Cushioning the impact of toxic release from runaway industrial accidents with greenbelts

The three aspects of accidents in chemical process industries which cause m ost serious damage-explosions, fires, and toxic releases-can all be control led to some extent if greenbelts are present around the affected industry. We have recently developed and validated a system of methodologies for gree nbelt design. In this paper we present the application of these models in d esigning greenbelts and forecasting their role in cushioning the impact of accidental release of toxic gases. With properly located and designed green belts as much as 33% of the accidental release of SO2, 43% of H2S, and 51% of NH3 under stable atmospheric conditions (in which the dispersion is very slow and the release thus has maximum toxic impact) can be absorbed. (C) 2 000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.