Document MJ20GRKYN3OL9REJOrQaaXnL

/9 0i. Ty^e -?* 9 ~X r, e . ct * * f ^3 B.F.GOODRICH CHEMICAL COMPANY Avon Lake General Chemical Plant TO: W. T. Gunning LOCATION: Avon Lake General Chemical Plant FROM: J. R. Shellenberger LOCATION: Avon Lake General Chemical DEPARTMENT: 5650 DEPARTMENT: 5661 DATE: March 8, 1972 SUBJECT: Near Miss - Repetitive Accident Type #10 - Fill Building or Area with Explosive Mixture On March 6, 1972-at 0030 hours, vinyl chloride escaped from a poly into Building 461 through an improperly seated hottom valve. A Board of Review was held on March 7. 'The summary of the Board of Review is provided in this letter. Those in attendance: J. J, Jaworski G. L.- Rodgers W. T. Gunning R. N. Rylands J. R. Shellenberger Foreman Blowdown Operator Day Supervisor Sr. Safety Engineer Plant Manager General Foreman - Geon Area Prior to shift change at 2400 hours, the 4.-12 shift blowdown operator had started to drop polys #135 and #136 into blowdown tank #109. the 12-8 shift blowdown operator, when checking the material transfer from the two polys, found that Poly #135 had been recovered whereas Poly #136 had not recovered (in fact the poly pressure was j)8Q psxg). This indicated a plugging situation in Polv #136 or in the blowdown line. The attached sketch is used to explain what occurred. C B/461 Blowdown Operator stated that he closed the valve on the blowdown line and the bottom Powell valve on the Poly. He opened the wash line to bleed off any pressure and thgp removed the inspection plate on the Powell valve. As he removed the inspection plate he found that"the bottom valve was completely plugged with polymer. He hocked up a steam hose to the block and bleed system and blew out the plug. After the plug was blown out, sluriy (1Q2-F5) and vinyl chloride started coming out the Inspection plate opening. Garofolo and another man tried to close the bottom valve on Poly #136 more tightly, but they could not stop the VC1 flow. The gas alarm was then sounded and the area was subsequently under an alarm condition for 40 minutes. The poly was quickly put on recovery from the top and the unreacted vinyl chloride monomer was removed from the poly, although slurry continued to run out of the inspection plate and onto the second floor. Until the poly was recovered the VC1 concentration on the second floor was high in the immediate area of Poly #136. The rest of the building contairied a very low VC1 concen tration. The emergency fans were running and the vinyl chloride was removed quickly from the building. CONCLUSION: As the steam was used to remove the visible plug in the bottom valve, apparently a plugged condition in the bottom Powell valve inside the,poly also broke loose. The valve was ^improperly seated when the poly was charged. This permitted polymer"*to form in the bottom, '"'^valve during reaction and prohibited closing the valve completely after monomer started leaking out of the inspection plate opening. REDACTED NGC 15719 Near Miss - Repetitive Accident Type #10 - Fill Building or Area with Explosive Mixture Page 2 RECOMMENDATIONS: /lJ The steaming method is felt to be a safe approach to unplugging blowdown lines. However when unplugging lines in the future, the poly will be recovered prior to removal of the inspection plate to prevent gas escape. (^2) The bottom valves and blowdown lines will be pressured with water prior to charging the poly. The water will be left in the lines during reaction. This procedure will detect leaky valves ahead of time and the leaky valves will be changed. (J3^) A long term aspect of this problem involves conversion of the bottom valves to ball valves. This is necessary to enable HRC cleaning of the Polys. JRS/alm cc: D. L. Dowell H. Waltemate. 0. F. Beckmeyer J. L. Nelson - R. D. Scott E. W. Harrington - P. H. Lawrence G. Pow W. E. Brodine W. L. Cato E. E. Mitchell - P. D. Terry R. N. Rylands J. R. Shellenberger General Foreman NGC 15720 *GC 15721