Engineering Ethics

This post-mortem report is directed to the British Petroleum (BP) board of directors concerning the BP Texas City refinery explosion incident that took place on March 23, 2005. A series of explosions occurred during the restarting of the hydrocarbon isomerization unit in the Texas City refinery. The main technical reason behind the initial explosion was the flooding of the over-pressurized distillation column, which ended up in a geyser of combustible vapor release in the vent stack. A car engine near the tower then ignited the vapor, causing ghastly explosions that resulted in 15 deaths and 170 injuries. This post-mortem report is especially relevant given that the very same Texas City refinery had a fire on October 30, 2012 at its Resid Hyrdotreating Unit. The fire was extinguished with no major injury or damage occurring, but it was officially rated as a Level 2 emergency within the refinery and...
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