'SAFETY IN PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF INDUSTRIAL GASES - A STUDY'

摘要

There has been a significant growth in the industrial gas industry in the past few years due to its increased application particularly in sectors like metallurgy, chemical industry, industrial process technology, health care, environment technology and food technology. Gases like Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon-di-Oxide in cryogenic state have wide applications in food processing, cold grinding, dry ice-refrigeration and inert gas packaging. As on date there are about 1350 industrial gas filling plants besides 195 filling plants of Dissolved Acetylene gas in the country. On the other hand, use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as automotive fuel too has become very popular in public transport vehicles in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi and it may lead to substantial import of LNG (liquefied natural gas) creating thereby more storage terminals of LNG in India. It is well known that LNG can be converted to CNG using liquid reciprocating pumps similar to the pumps used for compressing cryogenic industrial gases. LNG being cryogenic liquid has lot of similarities with the storage and distribution method adopted for other cryogenic industrial gases. Looking to such vide applications of industrial gases, it is all the more important to get familiar first with the risks and hazards associated in production, storage and distribution of all types of Industrial Gases, so that safety could be ensured at all levels. Safety management is a very important aspect in well being of an Industry that is growing at faster rate.