Systems thinking in a gas explosion accident – lessons learned from Taiwan

On July 31, 2014, at around 23:57, several huge explosions occurred that lasted for 2 h in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. As a result of a gas leak from a ruptured underground pipeline, the catastrophic incident destroyed more than 6 km of roads, killed 32 people, injured 321 people, and damaged 3259 buildings. Pipeline explosions have been reported as a repeatedly occurring problem, indicating that (1) complex systems are difficult to manage and control, and (2) humans are unable to effectively learn from experiences of accidents. Initial analyses results reveal that root causes of this incident were a combination of a series of complex chain reactions, which eventually led to propylene leakage and explosion. This is a systematic problem, which can hardly be investigated or analyzed by traditional research approaches. Based on the investigation reports and “systems thinking” method, this study develops causal loop diagrams for the Kaohsiung gas explosion to explore the root causes of the disaster. The research results indicate that (1) this pipeline explosion incident was the result of the chain reactions and was the output of a complex system; (2) the mental model of “production first” and “experience gap” were the root causes of the disaster; and (3) to achieve a higher safety standard, continuous education to improve the mental model of “safety first and safety over production” are essential. The findings of this study may contribute toward the improvement of the standard operating procedure for disaster management and preventing similar incidents in the future.     

Experimental study on the synergistic inhibition effect of nitrogen and ultrafine water mist on gas explosion in a vented duct

In this study, in order to research the synergistic inhibition effect of nitrogen and ultrafine water mist on gas explosion in a vented duct, a semi-confined transparent chamber was designed with the size of 120 × 120 × 840 mm, and the experiments were carried out with stoichiometric methane/air premixed mixture (fraction of methane: 9.5%), adding different fractions of nitrogen and ultrafine water mist. The experimental results showed the following: The combination of nitrogen and ultrafine water mist had a synergistic inhibiting effect on methane/air explosion, which was preferable to the single use of any kind. With the increase of spraying time of water mist and fraction of nitrogen, the initial shape of the explosion flame became snakelike, and at the same time the peak flame propagation speed and peak overpressure decreased significantly. When the nitrogen fraction was increased to 10% and the mist spraying time was increased to 2min, synergistic inhibiting effect on overpressure was high efficient. However, with the increase of spraying time of water mist and fraction of nitrogen going on, the amount of increase of explosion inhibition efficiency was gradually reduced.     

A product analysis-based study on the mechanism of inflammable gas explosion suppression

To study the mechanism of the suppressing effect of Expanded Aluminium (EA) on the premixed gas explosion, premixed methane-air and propane-air gases were undergone explosion reaction in the presence of EA in a self-designed closed pipeline with the overpressures and the compositions, rates and sensitivities of products analyzed. The results showed that the 9.5% methane-air and 5% propane-air explosions produced peak pressures decreased by 79.3% and 65.6%, and residual methane and propane contents increased by 270% and 560% respectively than without EA. In addition, the results revealed that the explosions of propane in the presence of EA produced less methane and carbon oxides contents, but more ethylene and propylene contents. The simulation showed that H, O, and OH are the key factors affecting the rate of products. The product compositions, together with other parameters, suggested that EA decreased temperature, inhibited chain initiation and propagation reaction, but facilitated chain termination reaction by advancing and accelerating the gas phase and wall destruction reaction of radicals, especially collisions and concentration of key free radicals. This new research method based on the analysis of explosion products can be used for in-depth research into gas explosion features and shed light on the suppressing mechanism of EA in flammable gas explosion.     

Construction of vesicle CdSe nano-semiconductors photocatalysts with improved photocatalytic activity: Enhanced photo induced carriers separation efficiency and mechanism insight

Visible-light-driven photocatalysis as a green technology has attracted a lot of attention due to its potential applications in environmental remediation. Vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor photocatalyst are successfully prepared by a gas template method and characterized by a variety of methods. The vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductors display enhanced photocatalytic performance for the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride, the photodegradation rate of78.824% was achieved by vesicle Cd Se, which exhibited an increase of 31.779% compared to granular Cd Se. Such an exceptional photocatalytic capability can be attributed to the unique structure of the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor with enhanced light absorption ability and excellent carrier transport capability. Meanwhile, the large surface area of the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor can increase the contact probability between catalyst and target and provide more surface-active centers. The photocatalytic mechanisms are analyzed by active species quenching. It indicates that h+and UO_2~-are the main active species which play a major role in catalyzing environmental toxic pollutants. Simultaneously, the vesicle Cd Se nano-semiconductor had high efficiency and stability.     

烟气黑度的产生及处理方法

本文从原料、生产工艺、处理设备、企业管理等方面论述了烟气黑度超标的相关原因,针对具体情况提出了有针对性的解决方案,改进生产工艺、加强人员管理和设备投入等防治烟气黑度超标现象。     

城市居住区毒气扩散数值模拟

针对某居住区附近氯气储罐连续泄漏,通过求解三维不可压缩Navier-Stokes方程、K-ε湍流模型和物质浓度方程,模拟毒气在建筑物扰动条件下的扩散过程以及浓度时空分布特征,以毒气负载为基础给出近地面毒气危害区域,探讨毒气扩散对周边居民的影响。     

气袋直接进样法测定丙烯腈

采用气袋直接进样法测定环境和污染源空气中的丙烯腈。结果表明:丙烯腈在0.4～99.5 mg/m3浓度范围内具有良好的线性关系,相关系数为0.999 8。在低、中、高3个添加水平回收率为88.9%~100%,相对标准偏差为0.6%~4.7%,均能较好地满足实验室分析要求。     

工业用煤气燃烧装置二氧化硫减排方式的讨论

工业用煤气是工业生产中普遍采用的气体燃料,煤气燃烧过程会产生二氧化硫,减少煤气燃烧过程的二氧化硫排放可采用煤气脱硫和烟气脱硫两种方式。本文通过对煤气脱硫工艺及烟气脱硫工艺原理及参数进行对比的方式,讨论工业用燃气燃烧装置的两种二氧化硫减排方式的优缺点,为该类装置脱硫设计提供参考。     

Assessing field vulnerability to phosphorus loss in Beijing agricultural area using Revised Field Phosphorus Ranking Scheme

Guanting Reservoir,one of the drinking water supply sources of Beijing,suffers from water eutrophication.It is mainly supplied by Guishui River.Thus,to investigate the reasons of phosphorus(P)loss and improve the P management strategies in Guishui River watershed are important for the safety of drinking water in this region.In this study,a Revised Field P Ranking Scheme(PRS)was developed to reflect the field vulnerability of P loss at the field scale based on the Field PRS.In this new scheme,six factors are included, and each one was assigned a relative weight and a determination method.The affecting factors were classified into transport factors and source factors,and,the standards of environmental quality on surface water and soil erosion classification and degradation of the China were used in this scheme.By the new scheme,thirty-four fields in the Guishui River were categorized as"low","medium"or"high"potential for P loss into the runoff.The results showed that the P loss risks of orchard and vegetable fields were higher than that of corn and soybean fields.The source factors were the main factors to affect P loss from the study area.In the study area,controlling P input and improving P usage efficiency are critical to decrease P loss.Based on the results,it was suggested that more attention should be paid on the fields of vegetable and orchard since they have extremely high usage rate of P and high soil test of E Compared with P surplus by field measurements,the Revised Field PRS was more suitable for reflecting the characteristics of fields,and had higher potential capacity to identify critical source areas of P loss than PRS.     

脉动频率对低浓度瓦斯脉动燃烧的影响研究

本文将低浓度瓦斯与脉动燃烧结合,主要研究了脉动频率对低浓度瓦斯燃烧的影响。实验结果发现：频率为99Hz至120Hz之间的脉动燃烧不仅可以降低贫燃极限．实现瓦斯在5％浓度下稳定而充分的燃烧,而且在相同温度下提高了瓦斯燃烧效率,污染物的排放也得到了改善。