ABSTRACT
Lightning strikes, a prominent meteorological event, pose a significant risk of triggering technological disruptions within the process industry. To better understand this phenomenon, an analysis focused on past lightning-triggered events was carried out, examining open-source industrial-accident databases to compile a new NaTech-driven dataset of 689 records. First, an overall quantitative analysis revealed that over 80 % of these events involved incidents or loss of containment. Notably, 83.3 % of them occurred during the spring and summer, indicating a seasonal pattern. Based on the frequency of functional attributes, the chemical and petrochemical macro-sector was the most vulnerable, followed by storage and warehousing. About 40 % of all classifiable events happened on storage equipment, while 21 % happened on electric and electronic devices. Given the lack of valuable information for the principal source of data (NRC), the technological scenarios triggered were characterized using a refined subset of 127 observations, obtained considering the "other sources" of data. Fire scenarios predominated at 56 %; coincidentally, roughly 70 % of all scenarios involved hazardous substances classified as physical hazards. Estimated losses for the available information underscored the adverse consequences of lightning-triggered NaTech events, highlighting their major impact on both safety and the environment. An analysis of the event tree showed the logical path from the lightning strike to the final ignition scenarios (considering a subset of 107 records). This path accounted for 36 % of the classifiable records that directly affected the structure, while more than 50 % of them did not. Bayesian network structures made it possible to get conditional probabilities from the event tree and improved the model by adding attributes for vulnerable equipment and macro-sectors. In order to deal with the uncertain data, algorithms were used to generalize the models that were obtained from smaller subsets of data with more accurate information to the whole dataset. It provides an important additional view of unclassifiable data that otherwise remained in the dark. This novel insight contributes to increase the vulnerability awareness of industrial assets against lightning strikes.
ABSTRACT
La Estrategia Ambiental Cubana identifica la contaminación por residuos petrolizados como un problema ambiental. Dichos residuales presentan características particulares de manejo y se gestionan en el país a partir de la ejecución de proyectos de rehabilitación ambiental. El propósito de la investigación fue gestionar los factores de riesgos laborales existentes en los proyectos de rehabilitación ambiental de zonas contaminadas con hidrocarburos. Se seleccionó como caso de estudio el proyecto Rehabilitación ambiental integral de Punta Majagua, Cienfuegos, Cuba. Para lograr el propósito, se implementó un procedimiento utilizando la convergencia metodológica de diversas herramientas. Se combinaron técnicas de gestión de procesos, calidad y riesgos laborales, además de otros instrumentos de recopilación de información. Se identificaron 50 factores de riesgos laborales asociados a todos los procesos, donde el 40 por ciento de ellos fueron evaluados de críticos. Los procesos más peligrosos fueron la campaña de biorremediación y la creación de capacidades técnicas y logísticas. Se determinaron indicadores que demostraron la eficacia y efectividad de la estrategia de mitigación de riesgos. El estado de satisfacción laboral de los trabajadores después de la intervención fue evaluado de positivo, excepto las dimensiones de condiciones físicas de trabajo y salario . Los resultados corroboran la acertada gestión de riesgos laborales en el proyecto de estudio y permiten la generalización de las experiencias para obtener estándares de trabajo seguro en proyectos futuros, contribuyendo de esta manera al logro de producciones más limpias(AU)
The present Cuban Environmental Strategy identifies the contamination of crude oil wastes as a problem with particular managemental characteristics, which is managed by the implementation of environmental rehabilitation projects. The goal of this search was to manage the working risk factors dealt with the rehabilitation projects in hydrocarbon contaminated areas. The project Comprehensive environmental rehabilitation in Punta Majagua, Cienfuegos, Cuba was selected as a case study. To achieve this goal, a procedure using the methodological convergence of diverse tools was implemented. Different techniques of managemental processes, quality and working risks were used as well as several instruments for gathering information. 50 working risk factors were identified associated to all processes and 40 percent of them were assessed as critical. The most dangerous processes were the bioremediation campaign and the creation of technical and logistic capacities. Some indicators that revealed the efficacy and efficiency of the strategy in risk's mitigation were identified. The workers' satisfaction state at the workplace after this intervention was assessed as positive, except for the dimensions of physical working conditions and salary. These results confirm the right management of risk factors in this project as its possibility of generalizing experience to get safe working standards thus contributing to the achievement of clean productions(AU)
