Hazards assessment of vegetable oil storage and processing plants.

A quantitative methodology was developed in order to assess the possible hazards connected with the vegetable oil storage facilities and process plants. The main criticalities in these plants are due to the presence of residual volatile flammable solvents deriving from the extraction processes. The residual solvent may accumulate in the storage tanks generating flammable vapour mixtures. On the same time, the presence of volatile substances in the refining process feed may cause operative problems in the sections operating at high temperature and low pressure. The methodology allowed a preliminary assessment of the possibility of explosion hazard in storage conditions. Moreover, the implementation of the refining process model, allowed simulating undesired process deviations, and determining the effective control measures able to restore the operations. © 2011, AIDIC Servizi S.r.L.