Revising current practices to provide a greater margin between the minimum relief opening pressure and the vapor pressure of propylene will reduce the risk even when best practices are not followed.
Recommendations
Lesson
Learned
The lesson learned from these fires can help similar facilities avoid damaging incidents. High ambient temperatures, in combination with low relief valve opening pressure, increase the risk of catastrophic fires at facilities handling propylene cylinders. Adopting best practices for storing and handling propylene cylinders can reduce this risk at gas distribution acilities. Revising current practices to provide a greater margin between the minimum relief opening pressure and the vapor pressure of propylene will reduce the risk even when best practices are not followed.