Explosion at the DuPont Buffalo Facility (Ohio Timed & Monitored)

In Explosion at the DuPont Buffalo Facility, you'll learn ...

• What caused a deadly explosion at the Dupont Buffalo plant
• How faulty design assumptions contributed to the incident
• Shortcomings in the plant’s procedures and work permit process
• Steps that should have been taken immediately prior to and during hot work, which could have prevented the explosion

Overview

To meet the Ohio Board's intent that online courses be "paced" by the provider, a timer will be used to record your study time. You will be unable to access the quiz until the required study time of 50 minutes has been met.

Credit: 1 PDH

Length: 17 pages

On November 9, 2010, hot work being performed on a tank at the DuPont Yerkes plant in Towanda, NY (near Buffalo, NY) set off an explosion that killed one worker and injured another.

The work being performed that day involved repairing the weld on an agitator support mounted at the top of the tank. The repair involved a simple fillet weld, which did not penetrate the tank shell. And the tank had been used for decades to store what engineers thought was “only a slurry basically made up of water”. Nonetheless, the welding repair work ignited an explosion inside the tank.

In this course, you’ll learn what caused the explosion in Slurry Tank #1 at the Dupont Buffalo plant. We’ll review the polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) production process at the plant and how faulty design assumptions contributed to the accident. You’ll see how mistakes, shortcomings and human error in the plant’s maintenance practices, operational decisions, start-up procedure, management of change (MOC) process and work permit process led to the explosion.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain what polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) is, how it is made, and what it is used for.
• Describe the dangers associated with components used in the PVF production process.
• Identify the risks inherent in welding, brazing, and other hot work activities.
• Explain why checking for explosive atmospheres before hot work is important, even with seemingly benign containers, tanks, and vessels.
• Identify faulty assumptions made in the process hazard analysis (PHA) during the project's design phase.
• Analyze the errors, shortcomings, and poor decisions made in the days and weeks leading up to the accident.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.