Comparative Analysis of Technological and Natech Risk for Two Petroleum Product Tanks Located in Seismic Area

Abstract

The failure of process equipment due to the impact of natural hazards, the so-called Natech events, have generated several industrial accidents, such as Fukushima, Japan -2011, Ichihara, Japan -2011, Tupras, Turkey -1999, Northridge, US -1994, causing the release of large quantities of hazardous materials in the environment. Earthquakes occupy a leading position in the list of natural hazards with Natech potential, causing serious damage and the loss of containment in process equipment. The present study reveals the importance of Natech risk analyses for industrial sites. The aim of the study is to compare the Individual Risk (IR) and Societal Risk (SR) results between conventional technological risk and Natech risk, related to a possible Natech event triggered by an earthquake for two petroleum products storage tanks, located in an urban area in the South-Eastern part of Romania. The results show an increase of approximately one order of magnitude in the Natech risk compared to technological risk for the selected study area. Results highlight the fact that Natech scenarios should be included in the risk analysis process for technological sites located in natural hazard prone areas and applied for land-use planning purposes as well.

Chemical release risk assessment in earthquake: Natech event scenario

“…In addition, the comparison of individual risk (IR) and social risk (SR) accident assessment modeling on two tanks containing flammable hydrocarbons using ARIPAR-GIS software has indicated an increase in the individual risk (IR) and social risk (SR) in the Natech events scenario caused by a high MW earthquake compared with the technological accident scenario [ 22 ].…”

“…Studies indicated earthquakes have more severe scenarios than other natural hazards due to damaging simultaneously a large number of industrial equipment [ 10 ]. Examining the documents and seismic records of the Tehran south Faults have shown the experience of a large number of powerful and destructive earthquakes (moment magnitudes of 7.1, 7.2, and 7.6 on the Richter scale) in the Ray region, each of which was accompanied by human heavy casualties [ [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] ]. Tehran is one of the 20 metropolises of the world and one of the 17 metropolises with a resident population of over 10 million people and a floating population of 4 million people [ 24 ], which is located in an area with a very high relative risk of earthquakes [ 18 , 19 , 25 , 26 ].…”

Risk assessment for handling hazardous substances within the European industry: Available methodologies and research streams

“…Furthermore, Landucci et al (2017) studied QRA in the field of hazardous materials transportation, focusing on the analysis of current procedures and tools as well as on the different methodologies available. Krausmann et al (2011) and Gheorghiu et al (2014) studied QRA for the assessment or the risks related to another type of threat for Seveso sites, that is, threats deriving from natural agents (a.k.a. Natech events); the former provided a nine steps-based innovative approach framed into QRA, whereas the latter compared the Individual Risk and Societal Risk achieved between conventional technological risk and Natech risk, focusing on specific events such as an earthquake for two petroleum product tanks.…”