It is used to make paint, coatings and super-absorbent material used in baby diapers. Acrylic acid rapidly decomposes in the atmosphere by photochemical attack on the double bond. Two of the three rescue vehicles were destroyed and over 500 employees in neighbouring companies evacuated. ACRYLIC ACID may polymerize violently by spontaneous chemical reaction, especially when frozen acid is partially thawed (freezing point 13° C). Sign up for EHS Today's latest e-newsletter: Safety Technology & Analytics. Faced with the inefficacy of such measures, at 1:51 pm the plant operator called the municipal fire department, which dispatched a team of 25 men and 3 trucks who reached the site at 2:05. Fatalities: 1 (firefighter) Safety Technology & Analytics News is a twice-monthly enewsletter from EHS Today. Three days after a deadly chemical explosion in Pasadena, a Deer Park, Texas, chemical plant storage tank containing acrylic acid overheated. French Ministry for Sustainable Development – DGPR / SRT / BARPI No. Acrylic acid is a flammable liquid that can irritate the skin, nose and throat. The tank’s cooling capacity had not been taken into account as a safety factor, due to the concentration of inhibitor in the liquid and the presence of a steam heating regulation system; hence, the temperature of the liquid upstream of the tank inlet had not been checked either; This regulation system had been disassembled shortly prior due to repeated malfunctions, yet without performing any analysis of safety-related consequences; Technicians were not given any up-to-date operating procedures and start-up of the upward circulation system had only occurred on an exceptional basis during the previous 2 years (subsequent to a process modification), with just a single information panel placed 15 m from the technician’s station indicating the need to open the system for large storage volumes; The importance of tracking temperature in the tank had not been registered due to high inhibitor content in the liquid combined with low volumes during normal operations, which explains the absence of instruments and continuous control instructions; A lack of internal feedback, given that an incident of accidental AA polymerisation had occurred on the same type of tank in another unit in 1994, but only tanks receiving liquids from a column bottom at over 80°C had been fitted with continuous measurement devices; The previous incidents of polymerisation had been controlled by means of sprinkling water, leading to the belief that polymerisation could be controlled similarly. For example "explosion-release" will provide results containing "explosion" but not "release". For timely and appropriate emergency response, it is advisable to provide complete sets of safety protection equipment near places where accidents with acrylic acid are possible. The liquid stemming from the bottom of a column had been heated to prevent it from solidifying during a transfer taking place at 100°C instead of the 60°C planned prior to storage; The system used to re-circulate liquid from the tank bottom, where it was cooled by upward movement in order to stabilise temperature, had not been activated during the 77 hours of filling preceding the accident, thus triggering a thermal runaway reaction of AA despite the high inhibitor content in the liquid; The technician was not equipped with any way to continuously monitor tank temperature, nor was he given any operating guidelines relative to temperature monitoring, which explains the delayed response; Since this scenario had not been anticipated, no efficient means of controlling the reaction were made available, as sprinkling the tank proved ineffectual given that it was heat insulated; No instructions for responding to this type of accident had been provided. The resulting blast wave destroyed and shattered many large and small windows of residences … Acrylic Acid, Acrylic Acid, Acrylic Acid, Acrylic Acid, Methyl Ester Ethyl Ester n-Butyl Ester 2-Ethylhexyl Ester CA Registry Number 96-33-3 140-88-5 141-32-2 103-11-7 Chemical Formula CH 2=CHCOOCH 3 CH 2=CHCOOC 2H 5 CH 2=CHCOOC 4H 9 CH 2=CHCOOCH 2CH-(C 2H 5)C 4H 9 Stoichiometric Formula C 4H 6O 2 C 5H 8O 2 C 7H 12O 2 C 11H 20O 2 Results of the official investigation commission indicated that: An analysis of these initial causes revealed that: Download the detailed report in .pdf format (2 Mb). Although the company said the fumes were dissipating quickly, it hired industrial hygienists to monitor air in the area. Depending on the conditions, the polymerization can proceed with moderate speed associated by a slow temperature increase, or it could become violent under unfavorable conditions. 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