CSB Releases PES Incident Safety Video

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board released a new safety video covering the fire and explosions at the PES refinery in Philadelphia in 2019. This new video provides an audio-visual look at the CSB findings recently published about the incident. Another very well done, and thorough review of the incident.

As expected, the video does specifically address the issue of inherently safer technology as related to the use of hydrofluoric acid as a refinery alkylation catalyst. As did the CSB’s incident report, the video suggests that refineries using HF Alkylation units be required to periodically conduct a feasibility study about conversion to less hazardous alkylation processes. The EPA is considering including such a requirement in their proposed revisions to the Risk Management Plan regulations.

Partially in response to the EPA’s RMP revision NPRM, and potentially in pre-sponse to the expected release of the CSB video, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) released their own video about the use of HF alkylation units and current best practices employed by industry to protect those units.