Preventing, Mitigating, and Venting Steam-Driven Explosions, 1996 Plastic Laminates Symposium Proceedings

In the wood products industry, the phenol/formaldehyde and urea/formaldehyde resins used for plywood, structural board, and paneling are manufactured in batch reactors. Heat generated in these reactors must be controlled by the chemistry employed and the cooling available. When runaway reactions occur, the result can be a violent venting of the water phase in the form of steam along with entrainment of resin producing multiphase flow. Thus, there are some similarities to the venting of steam/vapors from batch digesters even though the origin of energy creating the steam is different. There has been a concentrated focus in recent years on such incidents labeled Boiling Liquid-Expanding Vapor Explosions (BLEVE) by the Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS). Vessel rupture is often a consequence of these explosions. This article reviews incidents in the resin industry that have led to preventative measures, the extent of those measures, and how they operate. The role of DIERS and specific measures adopted within Georgia-Pacific Resins Inc. (GPRI) are also described.