Philips Elmet Corporation - Executive Summary |
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The Philips Elmet facility manufactures lighting filaments and a host of other tungsten and molybdenum metal products. The facility is subject to EPA's Risk Management Program rule for two flammable substances: hydrogen and propane. The hydrogen is used in various furnaces to provide an inert atmosphere during heating of tungsten and molybdenum. Propane is used as a fuel. Both the hydrogen and propane are contained in the same process as defined by OSHA, and as a result the hydrogen and propane equipment at the facility are subject to OSHA's Process Safety Management standard. The facility does not have any toxic substances covered by OSHA's PSM standard or EPA's RMP rule. Liquid hydrogen is stored behind the facility in two above-ground storage tanks, each having a capacity of 10,150 pounds of hydrogen. A vaporizing system located next to the storage tanks converts the liquid hydrogen to a gas before it is distributed throughout the building for use in furnaces. Liquid propane is also stored behind the facility. It is stored in a 30,000 gallon capacity above-ground tank. A vaporizer and propane/air mixing station located next to the tank produce a mixture of propane and air that is piped throughout the building and used as a fuel when natural gas is not being used. There have been no serious accidents involving hydrogen or propane in the seventy years of operation at the site. Philips has an emergency response team that performs response drills at least twice per year. The emergency response team has also performed three practice drills in preparation for a unified drill with the Lewiston Fire Department, United Ambulance, St. Mary's Hospital, and the Androscoggin County Emergency Planning Committee. As part of Philips' emergency response plan, the facility has developed procedures for notifying the public and providing instructions on what to do in the event of an emergency. The RMP rule requires Philips to examine the effects of a worst-case acc ident scenario and an alternate release scenario. The worst-case accident scenario at the facility is a release of the entire contents of the propane storage tank while it is holding the maximum allowable quantity permitted under NFPA 58 (approximately 88% of the tank's rated water capacity of 30,000 gallons), resulting in a vapor cloud that finds an ignition source and explodes. This scenario would produce a 1 psi overpressure out to a distance of approximately 0.4 miles from the tank. The chances of this type of accident occurring are extremely low. The alternate release scenario that Philips examined was a shear in the 3 inch liquid propane line running from the tank over to the vaporizer. The propane tank was assumed to be 80% full prior to the shear. The excess flow valves were assumed to fail, resulting in the entire loss of the tank contents over a six minute period, resulting in a vapor cloud that finds an ignition source and explodes. This scenario would produce a 1 psi overpressure out to a distance of approximately 0.2 miles from the tank. The chances of this type of accident occurring are also extremely low. The latitude and longitude coordinates that are listed in section 1.5 of the Registration section of the RMP represent the approximate location of Philips' propane storage tank. The coordinates for the hydrogen storage tanks are 44 degrees, 4 minutes and 20.4 seconds Latitude, and 70 degrees, 10 minutes and 20.4 seconds Longitude. The coordinates for the propane tank and hydrogen tanks were obtained as follows. First, Philips personnel identified the approximate tank locations on a USGS topographic map. NMC then determined the UTM coordinates for these locations and used a computer program to convert the UTM coordinates to Lat/Long coordinates. |