safeguarding equipment and instrumentation during cold weather.

“When the temperature drops, the freezing process begins, and materials expand. This can crack or break pipes and rupture or damage process equipment,” the CSB said in the document. “This damaged equipment may not become evident until the temperature rises, the ice thaws, and a leak develops.”

The Safety Digest outlines three incidents investigated by the agency where freeze protection measures and programs failed and key safety lessons learned. Readers can examine the details of a toxic chemical release at a DuPont facility in LaPorte, TX in 2014, a fire at a Valero refinery in 2007, and a gas condensate fire at a Bethlehem Steel plant in 2001. 

“Facilities’ process safety management programs, including hazard reviews, management of change (MOC) evaluations, pre-startup safety reviews, and operating procedures, should reflect a year-round focus on how low temperatures may affect piping and other equipment and instrumentation,” the agency said. 

To view the full CSB document, click here.

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