Roberto Lisi

HazMat transport through Messina town: from risk analysis suggestions for improving territorial safety

Abstract In this paper, after briefly outlining the main features of TRAT2, its application to the land transport of dangerous goods through the downtown of Messina is outlined. Owing to its particular location, there is a large flow of hazardous materials through the city of Messina. Many of these substances come from the greatest industrialised areas of Sicily. Goods reach the town by rail or road, and cross the Straits by ship. A complete inventory of dangerous substances, detailed in the paper, was the basis of a complete risk analysis, whose results, obtained by means of the TRAT2 software, have been analysed and discussed. From both individual risk distribution and societal risk curves the importance of parameters has been obtained and this has suggested measures to improve the safety of the urban area.

A Quantitative Risk Analysis Model of Scenarios Characterised by Explosion Fragments and Missiles

The Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major accidents, known as “Seveso-II”, led to important innovations in the safety requirements of process plants. Some aspects have great scientific and technological implications: e.g. the “domino effect”. Concerning the Domino Effect, in this paper, a model for the prediction of the projection of fragments following explosions in pipes and vessel has been developed, it permits the prediction of the number and initial speed of projectile fragments. The model has been validated through comparison with an incident that happened in 1993 in a Sicilian refinery.

Risk analysis of the transportation of hazardous materials: An application of the TRAT2 software to Messina

Publisher Summary Safety themes associated with the transportation of hazardous materials is considered to be as important as the study of risk problems connected with fixed installations. Hazardous materials releases during transport may occur in areas that are not sufficiently controlled or protected such as zones of high population density or of natural and historical beauty. Risk analysis should address both fixed installations and transportation networks, thus, obtaining a complete area risk evaluation that represents the basis on which decision makers will establish the criteria for risk management, risk control, and land-use planning. The development of a methodology to study problems associated with the transportation of hazardous materials must be considered a very important target for risk analysis. For this scope, an innovative procedure has been created that represents the framework of the TRAT2 software. In this software, a user-friendly Windows interface allows the risk analyst to introduce, while communicating with the database, all the input data necessary to describe the case in examination. This chapter briefly outlines the main features of TRAT2 and its application to the land transport of dangerous goods through the downtown of Messina. The future improvements of TRAT2 and major research developments in hazardous materials transportation risk analysis are also discussed.

Emissions of volatile organic compounds during the ship-loading of petroleum products: Dispersion modelling and environmental concerns

Emissions due to ship-loading of hydrocarbons are currently not addressed neither by the Directive on the integrated pollution prevention or by other environmental regulations. The scope of this study is to point towards the environmental and safety concerns associated with such emissions, even if proper attention has not been given to this issue until now. In order to achieve this goal, the modelling of the emission volatile organic compounds (VOC), due to ship-load operations at refineries has been made by means of the definition of a simulation procedure which includes a proper treatment of the hours of calm. Afterwards, a quantitative analysis of VOC dispersion for an Italian case-study is presented with the primary aims: (i) to develop and verify the validity of the approach for the modelling of the emission sources and of the diffusion of these contaminants into the atmosphere by a proper treatment of the hours of calm and (ii) to identify their contribution to the total VOC emitted in a typical refinery. The calculated iso-concentration contours have also been drawn on a map and allowed the identification of critical areas for people protecting by the adoption of abatement solutions.