Chemical process safety has become a widespread, international concern and receives high attention within the chemical industry. To improve process safety awareness, we publish short introductions into different process safety issues in cooperation with the monthly one-page Process Safety Beacon of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS).
4th Topic: High O2 Concentration
Materials that are hard to ignite in air burn rapidly in high- or pure-oxygen environments. High oxygen concentration has been a contributing factor in industrial incidents.
Imagine, maintenance work has been done on an oxygen industrial pipeline. You want to degrease and dry the pipeline before getting it back to service. What do you do?
a) Blow dry nitrogen through the pipeline.
b) Blow compressed air through the pipeline.
c) Blow argon through the pipeline.
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