Analysis the Potential of Fire and Explosion at Ammonia Storage Tank

Abstract

The increase in fertilizer industry in the world made the growth up of the ammonia industry as well. Ammonia was used as a nitrogen source in fertilizer industry and stored in ammonia storage tank. This industry had two ammonia storage tanks with capacity 10,000 MT and 5,000 MT, respectively. This study aimed to analyze the impact of fire/explosion at ammonia storage tank and find the root cause of ammonia released from ammonia storage tank. The impact of fire/explosion was analyzed using Dow’s Fire & Explosion Index (DFEI), which resulted in the radius effect due to the ammonia storage tank explosion of 10,2 meters. The actual probable property damage was US$ 144,405 and US$ 62,576 for each ammonia storage tank. Possible daily outage for this fire/explosion was at least 2 days. Software ALOHA (Arial Location of Hazardous Atmospheres) resulted in the toxic area radius up to 3700 meters if ammonia was released from the tank. Moreover, the explosive area for this condition up to 118 meters.