INVESTIGATION INTO AN EXPLOSION AND FIRE IN A MONONITROTOLUENE MANUFACTURING PLANT

In 1992 an explosion and fire occurred in the mononitrotoluene area of a chemical plant in England, resulting in five fatalities. The incide nt occurred during the cleaning of a vessel used for the separation of mononitrotoluene isomers. This paper describes work performed on samp les removed from the plant to determine their reactivity and their sen sitivity to initiation. The paper also collates some of the work perfo rmed by the other parts of HSE and identifies the possible causes of i gnition. After interpretation of the test data, a likely incident scen ario is identified, with self-heating of reactive residues in contact with a heated steam pipe being the most likely cause of the incident.