27 April 2004 - New HSE Report on Risks of the Ignition of Flammable Liquids and Gases.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published a new research report on the risks of the ignition of flammable liquids and gases.
The report that the estimation of the likelihood of ignition is a fundamental step in the assessment of risk for installations where flammable liquids or gases are stored.
At present, simple models are commonly used, which assume that ignition probability is a function only of release rate, or cloud size, and do not consider the location, density or type of ignition source.
The research also points out that ignition sources on hazardous installation plants tend to be better controlled than off-site sources. However, such control measures are usually designed to prevent ignition of mainly small releases within defined hazardous areas.
The report outlines an ignition probability model to consider larger, catastrophic, releases that may come into contact with on-site ignition sources within non-hazardous areas and buildings, such as:
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flares
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gas-fired equipment
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sources used in transportation
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central heating systems
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canteens.
Development of a Method for the Determination of On-site Ignition Probabilities (Research Report 226) can be found here.
