Chemical leak likely cause of factory fire, engineers say

[snoop1130]

Photo from Facebook live: Council of Engineers Thailand

 

The Council of Engineers (COE) of Thailand said in an online press conference today (Tuesday) a chemical leak is a likely cause of the fire that raged for up to 25 hours at a chemical factory in Samut Prakan province.

 

The leak could be of the styrene monomer or pentane, said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anchaleeporn Waritswat Lothongkum, a chemical engineering professor who is also a COE member.

 

The fact that the Ming Dih Chemical factory holds up to 2,000 tons of chemicals and that styrene monomer, of which 1,600 tons were stored, is highly flammable, is no wonder that the thick black smoke continued to billow out of the blaze for several hours, and this smoke can contaminate water resources, the group said.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/chemical-leak-likely-cause-of-factory-fire-engineers-say/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-07-06

 

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[bradiston]

It always amazes me how a body such as the Council of Engineers suddenly appears on the scene. Is there a Council of Doctors, Lawyers, Bankers, Electrical Engineers, Architects etc etc?

[VocalNeal]

OR?

If the polymerization takes place inside a closed container, the container may rupture violently. 

 

Quote

 

Explosive autopolymerisation[edit]

As a liquid or a gas, pure styrene will polymerise spontaneously to polystyrene, without the need of external initiators.^[29] This is known as autopolymerisation. At 100 °C it will autopolymerise at a rate of ~2% per hour, and more rapidly than this at higher temperatures.^[22] The polymerisation reaction is exothermic; hence, there is a real risk of thermal runaway and explosion. An example is the 2019 explosion of the tanker Stolt Groenland; in this incident 5,250 metric tons of styrene monomer detonated while the ship was docked in Ulsan, Republic of Korea.^{[citation needed]} The autopolymerisation reaction can only be kept in check by the continuous addition of polymerisation inhibitors.

 

 

 

Quote

STYRENE MONOMER is a colorless, oily liquid, moderately toxic, flammable. A storage hazard above 32°C, involved in several industrial explosions caused by violent, exothermic polymerization 

 

 

 

 

[BE88]

 

 

And when polystyrene burns or explodes it turns into dioxin, which is even worse on health.

 

That area is contaminated in the long run, but of course everyone will return to their homes unaware of the dangers in the long run.

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Council of Engineers (COE) of Thailand said in an online press conference today (Tuesday) a chemical leak is a likely cause of the fire that raged for up to 25 hours at a chemical factory in Samut Prakan province

Sherlock's on the money with that one.

[natway09]

Would be interesting to know when last the Engineers checked out this Companies storage facilities as per the Factories Act requirement,

In particular knowing the toxidity & flammability of the raw ingredients or was that another brown envelope job ?