Accidents with sulfuric acid

Abstract

Sulfuric acid is an important industrial and strategic raw material, the production of which is developing on all continents, in many factories in the world and with an annual production of over 160 million tons. On the other hand, the production, transport and usage are very dangerous and demand measures of precaution because the consequences could be catastrophic, and not only at the local level where the accident would happen. Accidents that have been publicly recorded during the last eighteen years (from 1988 till the beginning of 2006) are analyzed in this paper. It is very alarming data that, according to all the recorded accidents, over 1.6 million tons of sulfuric acid were exuded. Although water transport is the safest (only 16.38% of the total amount of accidents) in that way 98.88% of the total amount of sulfuric acid was exuded into the environment. Human factor was the common factor in all the accidents, whether there was enough control of the production process, of reservoirs or transportation tanks or the transport was done by inadequate (old) tanks, or the accidents arose from human factor (inadequate speed, lock of caution etc). The fact is that huge energy, sacrifice and courage were involved in the recovery from accidents where rescue teams and fire brigades showed great courage to prevent real environmental catastrophes and very often they lost their lives during the events. So, the phrase that sulfuric acid is a real "environmental bomb" has become clearer.

Sumporna kiselina je važna industrijska i strateška sirovina, čija se proizvodnja odvija u velikom broju fabrika na svim kontinentima, sa proizvodnjom na godišnjem nivou od preko 160 miliona tona. Sa druge strane, sama proizvodnja, transport i primena je veoma opasna i zahteva izuzetne mere predostožnosti, jer posledice mogu biti katastrofalne, ne samo na lokalnom nivou gde se incident/akcident dogodio, već i šire. U radu su analizirani udesi koji su zabeleženi u javnosti tokom poslednje dve decenije (od 1988. do početka 2006. godine). Zabrinjava podatak da je, na osnovu evidentiranih nesreća, ispušteno preko 1,6 miliona tona sumporne kiseline, lako je transport vodenim putem najsigurniji (svega 16,38% od ukupnog broja nesreća), na taj način ispušteno je čak 98,88% ukupne količine sumporne kiseline u životnu sredinu. Zajednički imenitelj svih nesreća je ljudski faktor, bilo da se radi o nedovoljnoj kontroli samog procesa proizvodnje, rezervoara ili cisterni kojom se vrši transport, ili se transport vrši neodgovarajućim (starim) cisternama ili nesreće nastaju usled ljudske greške (neprilagođena brzina, neopreznost i dr.). Činjenica je samo jedna: ogromna energija, požrtvovanost i hrabrost je uložena u sanaciji nesreća, gde su timovi za spašavanje i protivpožarne službe iskazale veliku hrabrost da spreče prave ekološke katastrofe, što su, ne retko, platili i svojim životom. Zato i izraz da je sumporna kiselina prava "ekološka bomba" postaje sve jasniji i sablazniji.