On July 20, State Administration of Work Safety solicited public opinions on five industrial standards: Ammonia Safety Rules, Calcined Soda Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Rules, Detailed Rules for Hazardous Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Evaluations, Application Guide for Danger and Operability Analysis Measures, and Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Special Operation Safety Regulations. When implemented, these standards will offset the defects of the existing standards, and solve the safety standard deficient problem in the ammonia and calcined soda sectors.
Among the five industrial standards, Detailed Rules for Hazardous Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Evaluations (hereafter as Detail Rules) is revised in light of the defects and problems of Guide for Hazardous Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Evaluations (trial) (hereafter as Guide) in implementation in 2004. China Chemical Safety Association, drafter of the Detailed Rules, said that along with the promulgation and implementation of the amended Hazardous Chemical Safety Management Ordinances and the revision of Hazardous Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Production License Management Measures, some regulations of the Guide were no longer adapt to the needs of present safety evaluation management and actual work of hazardous chemical manufacturing enterprises. For example, Major Hazard Identification in the normative references of the Guide has been replaced by Hazardous Chemical Major Hazard Identification, which does not require exchanging views with the assessed party in the process of compiling the safety evaluation report. The Detailed Rules makes adjustments and supplements in these respects.
The other four industrial standards are made in China for the first time. They will fill in the gaps in safety production standards in related sectors. Among them, Ammonia Safety Rules aims at the common and most important safety issues in the production, filling, application, storage and transportation of ammonia. It is established with a core of ammonia safety.
Shi Lichen, senior engineer of China Safety Production Science Research Institute, said ammonia is a chemical product with the largest output except sulfuric acid in the world, which can be applied in the sectors of petroleum refining, nitric acid, explosive, synthetic fiber, nitrogenous fertilizer, dyestuff, medicine, and refrigerant. China is the largest producer of ammonia synthesis in the world. According to statistics with China Nitrogenous Fertilizer Industry Association, China had 600-plus nitrogenous fertilizer enterprises in 2008.
Shi said ammonia, with low boiling point, is extremely volatile featuring With features of flammable, explosive, toxic and harmful., it is high risk of causing blasts, poisons and environment pollutions, once improper operated. Therefore, it has become an important work in chemical industrial safety production to guard against ammonia accidents. Compared with the wide application of ammonia and the frequency of accidents, China is badly lack of ammonia safety standards. which undermined the safe production and stable development of ammonia-related industries. In contrast, foreign countries largely pay high attention to ammonia safety and establish a lot of safety standards and guidelines. Thus, it is essential and pressing to establish ammonia-related safety standards in China.
Calcined Soda Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Rules covers 15 aspects, which are management and requirement on production of calcined soda, operation safety, production technology safety and main procedure safety control points, warning marks, contractor and supplier, safety inspection and rectification, major hazard monitor management, occupational health, emergency management, accident management, performance evaluation and continuous improvement.
Fang Yanchun, senior engineer of Dahua Group, major drafter of Calcined Soda Manufacturing Enterprise Safety Rules, said that China does not have a unified safety standard for the calcined soda production sector, so it has to consult to related standards in daily safety production management. Working in accordance with the unified and tailor-made industrial safety management standard, the management of enterprises will be able minimize or avoid accidents.
Application Guide for Hazard and Operability Analysis Measures (HAZOP) is established to solve the problem that China doesn't have HAZOP analysis standards or application guidelines and haven't normalized the analysis principles and procedures, while the English version cannot meet requirements of all parties in some aspects.
Chemical Manufacturing Enterprise Special Operation Safety Regulations specifies 13 aspects: special operations of fire work, restricted clearance, closure smoke plugging, high altitude operations, hoisting, temporary power consumption, ground breaking and circuit break, and management of safety operation license.
Cao Ying, chief engineer of Fujian Provincial Safety Production Science Research Institute, said that dangerous production of chemical products decides the danger of equipment overhaul. The overhaul process is closely associated with the special operations of fire work, restricted clearance, closure smoke plugging, high altitude operations, hoisting, temporary power consumption, ground breaking and circuit break, which has accidents frequently occured recently and in urgent need of special operation safety standards to regulate industrial performances. China must intensify safety management in the process of equipment overhaul, reduce or avoid overhaul safety accidents, to realize safety production in chemical product manufacturing.