Review Paper: Flixborough: The Explosion and its Aftermath
Process Safety and Environmental Protection (Transactions of the
Institution of Chemical Engineers, Part B), 82 (B2 Special issue: Fire and Explosion):
105-127 (March 2004)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1205/095758204322972753
Abstract
The Flixborough explosion was the largest-ever peacetime explosion
in the UK. There were 28 fatalities as well as the near complete
destruction of the NYPRO plant in North Lincolnshire by blast and
then fire. An official Court of Inquiry was established and charged
with the responsibility of determining the cause(s) of the disaster
and any lessons to be learnt. This paper reviews the disaster, its
investigation and inquiry, its attributed cause, and an alternative
possibility, and this redraws the lessons to be learnt for modern
chemical plant design and accident investigation. The reanalysis
suggests that the failure was caused by a complex two-step mechanism
that resulted from the initial failure of only one bellows, a release
of about 10–15 tonnes of cyclohexane, and the detonation of the consequent
vapour cloud with an explosive effect of some 280 tonnes of TNT.
This is compared with the single-step failure process reluctantly
acknowledged by the Court; the amount of release accepted, 40–60
tonnes of cyclohexane, and its explosive effect, 6–16 tons of nitroglycerine.
The results should be of interest to industry, regulators, and loss
prevention and risk assessment specialists.